Post by RumiDude on Mar 16, 2018 22:51:35 GMT -8
Tonight, as I do every evening, I walked out onto the back porch to throw the coffee grounds of the day into the flower bed below the porch rail. It was an exceptionally clear night and moonless (new moon tonight). I looked up and could see a few faint stars scattered across the sky above the mountain ridge just a few miles south of my home. For me, that is a lot of stars to see. I knew that for a normal sighted person, the stars would be plentiful and bright.
I am legally blind, which is a technical legal designation describing a threshold of diminished sight. I can still see lots of things with varying degrees of difficulty. But it is in darkness that my loss of vision is most noticeable to me. I strain to see what others easily see in the dark. I know there are things out there I am not seeing because I have lost my vision just in the last eight years or so. Of the things I know I can no longer see that I miss the most are the stars of the night sky. I remember as a very young child on my aunt and uncle's farm in Illinois looking up at what seemed like innumerable twinkling stars from horizon to horizon. I have been fascinated with star gazing every since. I am in no sense a good astronomer, hell I just loved gazing at the stars.
So tonight that stroll out onto the porch was bitter sweet. It was a reminder of what I have lost. And my loss of the stars is due to the effects of glaucoma. It is a progressive disease of the eyes which can very slowly steal vision from it's sufferers. It happens so gradually that you will not notice it's progress until it is too late. But you can discover if you have it by getting regular eye pressure checks at the eye doctor. And that is what this is all about, a PSA to get your eyes checked regularly. Glaucoma is a serious disease and the damage is irreversible.
If you feel sorry for me then I have a favor to ask, get an eye exam including a pressure check. If you have relatives or friends who haven't had a recent eye exam, remind them as well. Oh, and you can buy me a good beer too. If you really feel sorry for me, buy me a good bottle of Scotch whisky. hahaha
I miss those damn stars, I really do.
Glaucoma Statistics and Information
Rumi~the blind~Dude
I am legally blind, which is a technical legal designation describing a threshold of diminished sight. I can still see lots of things with varying degrees of difficulty. But it is in darkness that my loss of vision is most noticeable to me. I strain to see what others easily see in the dark. I know there are things out there I am not seeing because I have lost my vision just in the last eight years or so. Of the things I know I can no longer see that I miss the most are the stars of the night sky. I remember as a very young child on my aunt and uncle's farm in Illinois looking up at what seemed like innumerable twinkling stars from horizon to horizon. I have been fascinated with star gazing every since. I am in no sense a good astronomer, hell I just loved gazing at the stars.
So tonight that stroll out onto the porch was bitter sweet. It was a reminder of what I have lost. And my loss of the stars is due to the effects of glaucoma. It is a progressive disease of the eyes which can very slowly steal vision from it's sufferers. It happens so gradually that you will not notice it's progress until it is too late. But you can discover if you have it by getting regular eye pressure checks at the eye doctor. And that is what this is all about, a PSA to get your eyes checked regularly. Glaucoma is a serious disease and the damage is irreversible.
If you feel sorry for me then I have a favor to ask, get an eye exam including a pressure check. If you have relatives or friends who haven't had a recent eye exam, remind them as well. Oh, and you can buy me a good beer too. If you really feel sorry for me, buy me a good bottle of Scotch whisky. hahaha
I miss those damn stars, I really do.
Glaucoma Statistics and Information
Rumi~the blind~Dude
