Friday, September 28, 2007

I Am My Mother's Daughter

Back in the day when my mother was the age that I am now and I was a teen-ager, it was quite fun to tease her about her changing eye-sight. Well, that has come around to bite me on the butt big time. As my mom began to need reading glasses to read things close up, she did not go to the eye doctor or the store, she collected other people's old reading glasses. She had my grandmother's old glasses. Friends gave her their old reading glasses. Mom had this great pair of green horned rimmed glasses that Betsy, an older hair-dresser, had given her. Betsy was amazing - still styling hair and driving an orange Charger up in to her 80's. Those old green glasses were great, but Mom tended to cut your hair a little too short when wearing them. We would tease Mom by saying, "Beware the Green Glasses!" Mom even had glasses that Uncle Gene had given her when his prescription changed - they were the big aviator type glasses. These eye-glasses were all over the house. Anywhere she might need them - by the phone, by her bed, on the table - that is where you would find glasses. And yet, they never seemed to be right where she needed them, because I remember her saying, "Have you seen my glasses" all the time. As a teen-ager, I teased her terribly mocking her while she looked for her glasses or for wearing them down on her nose or pushed up on her head. Now I have come full circle.

Although I have not "borrowed" anyone else's glasses, I buy glasses at the Dollar General or Wal-Mart and have a jillion pairs laying around the house. Yet, I cannot seem to find a pair when I need them. I wear them on my head until I break an ear piece off. Then I still keep them around, because I just cannot seem to throw them away. Technically, I can still use them, they just won't stay on my face very long, but I can grab up a pair of broken glasses long enough to read a phone number or whatever. The other night, I watched Toby grab up a pair of my reading glasses, get his new motorcycle magazine, get comfy in his recliner, and then put on my glasses to find that they were missing one lens. He was comical poking his finger through the empty space and laughing. When I heard we were going to Canada, I did not want to take my old broken glasses, so I bought a new pair at Wal-Mart. I thought they were very pretty - sort of tortoise shell color. It may have been a mistake. Take a look at the photo and see if you can tell how many times I lost them on the bed and how many times I sat on them while putting on my shoes. Now you know how they get broken.


Jesse took her first solo motorcycle ride on her new bike yesterday evening. She rode around the country roads before it got very dark. Finding time to ride has been a problem for her with work and her classes she is taking. She enjoyed her bike and asked me to take a couple of photos of her motorcycle.


We are going to Lubbock this weekend to see Toby's mom, who had knee replacement surgery while we were in Canada. Then Toby will leave next week for South Texas to join an audit team. I will not go with him, but I may join him on weekends somewhere in ST.

3 comments:

Buck said...

NICE bike...particularly the color!

And yeah, I can see how your glasses get broken. I'm literally blind as a bat without mine. There have been rare... VERY rare...occasions when I've misplaced my glasses, usually upon retiring after a "hard night." I used to have help in finding them, but now I don't. I'm glad no one is around to watch me do my mole imitation while I'm looking/feeling around for them...

Bag Blog said...

Buck, I thought you would like the color. The kid who owned the bike before Jes put lots of stickers on it. Some of them may have to go, but she seems to love her new wheels.

My daughter-in-law is just about blind without her contacts or glasses. She is very particular where she puts them down - unlike me.

Anonymous said...

Oh, this story about the glasses makes me feel much better! And laugh out loud that we all experience this WAMG (where are my glasses) phenomenon. I often walk around the house saying "where are my glasses?#!!" and lo and behold, they're either on top of my head or tucked inside my shirt with one ear piece hanging down "betwixt" my breasts and the glasses part hanging on the outside of my shirt.