Soon to be a children’s book written by me and illustrated by Robin Bougie.
Well I didn’t say what KIND of children it was meant for.
Anyhow, today ois a very busy day for me, at least by my standards. I suppose that by the standards of busy peoiple with complex lives, it would practically be a day off, but I am a nothing person who does nothing, and so for me, it’s a big deal.
Sorry about that. Sometimes I just have to let the bad thoughts OUT.
Today was busier even by my Thursday standards because in addition to the usual therapy appointment (1 pm to 2 pm) and the usual Paragon meeting (leave at 7 pm, home by 10:30 pm), I had my first full eye exam since 2008 between 3:30 pm and 4:50 pm, and that’s a lot to do.
It means today will encompass around 6 “active” hours, which is a lot for me. “Active” hours are hours in which I am out of my room and out of my apartment with and around others who are not my immediate group of friends.
Those are the times that drain my social batteries no matter how good a time I am having. Normally, having two of those in the same day leaves me drained.
So throwing a very long series of eye tests into the mix makes today rather challenging for poor ol me.
To be honest, right now, at 5:30 pm, I ma quite stress out and I am probably going to lay down for a bit before it is Paragon time.
But not before I relate the kick to the nuts I got at the end of my appointment – apparently the province, in it infinitessamal wisdom, has decided that they will only pay part of the cost of the eye exam for people like me so I had to cough up $65 of my own cash money, money the province had given me in the first place, for the visit.
Well ain’t that a fun kick to the nuts. What, did they think we freeloading disabled people were abusing the system by getting eye exam after eye exam because they are free?
Or did they decided that they were just not being enough of a cunt to poor people yet and so they punched down to make themselves feel better?
Now I can afford the fee. So I am not going to go hungry because of it or anything.
But it seems like such a shocking dick move for the province to give me a check then claw that money back for something as medically necessary as an eye exam.
Apparently,. to them, sight is a luxury.
So I am rather pissed off about that. I already have massive trust issues and this boot to the breadbasket from an unexpected place doesn’t help my feelings of vulnerability and despair and btiterness about my life any.
What’s next? Making us pay half the tab in the emergency room? BEFORE treatment?
It’s downright un-Canadian, I tell ya.
Time for rest.
Aaaaaand I am back. It’s 10:30 pm, like I predicted, and I am well fed and in a pretty good mood now that I have completed my Very Busy Day.
Fruvous the fox would make such a cute children’s book character, don’t you think? And be the perfect little innocent scamp who keeps getting into trouble because he has the bad fortune to be both impulsive and clever. But not as clever as he thinks he is!
And I suppose, if people insisted, he could even do it wearing pants.
Tonight’s Paragon meeting ended up not happening. First Farth said he wasn’t feeling up to it – neither was I but I was going to show up anyway – then Amos bailed and that left just me and Felicity.
And so we just drove around for a while then ate supper at Wendy’s. We had a splendid time because we’re both such wonderful people to talk to and I ended up back home at the exact time I predicted earlier, so the evening was, by my standards, a success.
And now I am on the other side of my Very Busy Day, and it makes me feel good. I got through it. I survived it. It honestly wasn’t that bad. And now I can relax knowing that I actually accomplished something today, namely get my eyes thoroughly checked out.
And phew, everything is good except, of course, my prescription has changed. No big deal,. thats been the case literally every tiome I have seen the eye doctor in my life. My nearsightedness has a tendency to drift, that’s all.
I am looking forward to having a new pair of glasses and thus (I hope) experiencing good deal less eye strain and general squitiness. The optometrist said that I can expect my new glasses within seven to ten business days.
So, two weeks, basically. Fine. Apparently, my prescription contains a small correction for astigmatism and so it takes longer to get and/pr make the lenses.
Nice to have an explanation for that at last.
Oh, and something terribly amusing happened when I went to pick out my frames. When I finally picked a pair and gave them to the East Indian fellow who was my salesman, he looked down at them and then said “SIR! THESE ARE RATHER FEMININE! ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT THEM?” in a panicked voice.
I laughed and told him I was pefectly fine with that. I was tempted to add “don’t worry, that will give people the exact right impression. ”
Presumably, in his native culture, the attitudes are far more conservative and a man accidentally wearing feminine glasses could be a massive social catastrophe for the man along the lines of being caught driving a girl’s as a boy in the Seventies.
My first bike was a girl’s bike. But I had no friends so it didn’t matter.
And it’s not like I had a macho male image to protect.
Anyhow, I found the whole thing rather amusing and it was good to laugh after the marathon of tiny indignities and discomforts of all those eye tests.
Then I unexpectedly got charged $67 for the exam and I was depressed again,.
But I already covered that earlier.
Thanks for making me feel worse, province!
I will talk to you nice peopl again tomorrow.