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Today the Mrs. randomly picked me one of those Kreo Dungeons and Dragons mini blistered army builder packs and scored the me Tiefling, which was great because his blades look like the same blades that are in a game I got for my birthday in March. Kind of red-crystally kind of blades.
But that wasn't what I wanted to share, specifically.
Some weeks ago, I got the gift of sight.
My eyes are my life, and for most of it, they took some pretty big hits from falls, debris, and heredity. I inherited my father's extreme photosensitivity, where bright light, such as movie whiteouts, sunny days, car glare, and even bright computer screens hurt, and leave the afterimage on the retina for long minutes instead of seconds. My world is a world of dark brown glasses, even at night (as some will remember from SlayerCon2).
A few years ago, one of my eyes moved about a CM, totally ruining my sight and leaving me with minute incidents of clear vision for an hour or so, and then for the most part cloudly, unfocused, a few times the equivalent of when one crosses their eyes for that distinct "double vision", which makes navigating a small room just plain tragic. For a spell, the vision was layered much like a 3D Viewmaster cell.
The very machine that keeps me alive when in REM is pushing the same eye out of the socket from behind because the pressure is so hard, it can move papers off of a desk and send them flying. Each afternoon when I awaken, it is some pushing and rubbing of the eye to the relieve the built up eye pressure. Adjusting the pressure has been disastrous, as the setting I have is set to keep me breathing, and lesser pressure or as has happened recently, small brown-outs from the power, have had me stopped breathing and choking upon reviving.
My glasses, were for the longest time, quite useless.
Around the same birthday time, I had coupled my usual bloodwork with a new sit down with a new eye doctor, who after being briefed on the eye history, she set out a full on checking from the eyes to the optic nerves, and with no surgery but some corrective lenses, she would be able to restore not only the vision, but restore it to 20/20 fully, which it has not been since my late teens. The sad part was that the costs were fairly large, and sadly at a time when I had just been bled dry by the usual round of my wife's car repairs and dealing with other things related to her family. Magnifying lenses, and I own quite a few, were ineffective due to the inconsistency in the type of vision per day. There was absolutely no set pattern I could follow. Oft times, the clear vision would appear at the worse times, such as during a round of day long chores and not when I wanted it such as at the art table, or with a paperback rented from the library in hand.
My quality of life was to be put on a hold that was heading to the start of next year.
Until one of my friends here, at JoeCustoms, changed that forever. This gent not only wouldn't hear of it- the sacrifice of waiting for next year, but was even encouraged by his very spouse to see it done.
That sort of thing has only happened four times in my 54 years of life.
When it was seen through, my first day of restored sight was unbelievable. This was better than my archer's sight of long ago. I'm reading things both close and far, and counting leaves on any tree I point my nose at well over thirty yards away. I can see the dinner I eat that was only less than a foot from me, clearly, not the cloudy double vision it had been these years.
This is a debt I will spend my life repaying, for it is indeed, priceless. I am able to complete projects long put on hold. Some, for many of the members here. I can write creatively again, without having to resort to my tape recorders. While I enjoyed being "read to" from the Mrs, it is great to be able to see cards placed in my hands, without a hand-off for her to read them aloud.
This site has spawn some Random Acts of Kindness over these decades that have been nothing short of miraculous. Many times, over the years of our usual highs and lows dealing with the toys themselves, we lose sight of that fact that more than just toys, techniques, or ideas get shared here. Sometimes, lives are shared. Boons, charities, and prayers are shared.
These are the things that change lives. It is the one facet of this community that should never be forgotten. We trade and we buy and we sell, but we also lift each other up, and in some cases, like this, give us a new lease on life, by a generous, selfless act.
_________________ Sometimes, the mad are driven that way. http://capolan.tripod.com/- Some Stuff.
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