The Eyes

Perhaps the most important part of one's body is one's eyes. Mine continue on their path towards cataracts although not rapidly. Like my father, I hope to be in my mid 80s before they are operated on although it is a very successful operation and millions of people have this surgery keeping one's own eyes is always better I think - not being an expert on such matters it just seems somewhat logical that what you have of your own is probably better. 

So I am thinking perhaps another six or seven good years of researching and transcribing documents. When I hit my mid 80s I will take up knitting and smocking once again like my grandmothers and mother before me. It is a good way to benefit people who are in need of knitted baby clothes (in our climate knitted clothes are an asset) and make money at Church bazaars and such things. The smocking is something I learned on my own when my daughters arrived in my life. It was just great fun to smock a dress for my girls and they wore smocked dresses until they were eight years of age and for their paternal grandmother's 80th birthday party both had a new smocked dress and the last time that I remember my oldest wearing a smocked dress actually. She wanted me to make it for the birthday celebrations as I had made a new one for her younger sister (large party of all known relatives of their grandmother in the area as I recall and was months in the planning). The girls, along with their cousins greeted the guests at the entrance table. It was very cute actually as I recall. I was busy in the kitchen helping with the food. My father's 80th birthday celebration had been six years earlier and they are the parts of my family and Edwards that the girls best remember - those large parties. 

Aging beyond the age I am now is a mystery for me as the grandparents whom I most remember in these years that I am now in passed away at 78 and 79 years of age although they were fairly active to the end of their days - their minds intact and full of stories of the lives that they had lived. I was fortunate in that my paternal grandfather was 13 years older than my maternal grandmother so I did get to spend quite a bit of time with both of them in their 70s. It is their blueprint that I mostly follow in my life as one must have some sort of a blueprint to lead one onwards. I did not live in close proximity to my parents from the time I was 31 years of age so seeing them distantly did not create a picture of their lives which I do have regrets about but my mother's 30 years of letters (25 years were very frequent) is my memory tool for her. I would not have described myself as close to my parents as there were seven of us and life was very busy for my parents - I spent a lot of time helping my younger siblings with homework when they were young and listening to them read and taking them places as I was eight and ten years older and so could do visits to the dentist and even doctor with them. Being with young children was always easy for me; I am comfortable with their up and down existence always full of excitement and looking for the next exciting event. I continue that way actually being more comfortable with younger people but then I do not know many people my age nor do I intend to increase that number because I would not then get all my work done - sort of the same way I felt in my school days when I had my thoughts on how my life might flow and wanted to be in control of that as much as I could. 

Well enough chatting into my blog; breakfast awaits and the decision as to whether I go today and get my new glasses or another day. I am moving back to bifocals so that I can actually read the labels on items in the store without pulling out my reading glasses. The bifocals are a marvelous invention and I enjoyed them very much for about fourty years (first bifocals at age 33) and when I picked up my first pair I was cautioned to be careful switching but I decided to put them on and drive home and I never regretted that decision - my clarity of vision amazed me at that time although I did not really notice that I didn't have that clarity before that because I spent most of my time with a small child and the print is large in story books compared to more adult texts. I did  notice that the price tags were sometimes rather small but a bit of squinting and I had it! So back to bifocals and reading glasses in the past as I move forward into this new landscape of my life. 

God be with the Ukrainians in their valiant fight against the Russian invaders. Glory to Ukraine. This is a story about good and evil; David and Goliath and we are viewing it in this century where it does not belong. A free country should have the right to remain free - there are fourty five million people living in Ukraine most of whom are dedicated to remaining Ukrainian - the rest should go back to Russia and live the life there that Putin and his enablers have set up for them (mostly serfdom is what it looks like to an outsider). Personally I would like to see Russia survive as the great country it once was not the murderous nazi psychopathic people that they have become and if they do not want the label then it is their job to replace the psychopathic nazi leadership that they currently have with something better that respects the rights of all people. Russian history is rich in great composers; great writers; great scientists and strong resilient people.  I understand the need to have Russia be for the Russians they need to understand the need for Ukraine to be for the Ukrainians and anyone else who supports the Ukrainians on the holy soil of Ukraine made holy by the blood of martyred children, women and men fighting against this imperialistic conquest by Russia. Russia has been killing Ukrainians for nearly one hundred years - time to stop. Glory to Ukraine.