Old As Fuh

 So two and a half years ago, as I was driving at night, I kept thinking the dome light of my car was on, but it wasn't. Wifey strongly suggested I see her retina man, Dr. Schimel, and I went. Her suggestion may have saved my sight -- sure enough, I had a retinal tear which was causing "flashers." Dr. S zapped my eye with a laser, and I was good to go. After a 6 month follow up, I see him yearly, to make sure all is well. And the visit was this am.

Dr. S's senior guy is a fellow named Lopez, a scary smart Cuban guy who was a year ahead of us in college. After Columbus High, he went to Harvard, then back to UM for med school, and then back to Harvard for an internship. Eric knows him well -- from med school and the Harvard training -- and said he's a great guy.

Today, as the tech was checking my eyes with the cool blue light contraption, I remarked about how smart these eye docs were. The tech mentioned that indeed they were, but that Dr. Lopez now only did injections -- he left the retinal surgeries to Dr. S. I asked why, and the tech said "Well -- he IS getting up there." Dr. L is a year older than I.

I saw Dr. S and he said the repair was great. I mentioned that my right eye took longer to get into night vision mode than the left. Sure enough -- I have the beginnings of a cataract there -- no surgery for years, but it'll be coming. Of course it is -- I'm old as fuh.

Dr. S had his family photos -- he has young kids and his beautiful wife is expecting number 3 in November. I showed him photos of my beautiful grandson -- his son is just a bit older. Dr. S is brilliant and nice, and appreciated when I motioned to the photo of his wife and noticed he had clearly "outkicked his coverage," as the saying goes. He agreed he had.

I left -- happy that all was well. Sure enough, the waiting room was filled with folks mostly older than I. Retinal stuff is generally a problem for the older -- although my brother Norman started messing with it years ago. Unfortunately -- he needed surgery, where he did well, and I got to spend hours waiting for him with his wonderful Dad Max -- talking about life with that delightful and sage man. Max turns 94 next month, and is in terrific shape -- a very fortunate outlier in this aging business. He's a blessing to his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids.

Speaking of Norman -- I met him and his boy Michael for breakfast yesterday. As I waited -- I heard my name called -- Mike and his boy Chris were at the next table. We ended up having a lovely time -- celebrating Chris's closing on his first house, and Michael's return to Israel.

Afterwards, I joked that this breakfast was cheaper than the last -- where I bashed a nice lady's car. I spoke too soon. As I was getting into my car, I looked to see someone had nailed ME -- in the same spot on my bumper! It left a nice streak of yellow paint!

It wasn't too bad -- a touch of "Dent Doctor" got out most of it -- and I'm sure it won't be the last damage of the car's tenure. I'll probably end up buying it at the end of the lease -- I paid for 30K miles and will likely have half that amount at the end of the 3 years.

So -- all in all -- not really much complaint. Just the decrepitude of aging -- comes when you're old as fuh.