I guess life got in the way again and I never got around to publishing part 3 to the "My World Changed for 24 Hours" set of blog posts.
So, here it is. Thank you for understanding that it's a few weeks late. Maybe in a week or two, I will go back and fix the date .... if I remember. To put it where it belongs (that blank week where nothing got published.)
Well, driving home from Vision Therapy the day I saw in 3D for the first time was quite an experience. Before I started driving, though, I think I sat in my car for about 2 hours. I just needed to get a little used to what my eyes were seeing before I could get on the road and start driving.
I sat and stared at the trees in front of my car, and the building under construction with its blue siding, across the way.
It reminded me of the first time I got glasses - I could see every leaf on the trees across the street from my house. I could make out every grass blade. It's quite a thing when your whole world is blurry and that's all you know. Then, one day, you get a pair of glasses & you can make out the leaves on trees!
This was kind of like that. Only, it was my EYES doing the work and not my glasses.
I could make out every tree branch and how they were in relation to me. "That one veers off to the left, that one veers off to the right. That one is coming right at me! Woah - it really is!"
I finally decided it was probably time to drive home, so I cautiously drove. It was one of those days when it probably would have been a better idea to have someone drive me. But I am not blessed to have someone who can drive me the 40 minutes or so each way to vision therapy. Oh, well.
I knew that if anything came in front of me, I would be more sensitive to it, rather than less sensitive, because everything looked closer than it usually does.
I drove on the side street then a Main Street and merged onto a highway to get home. There is always traffic on that highway, and I just stayed in the right lane. There is always construction and a LOT of cars on that highway, so we weren't going particularly fast. Whew!
At one point, I got off the highway and went to a store. I think Walmart to see if they had a quilt I have been needing. Driving through the parking lot on the way to Walmart, no one was near me. No one behind me, nothing. Then a car pulled in front of me and I slowed down to let it cross.
The car that came out of nowhere behind me honked. I looked again at the car in front of me. I had thought it was maybe 12 feet in front of me. I had completely misjudged it. (I may or may not have mentioned it on this blog, but I cannot measure space at all. Someone will say, "oh, it's about 100 yards that way." or they might say, "it's a quarter of a mile up the road." I can't tell that sort of thing by looking. I can't. I can't see depth and I can't estimate distance. There are things we aren't good at in life. It doesn't make us weak or a bad person. It' just something we can't do. I can't measure distance. At all.
Well, the car I had paused to let drive in front of me was not the 12 feet or so in front of me like I thought s/he was. It was probably 90 feet in front of me.
No wonder the car that came out of no where from behind me honked. Haha!
I pulled forward gradually and cautiously and the car behind me turned in to another lane to drive toward the store. Fine by me.
Well, later that night, I took a dog for a walk. It's my job. I walk dogs for folks who can't walk their dog, for whatever reason.
I picked up the dog like usual and we went for a little late-night stroll. We walked around his cul-de-sac. I was marveling at the trees in his block. They were amazing and so beautiful! I felt like I had never seen trees before!! I couldn't stop staring at these trees.
Now, I am a tree planter. I have had the privilege of planting trees all over Washington, DC with a fine organization called Casey Trees. www.caseytrees.org
The first tree I got to plant was by the ape enclosure area at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC. The group I planted that tree with decided we would name it "Jane," after Jane Goodall. I visit that tree every time I visit the zoo. I love trees.
But I felt as if I had never seen a tree before this night, walking this dog. They were truly magical. The dog was so patient with me as I marveled at all the beauty surrounding us. He and I have spent countless afternoons and evenings standing next to those same trees, and yet I acted as if I had never seen them before. It really was quite astonishing.
I feel like this blog post is also getting to be too long, so I will need to go to Part 4 with this topic. I haven't even mentioned at all what it was like to enter my own house and look around, with this newfound 3D eyesight.
See you all next week. Stay home. Stay safe. Wear a mask - cotton + flannel. Wear gloves. Wash them as if they were your hands. Wash your hands too.
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