Baseball, Softball and Eye Surgery #3

We came to College Station Tx primarily for me to have eye surgery number three. As you may remember I had my first surgery to my left eye to repair a torn retina. My second surgery on the same eye was a vitrectomy to “fix” my floaters issue in that eye. Well a third surgery was needed because the previous surgery accelerated the development of a problematic cataract.

When surgery day finally arrived Sharon took me to the out patient hospital. She masked up as required and patiently waited for my surgery to end. An hour or so of surgery and I was done. I opted to get a “distant package” lens in my left eye and planned to get the right eye done a year or so later.

This package basically sets one eye to see clearly close and the other (your dominant eye) to see far away. Since my left eye was not my dominant one they set it for close vision. A few days after my surgery I wasn’t overly fond of the eye having only clear near vision now and not any away vision. As a result I went ahead and scheduled eye surgery number four for my right eye to complete the distance vision package.

Since my old glasses were still useful in the interim we took full advantage while waiting for surgery by going to a couple of baseball games to watch the Texas A&M University Aggies take on a couple of non-conference teams. We are happy to report that not only did we have a blast watching the games but our fightin’ Texas Aggies won both games.

Being equal opportunity supporters we also went to watch a softball game at the new softball field. The women weren’t doing as well as the men in conference play but we still wanted to watch them play the first place (in the SEC) Arkansas Razorbacks. Although the lady Aggies were in last place somehow they managed to pull off upset walk off win in extra innings over the Lady Razorbacks! What fun!!!

We still have a lot of time to kill until my next eye surgery. Also, as a result of needing this surgery, we extended our stay here in College Station one more month until June 10th. This became necessary in order for me to make the many follow-up appointments post-surgery. Ahhhh, but such is our life on the Road of Retirement!

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 10th

Seeing lots of friends and wildflowers in town

Another huge reason we like to come back to our former hometown is to revisit friends.. I failed to mention earlier we arrived in town Easter weekend which we knew would be our first opportunity to see friends. Our friend Cheryl historically has held a large Easter gathering at her and her husband Preston’s place in the country. Their homeplace is just little way outside town and has plenty of space for a shindig of this size.

With Covid worrying everyone around the world these past couple of years Cheryl hasn’t had a Easter gathering. However, one of our friends told us she was definitely hosting the Easter party the weekend we arrived in town. We contacted her to let her know we were in town and wanted to attend if it was okay with her.

As according to tradition this would be a large pot-luck dinner so Sharon whipped up a great dessert to bring to the party. We’ve been gone a long time but we have generally made this party each time we pass through Texas since we usually plan our trips to Texas in the Spring.

It was great seeing lots of friends we haven’t visited with for a good while. It was also a treat to see all the kids, parents and grandparents having a great time together on a beautiful day under the oak trees.There were lots of children at this event and it always amazes us how fast they grow in a year or two.

The Easter dinner was a feast with more food than a 100 plus people could eat. Another tradition is that before dinner everyone gathers in a large circle for a pre-dinner prayer. However, before the prayer a count of guests is made by having each person count off starting with one and going all the way around the circle back to the first person.

After the count Cheryl announced that this was a record crowd of just under 100 people. It certainly was a good thing all the food was there and I can assure you everyone had all they could eat. After dinner the kids and the adults participated in the annual games such as egg toss, kite flying and cornhole. It sure was loads of fun seeing everyone and enjoying some great food as well…

Besides the Easter shindig we have also been enjoying the wildflowers which dominate the landscape here every Spring. One place we like to see wildflowers is the disc golf course at the Research Park near Texas A&M University. It has a nice course we like to play and while playing we take breaks to admire and occasionally photograph the wildflowers,   We know from experience that Spring will soon give way to heat and humidity so we are savoring the season while we can.               

NOTE: We are now in College Station, TX until June 11th