(Continuing from last week)

I still drive – but, not at night or during cloudy days. I would never be safe driving at night and, on cloudy days, again, no contrast. I limit my driving to days with sun. That means, no doctor appointments in my area before 9 am, now that it is Autumn with Winter on its way. For example, tomorrows sunrise is 6:29 am, drivable light for me will occur about 8:45 am – with sunset being 4:56 pm; of course, before that, dusk makes it impossible for me to drive. So, I need to schedule any appointments, doctor, social, meals away from home, between about 9 am and 3 pm. I always need to figure out how long I will be at the appointments location and how long it will take me to get there and return to my home, avoiding the times of impossible driving. If I’m privileged to have a meal with a friend, the friend drives – thus, making the time concern unnecessary.

Even though I do drive in the city, it is only on streets, never high-speed highways. It does take a bit longer, but I get to see parts of the city that I would not see on the highway. I must be extremely cautious when driving. Turning on to a street from another street or changing lanes takes special care, requiring looking all ways, several times. to be sure there is no on-coming traffic. AMD has the tendency to hide things from view, so a second and third look is needed. In addition, pedestrians in dark clothing sauntering across a street or texting while walking are also a challenge.

I’m sure that I do a lot of driving “with the traffic” and wonder how many non-AMD folks drive that way. If the cars in front of may are moving, I figure the light is green – but, I always check the light to verify its greeness. The same is even more true for the traffic that is stopped. It is not my desire to rearend an auto stopped for a traffic light.

Most street signs are impossible for me to read. I find that I drive places where I know the streets and the path to the place. When I need to go to an unfamiliar place, my phone’s GPS usually gets me there. However, the other day, when driving to a restaurant location for lunch with my laughing partner, GPS took me way south of where I needed to go. Using my own judgement, I turned around and asked “her” again to take me to the specified place. This time, she did – and I had a great lunch at First Watch – a favorite restaurant of ours. Warning: GPS is not always right; As I said, I must be a very diligent and observant driver – of course, I think that is the way we should all be driving!

I have another situation that, along with the AMD, makes life somewhat difficult. If I drop something on the floor, and that something rolls under the bed or the night stand, I cannot see it. I cannot get down to get it out, even if I could see where it rolled. There was a time when I would ask young Kyle who lived in my neighborhood to come and find the thing under wherever it was. However, they recently moved, so now the dropped item has to stay where it fell until Rita comes to fish it out.

In the mornings, I sit on the side of my bed to put in hearing aides. Believe me, I’m really careful and never hope to drop one of them – I cannot get along very well without them, until the next time Rita comes! In other parts of my house, though, I can retrieve the dropped item, as long as I can see it against the floor it falls on. The flashlight that I carry makes that easier.

Remember that I said Ruth always wore a baseball cap. I didn’t realize why, at the time. However, having AMD has made me realize that one of my vision’s enemies is glare. Particularly, glare from overhead lights, indoors and outdoors. Clearly, she wore the baseball cap to help eliminate that glare and be able to see. I don’t like the idea of wearing baseball caps, so I wear “duckbill” visors, instead – all of the time, day and night – as long as I am in a place with overhead lights. I have a wardrobe of them. Black, white, red, pink, khaki – and some of them have logos like Dinosaur Ridge, Denver Gem and Mineral Guild, Bode’s General Store (in Abiquiu, NM), and Deitrich’s Chocolates. Many of them have buttons. My favorite is a quote adapted from abstract artist Helen Frankenthaler. “The First Rule Is No Rules.” She actually said, , “The only rule is that there are no rules. Anything is possible. It’s all about risks — deliberate risks.” That is my rule about the watercolor painting that I do – no rules – just paint.

For this next paragraph, you may choose not to read it. It is about my dog run and dog – well, you know. They do have to go out to do their “business.” I am privileged to care for Kate and Paisley when their parents go places. And, Larry built a dog run for our miniature schnauzers because it was not is his nature to clean up after them in the large grassy area that is separated by a chain link fence from the dog run. Several years ago, HM Keith put in grey gravel so that I would not have to be concerned with taking care of plants in that area. Since that time, I have not been able to see the dogs “presents” anywhere on the grey gravel. Greta (Kyle’s sister) would come over to do the job of identifying where everything was that I needed to clean up. She called it, “Poop Patrol,” a perfect name for the job. But, she no longer lives close by, so neighbor Rita took care of it this past week.

If some things that seem simply unclean bother you, I’d really like for you to forgive some of the “messiness” of the house of a person with AMD. This is the reason. I’ve told you that there are things that I simply cannot see. Stuff that gets on the floor or on the kitchen cabinets, in the microwave, on top of a stove, in the oven, or in the bathroom. It may be there because the owner – the person with AMD – may not even see that the stuff is there. That is a difficulty that I have. When, suddenly, I can see it, never knowing that it was there before, I can fix it. Again, AMD is like that.

You may become weary of the number of times that I’ve told you that without my great family, my great neighbors, and my great docs, I would be able to, at my age, to live in my house. because MAC has made this living a bit more difficult. They are such a blessing to me, and I am thankful for them!

Be Safe and Be Well
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are very welcome!