No Eyesight, No Blogging

That’s happened to me, my blood pressure dropped hard because of my heart meds and I had been dehydrated. My vision turned into crystal fractals for a few hours. Ironic because I work at a school for blind people.

Hope that you recover quickly and fully.

Sorry for the snarking here, but I mean it with a smile — the text in your post says you had to “weight” a minute… You’ve been infected with Ian’s lysdexia (sic) regarding homophones! I didn’t know that condition was contagious.

Srsly, I reckon it’s because of a speech-to-text goof by whatever system you use. Coz you can’t even see well enough to write “wait” or “weight” at the moment, eh? Get well soon.

Not seeing a damn thing is certainly easier for those who have never seen anything. They learn from childhood to cope with it; one of my stone blind aquaintances even biked regularly. He echo-oriented, said that he “felt” things near him as a slight pressure, but realized it was just sound. But it is much, much harder for those who loose their eyesight at a mature age.

Nevertheless digital equipment has made it comparatively liveable for them too. There are lots of them. Writing and reading blogs, for example is quite doable – but you have to learn to write while hearing things you have just written. It’s like listening to what one says in earphones with a slight delay. Very irritating! But I know people who have learnt it as grownups too.

My condolences, Sean, and indeed, get well soon, please!!

This is just one more reminder of how the Medical-Industrial-Big Pharma complex fucks sick people over badly, and it’s a feature, not a bug. How many MDs listen? Pretty few, I had a terrible one when I moved to Duluth, old dude, he literally believed cannabis had “no medical benefit,” uhhm, go back in history to Queen Victoria, 1890, oh no she didn’t have one of the best MDs in the world, amright? See here:

https://hempshopper.com/hemp-history/1890-a-cannabis-tincture-is-prescribed-to-queen-victoria/

Helped with menstrual cramps, pain. I switched MDs, got a good Arab MD, he grew up in New York, lucked out, he always listened and worked with me, we even shared podcasts and restaurants we enjoyed. 9 months after I left Duluth he cancelled my Trazodone sleeping meds (the single Rx I need, for over 2 decades I always wake around 3 am, need help to get back to sleep), I called his office and he got the script renewed for me in 2 days, huge relief. Even better they didn’t charge me a dime!! Got serious medical debt, $9,000 for an inguinal hernia surgery in 2024, the St. Luke’s Hospital got taken over by a scummy corporation, “Aspirus”, aspiring to pick your pocket and put you out on the street. Another corporation makes me pay down $187 monthly but at least no compounded interest, I’ve paid down about $3K, it sucks.

Only time I had something similar was 2012-14, after the Greenspan-Summers-Clinton ’08-09 Depression. Of the 5 Teacher Librarians in my school district, 4 were forced out, I was the lone survivor (had the most tenure in the District, a boost), then to retaliate against me for my Union activism as District Grievance Chair, won many cases, the District made me run 2 separate Libraries at 2 High Schools, half-time each, with 2 different principals, supposed to serve them and 8 admin and the District Office and total student population of nearly 4,000 students!! The assignment was designed to crush me, nearly did so.

It actually ran 2011-14, I made it thru the first year sans major health problems, but the second year, summer of 2012 when I returned I got a sudden case of Cranial Neuropathy the first day I was back. Double vision, very bad light sensitivity which would lead to migraine-like symptoms, visual hallucinations (tons of tiny, gyrating dots in my visual field, could appear and run 2-12 minutes), etc. Drove myself to the ER, lucked out with an excellent Dr., his father had suffered CN and he prescribed that I wear an eyepatch for a month, didn’t matter on which eye, and things would return to normal. Fairly spot-on correct, a month to the day later it seemingly cleared up, then returned briefly 2 more x before disappearing.

But it didn’t end there, I got a sharp little cut on my finger from a tape-dispensing machine processing new books into the Library, infected. I first treated it with Tea Tree Oil, hippy thing I knew of, no help. Next I went to Kaiser, they tried to clean it out, didn’t work, took a 2nd Kaiser visit to resolve that finally. That finger remains numb on the tip many years later.

I told both of my principals, “I work for you 50%, I have a Contract, you’ll get all 50% and not one iota more,” they knew I was right and had to accept it. I told them I would do extra (even off the clock) for students, but NOTHING extra for them. My 2nd school had a terrible culture of excess staff meetings, staff loved the new Principal so much they voted 1 or 2 extra staff meetings a month, a violation of our Contract subject to voting, took place in the Library so I had to endure those often, North Korea Style Brainwashing B.S. I had one assistant at each school who worked up to 20 hours weekly for me. Older lady with severe Bipolar disorder so she was frequently out, younger lady very hard-working early on, smart too, great support for years but severe migraines, out an average of half the time. It sucked, Libraries closed intermittently except for emergencies, e.g. If someone put glue in the lock of the unpopular Science Teacher she’d bring her whole class down to hang out in the Library until maintenance could bust through the door.

California poured tons of money into the Public Schools by summer of 2014, so finally I escaped from purgatory, 2 more School Librarians rehired, AND the paraprofessional Library staff at the Middle and Elementary Schools also got more hours. Back to normal and functional, huge relief.

Also had a girlfriend with severe retinitis pigmentosa, 1994-98. When we went on vacation and long drive form the airport to the lake cabins, after sundown it was all on me. After we broke up we stayed friends, she was close to being declared legally blind the last time we talked on the phone, she’d moved to Vermont to be with mutual friends, the couple who’d introduced us. Tragic.

Mostly things back on track, post 2014, ran a good and well-used program while doing my Union duties as well. By 2020 the older lady had retired, my younger assistant went completely insane during Covid, she wrongly believed you could get Covid from pennies and loose change!!! LoL. Perhaps all the pot she smoked on her lunch breaks and before school to self-medicate the migraines made her paranoid? She refused to work Library close-out and interact with any students or staff, put all the Danger on me, a full generation older than her, the age of her parents. (Didn’t matter, I got one jab and the booster. Never got sick except from the booster. Never got el peste Covid.)

She burned all of her bridge not just with me, but with her extended family, they kicked her out. She refused to work with me the next year, and my attitude was Good Riddance, she would process in books as I had a great budget in 2020-21, but mostly worked with the Textbook room guy next door to the library, no skin off my nose.

I worked remotely a lot, opposite of years’ prior. Had to attend a lot of Zoom meetings as a dept. chair, but that wasn’t so bad, only came in to work 2 days a month or so, most direct Library services stopped, though I would do individual support to classroom teachers, colleagues. Same at the other Library.

Got bought off to retire early in Summer 2021. Golden Handshake, took it and left Cali, sick of endless wildfires, earthquakes, high rent and terrible traffic.

Working is a Hamster Wheel, so glad to escape with my health and sanity intact. Yes, I know someone who comments here hates me for having a pension!! Too bad. I paid my dues to earn it, 28.5 years of Service Credit from the State of California, a pretty big load that very few could ride out. But I did so. You get a new life when you retire with enough to meet your needs, Hallelu-Jah!!