Was Blind, but Now I See

No, this isn't a rendition of "Amazing Grace"....
this past weekend, I got myself a new pair of glasses after, oh, probably 8 years. My old ones were really scratched, and my eyesight had worsened. We finally had enough to go to the optometrist,and get new glasses if needed, thanks to our home equity line of credit. I had no idea it was as bad as it was, though. I suspect my recent headaches and tiredness had something to do with the glasses. I picked them up on Saturday afternoon, took off the old ones and put on the new ones, and my reaction was to almost yell "Whoa!" aloud in the store (I didn't, though, just mentally thought so and then picked up Husband and spent 30 minutes trying to impress on him the difference....and to my frustration discovered he is unimpressable)...the difference was shocking....I could SEE!!!! I thought I could see okay in the old ones, but comparatively.....whoa! You know those Claritin Clear ads? Yeah. That was the difference between the two sets of glasses...it was as if I had been walking around in a heavy fog for a long time, and didn't even realize it because that was simply what I lived with, day by day, and it was a lot better than my eyesight without the glasses. So with these new ones, it's like popping new eyeballs in every morning....I can see better in the dark (except today, and that's a different story), I can see a LOT farther, things are MUCH clearer, colours are so much more vivid....it's AMAZING! I got new frames, so look a little different. I took a pic with the webcam, which didn't work out very well, but I will post it here anyway, to give a general idea anyway, until a better photo can be taken...

As I said....bad picture.
For those who are wondering about my comment about not being able to see today (and even if you aren't), this morning I was downtown, delivering papers in a not so great area of town. I was in a seniors' apartment building, on the 6th floor, just having pushed the elevator button...power goes out. Pitch blackness. I'm a little nervous....strange building, I don't belong there (aside from delivering the papers), I can't see, and I can't get out because the elevator won't work (that, and I still had 5 floors to deliver to). Lights came back on, I continue. I leave the building into....you guessed it....pitch blackness. And I mean PITCH BLACKNESS! The apartment complex had a generator to light the halls. Once outside, that light cannot be seen. There are no street lamps, no traffic lights, no house lights, no car lights. I know there are people walking around, but I can't see them. And it's a bad neighbourhood. I decide I'll try to fumble my way through the route (how I was going to figure out what the addresses were, I don't know), take a few steps into unknown territory....stumble because I can't see the dips and cracks and holes in the sidewalk....I can hardly see my hand in front of my face! Decide this is not worth it, turn around and stumble my way back to where I KNOW my car is parked. Feel it up until I find the key hole, get in, sit for a few minutes, and wonder what to do...I had to be home early so Husband could go off to a meeting, it was a new route, I had no idea where the addresses were, no idea how long it would take, and couldn't even do the other apartment building because that would require an electronic keycard which, you guessed it, would require electricity on the outside of the building. So I drove around a bit. Power was out in most of the city. I had a grand total of half an hour where I could see enough to read house numbers if I walked right up to the houses from the first scraps of dawn until I had to quit and get home. I managed to do (including the seniors' complex) 52 papers out of 116. Not good. But at least they (at the newspaper office) were understanding and ready to deliver them for me.
On the way home, the radio said that 60% of Saskatchewan had the power failure. Somebody must have messed up really badly somewhere!
Tomorrow I have a different route to cover. More apartments, but I think I've done it before....and this time I'm hunting down my flashlight before I leave home! I'd rather look like a burglar than be mugged by one!