For The Record

Today, I had my first eye exam since 2013.

Today, I received my first prescription for eye glasses.

Today, I filled that prescription.

Today, I discovered how expensive glasses can be.

My eyes are very healthy; no signs of cataracts or glaucoma. I'm even marginal on requiring glasses, not bad for my mid-60's. I was on new ground and filled the prescription right away (probably should have waited to fill it at Costco, but I was so surprised that readers were no longer enough. So, bifocals, it is.) I will be reimbursed up to $150 by my BCBS Medicare Advantage PPO for vision wear. I'll still be out $445. I made a downpayment today.

Of course, I chose the most expensive frames just because I liked them best. Titanium ... in blue ... round ... I will look like Hairy Potter ... The glasses will be ready in two weeks.

Update: A Leap Year Anniversary! 40 years of Union Membership and counting!

I received the note below on 2/29/20:

Neil,
"Today, Mar 1, 2020, is your Equity anniversary! You applied to join the union on 2/29/1980, and we're so glad that you're with us today. Equity's leadership and staff are always hard at work to ensure that the union can do its job: protect you in the workplace, fight for arts funding, organize more work opportunities and so much more."

What a wonderful life getting to do what you love to do! Thank you Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tommy Tune for the size of my pension and thanks to director/choreographer Larry Fuller and other mentors for believing in me!

Family Trumps Politics (LJ Post minus the photos)

I’m back in Minneapolis after 10 days of sifting through memories of times gone by. Several boxes of odd items were donated to Goodwill in Kerrville, TX; one box is being mailed to me, the main item in it being a Pendelton wool blanket. Multiple boxes of photos, a few pieces of artwork and miscellaneous items were set aside for my brother, nephews, sister and niece and given to them. I drove the memorabilia for Colleen and Caitlin to Austin over the weekend. 300 books were sold to Half Price Books for a net gain of $32. (If you’re a fan of mysteries and thrillers, books don’t bring much in resale.)

About 1/3 of the contents of the Brenham storage unit Jeff emptied for me were items from my parents’ lives, added to the unit after their deaths in 2013. (I’d had the 10x20 climate-controlled unit since 2004. I figure I paid over $12K for its use.)

I failed in completely ridding myself of the theater scrapbooks from my National Tours, scrapbooks from trips to Egypt, Norway and Romania and about a dozen photo albums (I tossed 25+ photo albums after going through each one). Ten very organized boxes remain in Jeff’s shop.

I put eyes on every item, going through thousands of photos which had been stored for a dozen years. It was 8 hour- days of reliving old friendships, mourning friends and family now gone, making tough emotional decisions, but ultimately feeling gratitude for the opportunities I’ve experienced on the journey to my past and being free of the burden of junk.

Highlights of the trip included:

1. Taking my grand nephew and grand niece to their first movie. (Sonic, the Hedgehog movie). They were angels.
2. Spending quality time with my brother and sister-in-law in their home, a pleasure.
3. Discovering papers such as the 1972 letter to me from the Selective Service. (I had a low draft number.); the results of my SAT test; a confirmation letter from Senator John Tower of my appointment to The Air Force Academy (I didn’t go.); my invitation to join “Up With People”. (I didn’t join.) and the only letter I ever received from my brother announcing the birthday of my nephew Buddy in 1983. (I was living in a sublet on the Upper West Side in New York City.)

I was without a computer for 10 days ; phone service was slow and sketchy, so the trip became about decompressing. Jeff doesn’t have WiFi at his house which sits on 120 acres, 31 miles West of Fredericksburg, TX. You go from an interstate, to a state road, then a county road and then private dirt road, crossing three cattle guards. I was able to escape all of the continual political news that keeps my stomach churning. I've never seen so many deer.

It’s back to the real world this morning - picking up Georgie from my friend Steve’s house, straightening out a banking mess that occurred while I was in Texas, going to the eye doctor on Friday and working the front desk this weekend in my apartment building.

Surprisingly, weather here in Minneapolis is pretty much the same as Kerrville, TX, at least for a brief time. Thanks to Steve Backoff for taking care of Georgie while I was gone; to Jason Bryan for offering me a ride home from the airport and to my family for their hospitality and love. I was fully reminded of one fact ... My love for my family is much stronger than my disdain for the occupant of The White House. Family trumps Politics ... Trump will die, but love for my family will endure.