Sticker Shock

Friday August 17, 2012
Quail Run RV Resort
Wesley Chapel, Florida

 

 

I’m one chore closer to movin’ on.  I had my eye appointment.

THURSDAY

I’ve been asking around of people who actually live in this area where I should go for an eye exam.  Looking at things close up, like reading, I see perfectly with my bare eyes, even better than perfectly.  But I’ve worn glasses since I was in the 6th grade in order to see well at a distance.  I’m seriously near sighted. 

 

 

Over 30 years ago I began wearing contact lenses and as the years have gone by my distance vision has worsened and I have gone to monovision contacts where one eye is corrected for distance and one for close up. I love my contacts even though this means that the only place I see really really well is in between.  Since we have not been doing anything for months now I mostly use my close vision for computer work and reading and being inside the coach where everything is easily seen. No long distances here :-)  When I need that,  I put my glasses on to drive or do things outside.

I haven’t had my contacts out for this long in ages - well over 30 years.  Anyway, to get to the point.  My glasses are probably 5 years old at the least could be more, seriously, and the coating they put on them is now coming off and the lenses are nearly impossible to see through.  Looks like a haze.

 

 

Boy was I in for a shock!

Folks around here and at Moffitt recommended, can you believe this, the optometrist at Target.  So today I went in for my $54 eye exam.  Great price and I thought he was very good.  But then I went to order the glasses themselves and about passed out.  Nearly $500 for graduated bifocals with coating and insurance.  WHAT??  Does that seem right to you? 

I’m wondering if there is one price if you have insurance and another if you don’t?  I was in a bind here as I’m in a hurry to get these so we can leave and didn’t have time or the inclination to shop around in this heat.  But I do remember that David paid $250 for the whole thing about 8 years ago at a place called Vision Works.  Could glasses have doubled in price in that time? 

Or would the price have been less if my insurance hadn’t covered half of it?  Hopefully the glasses will be here mid next week.  I definitely don’t want to be driving Winnona with the fog haze lenses I’ve got now.

 

More fun was the heavy rain on Friday morning.

Friday

 

I know lots of folks are tired of rain when they get too much.  And I’m sure I would be too if it rained for days and days.  Here in Florida, it rains every day but usually not for long and in the late afternoon.  But lately the weather has been playing tricks and we had a really BIG heavy shower this morning.  One of those pour down ones that I showed in a slide show a few days ago.  I love sitting out on the patio for as long as I can watching the way things change.  Seeing the fog, the mist and how it change the atmosphere and aura.  Listening to the booming thunder.  Seeing the jagged rips of lightning.  Hearing them crack like a ship.

And then after the rain it is much cooler for a little while until the humidity sinks in again.  These rains have brought out the mushrooms much to the delight of this fella who scampered over to the patio after the rain and took his treat up the Live Oak tree next to us and enjoyed himself immensely.  And we enjoyed watching him clinging on with his feet while eating what I would call upside down.  David’s comment was, “well if I could eat like that I wouldn’t get food all over my shirt”.  Good point.  Wonder if that’s why the squirrel faces down to eat?  I posted two versions of the picture.  The first one is what we saw and the other is a horizontal pictures so you can see more closely how he’s hanging on with his toes and leg muscles and holding his mushroom.  Even squirrels are natural fun.

 

 

The mail has been much more interesting lately.

 

The pedometers come and I put mine on yesterday to see how many steps I take in an ordinary non running day.  Pitiful.  Under 5000.   But today I get nearly 8000 just by running.  It’s very interesting to compare my pedometer with my running watch.  The watch doesn’t do steps but it does do distance and calories.  But its distances and calories differ from the pedometers.  The pedometer is set for my stride which is about 26 feet in 10 steps. The watch uses GPS.  The pedometer recorded a mile less in an hour of running than the watch.  So I pick up a mile an hour by running rather than walking.  Of course this picture shows the walking day and has no running data. 

David uses his pedometer only while doing his formal walks every day. He mostly wants to see how far he’s going in a certain amount of time.  I wear mine all the time since I’m interested in those 10000 steps a day and I can see that I’m going to have to ‘step it up’ on my non running days.

 

Also in the mailbox are MORE POSTCARDS!

 

When I open the mailbox today there are THREE postcards.

This is great!

Take a look at that mirror!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One is from Judy and Emma in the Outer Banks.  Definitely this is a favorite place of mine and I am REALLY hoping we can get up there before they leave the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.   No doubt because she knows how I love water, Judy has sent me a postcard of the sister refuge at which she also volunteers, Pea Island.  THANKS JUDY!!

 

 

 

 

Tricia and Dan send us a card from one of Kentucky’s great places, Mammoth Cave.  Thanks Tricia, good thought about a cool place to go.  My advice is just stay there, don’t come any further south.  J

 

 

 

 

 

Liz sends a card from Boise Idaho.  Bet it’s cool out there now too.  We’ve been to Idaho but only for a too short time at Utah Lake.  So it’s definitely on the list for a return to state.  We haven’t even begun to see Idaho that’s clear.  Thanks Liz.

 

 

 

I’m getting great ideas for places to go now and in the future.

I just have the best followers. 
That’s all there is to it!!