See you in a year

“Your eyes are in fantastic shape, Mr. Hughes,” said Dawn Pisello, my eye-doctor at Eye Care Center of Canandaigua.
A couple days ago, Tuesday, August 23, 2011, was my annual eye exam.
“I think it’s genetic,” I said. “My younger brother is using cheaters, but I think his eyes are as good as mine.
Little-by-little I advance toward cheaters myself, but I don’t feel I need ‘em yet,” I said.
“The font on my computer-screen is the smallest, and I might run into print small enough to need magnification, but that’s rare.”
(I am the only person in my high-school class to not need bifocals, and we graduated in 1962.)
“You’re lucky,” Dawn said. “Slightly nearsighted, but not enough to effect your overall vision.”
“Yes, if need be, I can drive without my glasses, but things are sharper with ‘em.”
“Nearsighted enough to cruise along without bifocals,” she said.
“No macular degeneration, slight cataracts but no change, everything within range.
I can see your floaters, but they don’t obstruct, and they’re only in your left eye.
We repaired that retina-tear with laser a few years ago, and that seems unchanged.
Usually laser repairs prompt cataract development, but I see no change.”
Eye Care Center of Canandaigua is not the vision-care recommended by my Transit retiree club, who also arranged a reduced-price dental care I use.
My club’s eye-care is probably fine, but I tilt toward Eye Care Center of Canandaigua.
That’s because of Heidi Piper, who graduated from the same college I did, Houghton College (“HO-tin;” as in “oh,” not “how” or “who”) in western New York, from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. (She’s class of ’87.)
And I could tell. She was very caring and professional. I haven’t met a Houghton-grad yet who wasn’t.
Heidi did my retina-tear repair.
Years ago a previous eye-care discovered a tiny flaw they said was inconsequential.
Eye Care Center of Canandaigua, mainly Pisello, went ballistic.
“That’s a retina-tear,” she exclaimed. “Very serious. It should be repaired.”
Heidi was brought in. She repaired it with a laser.
“Inconsequential,” my previous eye-care said.
And of course Heidi demonstrated the attitude of all Houghton-grads, feet very much on the ground.
I think it was the professors. They weren’t elitists. They cared about we students.
Even the most strident jerks I knew at that college have their feet on the ground.
No high-and-mighty!
So Eye Care Center of Canandaigua wins.
My Transit retirees eye-care might cost less, but it doesn’t have Heidi.
And of course two things happen with every eye-exam:
—1) They dilate your pupils.
I’m pretty much outta commission after that.
Driving home is a hairball.
—2) Most in the waiting-room are aging cripples. People in wheelchairs with oxygen-rigs.
A nursing-home van was parked outside.
So I suppose I’m relief from all those oldsters with eye-problems.
“Define ‘macular degeneration,’” I asked Dawn.
“Yadda-yadda-yadda-yadda. It comes with aging,” she said.
“I’m 67 years old,” I said. “When should I start worrying about it?”
“NOW,” she said. “People 55 and older get macular degeneration.”
“Pups!” I exclaimed.
A third thing is every time I go there I’m worked on by people younger than me.

• “Mr. Hughes” is me, Bob Hughes, BobbaLew.
• “Canandaigua” (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 15 miles away. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester.
• RE: “Transit retiree club......” —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. We have a club for Transit retirees.