Eye Care Center

Yesterday (Thursday, August 20, 2009) was my annual eye checkup at the Eye Care Center in Canandaigua.
It’s not the eye care my Transit retirees activist group has arranged, but I’d rather go there, and I will explain why below.
During my employ, I was required to join a health-maintenance-organization (HMO), Joseph C. Wilson Health Center on Carter St. in Rochester.
When we moved to West Bloomfield, I transferred to Folsom Center on Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road, affiliated and closer.
It seems rules changed and Folsom became a healthcare provider, and that I could go other places.
Folsom did my eye care, until I decided to go someplace closer yet, the Eye Care Center in Canandaigua.
At Folsom I was told I had a minor retinal scar — I hadn’t noticed anything.
I mentioned that to the Eye Care Center, but they went ballistic.
“That ain’t no scar,” they said. “That’s a retinal tear (‘tare’) that needs to be fixed.”
A specialist was trotted in, and this is why I prefer the Eye Care Center.
The specialist was a graduate of the same college I had graduated from, Houghton (“Ho-tin;” as in “oh”) College down the Genesee River.
And I could tell. She had her feet squarely on the ground, and cared about what she was doing.
Houghton people are like that.
Her name was Heidi Piper. She graduated in 1987 — I’m ‘66.
Heidi welded my retinal tear with a laser — nothing to it; although I’m sure she had to be exact about it.
So the Eye Care Center wins, and Heidi is part of the reason.
Yesterday was Dawn Pisello, the O.D. that dragged in Heidi.
I’m 65 years old.
People my age are in the waiting room was various eye ailments.
“Any change in your vision, Mr. Hughes?”
“Nope!”
Dawn poked around and looked at things.
“No discernible changes. See you next year.”

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that — I retired on disability. I belong to a Transit union retirees group called “the Alumni.” (The “Alumni” are the union retirees [Local 282, the Rochester local of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union] of Regional Transit Service in Rochester, N.Y. The Alumni was a reaction to the fact Transit management retirees ran roughshod over union retirees — a continuation of the bad vibes at Transit: management versus union. Transit had a club for long-time employees, and I was in it. It was called the “15/25-year Club;” I guess at first the “25-year Club.” But they lowered the employment requirement, and renamed it “15/25-year Club.” The employment requirement was lowered even more; I joined at 10 years. My employ ended in 1993; and the “Alumni” didn’t exist then. The Alumni is a special club — you have to join. —The Alumni tries to negotiate lower pricing for healthcare.)
• We live in the small rural town of “West Bloomfield” in Western N.Y.
• “Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road” is the road separating the suburbs of Brighton and Henrietta; Brighton southeast of Rochester, and Henrietta south.
• “Houghton” is Houghton College in western New York, from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. I’ve never regretted it, although I graduated as a Ne’er-do-Well, without their blessing. Houghton is an evangelical liberal-arts college.
• The “Genesee River” (“jenn-uh-SEE”) is a fairly large river that flows south to north across Western New York, emptying into Lake Ontario after flowing through Rochester. The vast Genesee river valley was the first breadbasket of the nation. It grew a lotta wheat, which was milled in Rochester and then shipped east on the Erie Canal.