Changing Doctor Appointments

@DaddyEvil Dark early in the evening and dark late in the morning. Today the fog is so thick that I cannot even see the trees in front of our windows.

@LadyDuck I dislike foggy days. I hope you didn't need to go out in it.

I don't like to go out if we won't get home before dusk but I forgot how fast it starts getting dark now. And it's not like I can pull over and let Pretty drive. She doesn't have a license.

I don't want to drive after dark. There are very few street lights here and some of the ditches along the streets are DEEP. I have missed turns before and ended up in somebody's yard.

@DaddyEvil Where we lived before referred to itself as the Light Capitol, and we were very spoiled. Here I get all turned around in the dark, and on the highway, because of the dark. Almost no lights around here. I try to stay home mostly.

@GardenGerty Our city calls itself "The City of Lights" but that's because they were the first city to put in street lights when electricity first became a thing here. I flat refuse to drive anywhere if the sun is close to going down. I haven't tried driving anywhere when the sun is coming up. We mostly stay home, too.

Yes, it does, especially when highways and intersections aren't well lit!

@DaddyEvil .......Should you really be driving?

@celticeagle I have no problems during the daytime. If I don't drive, who will?

@DaddyEvil I hope so, we will not let it happen.

@May2k8 Good luck!

I'm sorry that happened. I hope you don't develop other eye issues as you get older. It's not fun.

Even with the headlights, I can't see roads off to the side, driveways until I pass them or any signage along the roads.

@wolfgirl569 I'm glad you can. I shouldn't be allowed to drive once the sun starts going down.

@DaddyEvil I can usually make them out

I rarely go outside after it starts getting dark. I can't see the sidewalk or things on it if I'm walking. Pretty always wants to go walking after dark and I trip and fall.

@Dreamerby That's what I've done for several years. I hate driving after the daylight starts fading or very early in the morning before it's actually light outside.

@DaddyEvil Oh then you must insist to stay at home after dark.

I had sun glare today when I was driving to the Post Office... Very annoying. There are supposed to be some type of blue glasses that help with sun glare and snow glare but I haven't seen them around here yet. I'd like to try them, though.

@DaddyEvil On the streets, with those bike lanes, parking slots made closer to the streets, and those pillar things with reflectors, I think the lanes actually ARE narrower. They've taken out a lot of the island lanes too. So many weave and speed too - so it makes the narrowness seem even more treacherous. I don't know about claustrophobia, but certain I feel squished in on all the roads. I feel there's more breathing room on freeways, but ugh I just don't enjoy driving like I used to.

@much2say Same! Pretty and I used to go out driving just to see the scenery and visit. I used to take my mom driving so we could visit about things that were bothering one of us and look at the scenery. I just don't want to be driving very much anymore. Pretty and I make trips to the doctors and the grocery store and that's about it anymore. Two, maybe three places in a month.

Do roads you used to drive down at speed now seem really narrow to you? I hate the country highways and drive on them a lot slower than I used to even in broad daylight.

@DaddyEvil — my biggest problem with it right now is this is deer mating season, so they’re running along (and across) the road about that time of the evening.

I don't think about it until something makes me be out very early or later in the day.

@FourWalls True, there are a lot more accidents involving deer at this time of the year. My only accident with a deer happened in late November. Luckily, there wasn't much damage. The deer got scared and tried to jump over the hood of my car with me driving at 65 MPH. It left scrape marks from my right hand headlight across the hood that ended just before the glass windshield. The deer landed in the ditch, laid there for a few minutes, then got up and ran away. I slammed on my brakes and a truck behind me smashed my taillights out. That was the worst of the damage.

I started wearing glasses when I was in my mid-twenties but suspect I needed them before that. The ophthalmologist says I'm night-blind... We usually do any running around we need in the late morning or early afternoon.

I just get so used to it being light when I'm wanting to go do stuff during the summer. The time change always takes me by surprise. I want them to set the clocks for one time and leave them alone.

@LindaOHio I'm glad you found her. I hope the two of you get along well.

I still need to drive during the daytime. If I didn't, Pretty would make me move to a big city so she could use public transportation. I don't want to move and especially not to a big city!

@DaddyEvil I'm glad this new lady has agreed to drive me around.

I can still see tiny print but have trouble seeing when reading white paper or on the white background on myLot. After dusk, I can't see anything.

@Shivram59 Only when I drive or need to see something far away.

@DaddyEvil I understand. Do you were glasses??

@DaddyEvil I don't see deer at all at night, sneaky things they are. But it would be scary to come right up and a person.

@Ithink It doesn't help that deer are so fast and hide in very little brush, either. They just seem to appear and they're right in front of you.

I started noticing I was having trouble seeing when it was starting to get dark or starting to get light several years ago. Now, I can't see anything the headlights don't illuminate and that's dangerous... Several times I haven't seen people walking in the street until I was right next to them.

Thank you. I wish the specialists were closer, too. Or that there was public transportation here in our little city. I'm glad you aren't having any vision problems.

@DaddyEvil It sure does.

The ophthalmologist says I'm legally blind in my left eye. I'm sorry your hubby has troubles driving in the dark, too. It really sucks!

You live in a large city. I live in a city of 7,000 people. The closest big city is Springfield. Their outskirts are 70 miles away from us. My GP is 4 blocks from us and the hospital is 2 blocks away. We don't have anything else here.

@moffittjc Aurora is called "The City of Lights" because when electricity was first introduced, the city chose to put streetlights on the city streets downtown. There are lights at intersections through most of the city now but that doesn't do a lot in the middle of the streets between intersections and there are no light poles on intersections on the state highways. Our street is off a state highway.

@DaddyEvil Wow, you do live in a small town! There is a small town about 10 miles south of Gainesville called Micanopy that has a whopping population of 648! They call it the town that time forgot. It's a charming little place with lots of antique stores.

If Pretty had the confidence to drive, it wouldn't matter to me, either.

The last few years I was working and had to drive to work or home in the dark were really difficult, especially if it rained. I had to follow taillights of other vehicles just to be sure I was staying on the highway. I couldn't see any of the lines. I was happy when my vision got bad enough that they fired me and nobody else would hire me.

@AliCanary The specialists say that nothing can fix my vision. Sometimes I can see fine (except after it starts getting dark) and sometimes my eyelids/face swell up and I can't see at all for days or a week or more. I was told that happens because I have hyperthyroidism caused by my thyroid glad working harder than it's supposed to. If it had been noticed when it first started, then there are/were things that could be done to keep me from having the problems I'm experiencing but, even though I complained about different symptoms, my regular doctors always said that was natural and not something that could be treated. Now, the damage is already done and there really isn't anything that can be done except treat the symptoms. (The meat/fat around my eyes swell up and force my eyelids to close. Sometimes the eyelids themselves fill with fluids and look like bags of water covering my eyes.) My daughter is paid by Medicaid to help me when I can't see. *shrug* I have applied for disability but, after 4 years, I don't think they'll ever let me have it. This last time, I was told that since I don't have any restrictions, there's nothing wrong with me, as if being blind 90% of the time isn't a restriction.

@DaddyEvil oh goodness, I'm glad you took it well. Could your eyesight benefit from surgery?