Skip to main content

I'm not dippy - really

I am not the sort of person you would describe as being 'dippy' but sometimes I catch myself being just that.  Since the beginning of January, when my family left, I have struggled to see when I am driving at night.  'Good heavens', I thought, ' I know older people have trouble seeing so clearly at night but could my night blindness happen so quickly?'

I did two evening drives in the dark before I had the sense to actually check the lights on the car.  They all worked.  I looked at the controls and fiddled around with them for a while and then the light bulb went off in my head.  My grandson loves sitting in the driving seat of my car and he touches all the controls and there it was, he had  changed the headlight setting to the dimmest it could be.   'I am an idiot', I thought.

This isn't as bad as another dippy moment I had about 10 years ago.  I had been to a dinner in a restaurant along the Loire.  When we came out it was dark and there was a fairly thick fog.  I decided I had better put my glasses on for the drive home.  As I went along the river road I could barely see anything and I was driving slower and slower.  I had never seen such thick fog, even in the UK.  I noticed that traffic coming towards me was going much faster and I couldn't understand it.  After a fifteen minute drive barely able to see the road in front of me I arrived home.  I parked and took my glasses off, sighing with relief.  I looked around and could see quite clearly, the fog wasn't so bad after all and then I looked at down.  I had been wearing my sunglasses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mondays

 Last Monday my son and daughter in law were due to catch the 8.15am ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.  It was 6.45am when I stepped out of the shower and heard my phone  going.  I snatched it up.  It was a video  call.  'Mum, we have big problems here,'  and before I could speak he thrust the phone into the hands of a Brittany ferries' staff member and said, 'Talk  to my mum.'  Barely conscious of my wet, tangled hair and trying to cover myself up with a  towel which thought gravity was fun, I asked what the problem was.  Apparently they had the wrong vaccination certificates and were being refused passage.  I asked what I could do and she said they could go and get a test and take a later ferry.  'Where is the nearest test centre in Portsmouth?'  I asked.  'There isn't one,' she replied, 'there  is one in Southampton, or Havant.'  What!  No test centre in Portsmouth?  They both have learni...
1 comment
Read more

Oops!

 The air conditioning has broken in my car so it was some relief when the temperature dropped  back to the 30 degree mark.  This gave my neighbours fresh enthusiasm to clear up overgrown vegetation.  At my request my American neighbour climbed down to a flat bit of ground where a tree had grown about 6 feet in as many weeks, to lop it.  My job was to clear all the debris when it fell and drag it to a parking space in the courtyard.  The system was working well with another neighbour and her granddaughter joining in to help me clear the debris.  Meanwhile. up above us the American was in full swing, not stopping at 'lopping' the tree but cutting it right back to its roots.  Soon great big branches were hurtling down and that is when it happened.  One branch, instead of coming straight down to the ground decided to take a detour onto his garage roof, creating a big hole right above where his precious car, a Tesla, was being kept safe and sound....
1 comment
Read more