A week ago my baby sister and I went to get eye exams. We had been putting it off for too long due to financial issues. But we finally went. No cataracts, no glaucoma or other eye diseases. Well that's great! But... we both need progressives. I was warned I'd need some. My sister wasn't expecting it though. So did you know progressives are basically $250 per lens? No? Neither did we, until they totaled that cost with the cost of new frames that would be possible to hold progressives. So you can imagine our shock. I feel bad for others who need progressives. I mean, by the time you factor in the lens costs and the frame costs and the exam cost... You're looking at $1000.00 or more for glasses. I had hoped to get Transitions or maybe prescription sunglasses. Er, no, thanks, I'll suffer the sun. What the hell?! They're definitely taking advantage of growing old. How many retired elderly people can fork out that kind of money on top of other medical prescriptions and possibly other costs to make living at home easier? That's just horrible.
On the way back from the city we stopped at a store so I could get a little something for my eldest grandchild who graduated pre-k that day and who's grad I was missing due to the eye exam. Went into an Ardene and got all kinds of pretties for her. She's such a girly-girl. Loves dresses, makeup (she's allowed perfume and nail polish and lip gloss) and all manner of jewelry and hair pretties. They had a sale on most of that 5/$10. I also got her hair chalk so we can bribe her to cut her hair. She wants it long like Rapunzel, but hates to brush it. We figured if she could colour it with chalk she'd want it to look nice all the time and might get it trimmed or thinned and brushed daily. They had these "surprise" bags 2/$5. So I got two. These had socks, sunglasses (ironic, but they're not prescription) and hair pretties. She was spending the weekend with me while her mother went out on an early birthday weekend celebration so we had some fun fixing her up.
After the Ardene shopping spree, I only spent $40, we drove around our old childhood neighbourhood. My baby brother was driving. I don't drive. I want to, but in this province taking the course is mandatory and that's $1200. Anyway, the house we had lived in burned down years ago and a pretty new house is there now. But it was nice to drive around and go, "I remember I had a friend who lived here..." or "We played here all the time" or "OMG, nothing here has changed! The houses are still 70s-ish!" After all the reminiscing we headed home. We stopped at a park along the way we had gone as children when our father was still alive.
We were not exactly dressed for it, I wore sandals and dress pants and a blouse because I had hoped to make it to the grad for an hour, but couldn't. We hiked up the path, careful of bears, and went up nearly all the way to the first waterfall. The path goes up the Laurentian Foothills. Beautiful area. Streams, dense woods, a few breaks in the trees, a rock wall... More reminiscing, more flooding of memories. But we had a heatwave starting that day so we didn't get far and promised we'd come back someday with our kids and my grandchildren so they can enjoy it.
The weekend with my grand-daughter over was horrible in the sense that it was a heatwave and all we had are fans to try to keep us cool. We had prepared with lots of bottled water and cold cuts and microwaveable meals so we didn't have to cook. Try explaining to a five year old why you can't make Kraft Dinner during a heatwave despite that being what she wants to eat. Bribery with ice cream after she eats her sandwich helped.
After the weekend, on Tuesday, the heatwave broke. It was a sunny yet cool day so out I went to get some work done. Our summer had been late in that we'd had really cold weather until the second week of June. So I wanted to get some gardening done. My strawberry plants were finally starting to show new growth. Our garden is clay so I had found a great deal on black earth. Nine bags for $10.50! Four of them went into the garden and my step-dad brought me a rake and shovel. I worked there, and then started on our walkway. Part of it was leveled so I dug out one side and started to re-fill it for the white stones my sister wanted (we are roommates). Then weeding out back. My two eldest grand-daughters came for the day while their mother went to the hospital.
I coldn't continue with the digging and white stones until my brother came to level the walkway you see that's overgrown with grass and sinking. He's since done it, but I don't have enough white stones. I'll need another six or eight bags to get it all done. Sigh. The planters of earth will be for herbs and patio climbing mini cucumber plants.
A full day outside and I never realized that I had a bad sunburn. I've spent the past three days inside, feeling icky and asking my sister to put something on my burn. Why oh why did I not think of sunscreen and a hat? I had that itch to get working and I did. Well, I'm paying for it now. At least the place is looking good. Hahahaha.
