Do I wish that I was seeing all my life as I see now? One can not turn back the clock so no; life is what it is and you must just go with the flow. It is amazing what I now see in actual fact and is a distraction in my old age however I wouldn't say to anyone asking would you have preferred what your eyes do now? I have no idea people have to make their own decisions based on the expert opinions around you. Taking one's time is always the way; preparing for whatever is the best decision - not rushing. When I had the second Cataract removal operation a young person was there and he had had his first eye operated on about four months earlier and really wanted the second done but the Ophthalmologist was saying to take more time to get used to it. At that point only my weak eye had been operated on and it was a little over two weeks later but already I was amazed actually so I can see the value in waiting between the surgeries although I am old and waiting would not really appear to be of any value (the advantage that the medical world does have is the volume of cases and how they flow and one must listen to their opinions). In essence I still managed to acquire sight that I never had before the surgery. Was I just lucky? No ideas on that I do not know anyone with eyes like mine except my father and I wasn't there when he had his cataract surgery back in his early 80s. He threw his glasses away after his stroke perhaps seven years later and never attempted to read again in his early 90s. He had enjoyed doing his cross puzzles but again I was there so seldom after the mid 1980s as Edward wanted us to go with him to his Conferences and whatever else he wanted to do (usually in the United States) researching at various repositories. I was working full time and it just wasn't possible. When I was with my father I spent the entire day and finally we would chat a little but nothing so intensive as eyes. I had no idea what was in store for me at that time; I had lived with the sight I had all my life so I had no idea really what I was missing nor do I miss anything that I might have missed including all my trips to some of the greatest holdings of art in the world. I am not that sort of person. I could go back but I have goals that do not include running around the world. Was it a fluke that this condition (strabismus) passed from my great grandfather Blake (obvious in this very large picture I saw of him) to my father to me. From my reading since my daughter mentioned congenital cataracts strabismus is thought to be caused by congenital cataracts. So there you go; interesting but I did not end up going into medicine and do not attempt to answer questions best answered by the experts.
Cleaning all accomplished and I had a couple of hours to work on Chromosome 15 and all those matches. They continue in the one length to be large (considering how far back they must reach), to all be mine (none of my siblings match these individuals) and all have early American colonial ancestry. Why so large coming down so many generations? What is hidden in the genes in that section - one wonders and the future points to our understanding that. Because it is in understanding our genetic complement that we gain a clearer picture of why everything happens really. But how one lives the life we are given is also so very very important.
Was it Buller or Taylor that large match in Chromosome 15 (it is in the Buller column because that was the surname of my maternal grandmother)? It looks perhaps like it was Taylor because some of the matches are taking their ancestor back to the Midlands and my suspicion is that the Buller line came out of the southern western counties of England moving to the London/Surrey area in the mid 1700s and then to Birmingham in the 1830s. The Taylor on the other hand I am finding the ancestral lines of that family to be in Warwickshire/Shropshire back into the 1700s and perhaps I will trace it back further. I simply have not done that. The surnames that come into that family are interesting - Harborne, Lewis, Roberts, Croxall, Lawley, Hale, Birch, Asbury (back into the early 1700s). Documented some of them back to Ireland from England (both Eire and Northern Ireland). Finding Taylor can seem like a bit of a dead end but in reality it opens up like a flower showing its lines. I do actually have matches (somewhat large considering how far back the match is) with Lawley that trace back in that line amazingly (and others). But that book is on the back burner for sure - Blake and Pincombe must come first - my parent's surnames and in particular my paternal grandfather's great desire. As he approached the end of his life; he spent more and more time repeating and telling me his stories. I was only seven going on eight but he laid the groundwork in my brain for a good memory teaching me to rhyme off the Kings and Queens of England when I was just five years of age and Bible Verses and so many other little rhymes that he taught me. He knew how to stimulate those brain cells in a small child I realize now. Interesting really how much impact a grandparent can have in a child's life. I would say the same about my grandmother who filled that void in my life when my grandfather died when I was eight years of age. She did it gradually because she knew I was terrified of her; she was very strict but gradually I came to love her as much as I had loved him. I spent hours with her and she did talk about her husband quite a bit giving me a picture of this man I never knew but that she loved with all her heart and looked up to as he was fourteen years older and as fate has it he was over six feet and she was barely five feet!. Their life together just twelve short years but packed full of wonderful times you could tell by her stories and by the stories of my uncle who loved his father very very much and was only ten when his father died.
A free day finally and I can work on my projects; do my exercises and hopefully go outside and work on the weeds/leaves as Saturday is pickup day for those leaves. The world around me does control some of my day for sure. My old phone continues to ring probably five or six times a day but I do not answer it and will eliminate it when we move. It has done its task for 47 years and I only have it as an emergency phone not for any other reason. I suppose I should put a message on it but many of the times it is just spam according to the readout and messages that lead to another number just carry that spam on and so I do not. I am considering putting a note on my door once again asking people to not ring as it disturbs me. I know if you are coming if I asked you to come; if the city is going to turn the water off or such things they put a note in mailbox so I do not need to answer that door unless of course the house is burning down in which case I will know that. I can not help people; I am too old. Turning 80 does that to you I think; moving towards 80 does that to you. It is a good thing.
Tea all drank and time for breakfast. I am very hungry. It was 2 degrees celsius when I woke up and now I can see the daylight and it is 3 degrees celsius and sunny. My furnace barely runs at the moment as the sun heats the house but soon the cold will come; keeping it at 19.5 degrees celsius to be the tipping point when it turns on and brings it up to 20 degrees celsius - a nice working temperature.
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