Friday, July 10, 2020

I will be laboring (British, labouring) under a handicap for the next couple of weeks (British, fortnight)

More about that below.

First, though, I want to add an addendum (what else would you do with an addendum?) to my previous post about phonetic alphabets. I really don't have a single set of words that I use. They're different every time. I just pick one on the fly as the need arises. One day I might say P as in pusillanimous and the next day I might say P as in pteradactyl. On Tuesday I might say B as in bituminous and on Thursday I might say B as in Bunsen burner. I might say E as in embarrassing in June and E as in ectoplasm in July

I am nothing if not inconsistent.

I am unpredictable, not satisfied with a single answer, mercurial (M as in marsupial, E as in edamame, R as in rhododendron,....)

But getting back to the mystery expressed in the title of this post, I am getting a new pair of glasses with a stronger prescription and I decided to have the lenses put into my existing frames, which cost a bundle and are downright excellent. They will be ready in "about 10 business days" according to the optician. Until then, I can't see very well, which puts a cramp in my blogging and replying to comments because Apple is wholly inadequate to the task. What I mean by that is this: I cannot create a post or reply to comments using my wonderful and expensive iPhone11, and no, I don't know why. I have to be at my desktop computer, as I am at this moment, to create a post or reply to your comments.

Normally, this would not be a problem (except that it takes me away from the room where Mrs. RWP usually is), but without glasses I must hunch over to be very close to the screen and will get a crick in my neck if I do it for very long. Hence, this is my notice to the world of my possible impending absence temporarily. I know the world is devastated at the thought.

A prescription for new eyeglasses is a marvelous thing. Mine says on the first line "O.D. Sphere -8.25, Cyl. +2.25, Axis 155°" and on the seond line it says "O.S. Sphere -9.25, Cyl. +1.25, Axis 180°". Someone who can interpret this strange language will magically produce a new set of lenses and return them to me in my beloved frames. At that point, I expect that God will be in His heaven and all will be right with the world except if Antifa and the Marxists behind BLM have anything to say about it. Until then, I am, as they used to say in the military, SOL (the clean version of which is simply out of luck).

Your trivia fact for today is downright educational. The O.D. and O.S. in my prescription from the ophthalmologist are easily explained. O.D. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ocula dexter (which means right eye) and O.S. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase ocula sinister (which means left eye).

You're welcome.

I'll be back in a jif. In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.

10 comments:

  1. Hello. I am commenting boldly to help you read this.

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  2. Good luck with your new glasses. I need new ones too. I gave you a list of words but I must be honest and admit that I use the first word that comes to mind when I need to make clear what letter I am trying to convey.

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  3. Hope you get your new glasses back in a jif.
    Thanks for letting us know as I might have gotten a little concerned if you didn't post for a few weeks.

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  4. I hope your new script is filled promptly and is all you could hope for.

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  5. You are a smart man to keep your frames if you like them because I understand how the cost of good frames can be quite high! Be careful while you are going around without your glasses - you don't want to fall off any mountains or anything like that! Thank you for telling us you will be gone because we would otherwise be worried about you.

    You said we can "talk amongst ourselves" - alright! You know that means while the cats away the mice will play!


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  6. Can't believe they leave you fro 10 days without glasses.

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  7. My internet dropped and I have no idea if you will have got the comment I just wrote!
    Patience is a virtue so I suppose you will be becoming (more) virtuous.
    I just got a new pair of glasses and for once they were not the very cheapest but they fall off my face and I revert to the $39 pair I had last time. It's vaguely disappointing

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  8. Good luck. Not that you'll probably read this for 10 days when you'll no longer need the luck (I sincerely hope). But it will have been hanging there in the thought ether anyway. And you know me well enough to know that I'd have sent it when I read your post anyway. There you are. Two sentences on the run starting with a conjunction.

    I'm not sure whether you are saying that your iPhone is not up to the job because of size or some other reason. I have no problem using my iPhone for blogging when I'm in hospital but it is, of course, a complete faff trying to write a post because of the size of the screen (and mine is an SX Max). I can read and comment okay though. The problem I found was was setting it up with the correct Google account in the first place.

    When I eventually managed to attend the debates at Uni (after I'd graduated) I always recall a famous QC who gave an entire speech in Latin. I understood relatively little of it (how I wished I'd been like my Mother - she thought grammar in Latin) but even to this day I remember him marching up and down saying "Sinister, Dexter,......) until he collapsed into his chair and went into a drunken sleep.

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  9. You write better half blind than most with full sight and that is a fact. I too have eyesight issues and they fluctuate so I know all about the frustrations involved when you can't see as well as usual, and much in the way of squinting goes on at times, but as it fluctuates no glasses will help. You're as sharp as a pin sir!

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    Replies
    1. Michelle, you're too kind. Two compliments in one comment! My Dad used to say, "I see, said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw."

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...