Day 12

I went to see the retina specialist today. Fortunately, I have run-of-the-mill senile retinoschisis (tearing of the retina that comes with age). They're going to measure it again in six months, and then annually afterwards to make sure there's no worse damage. Even though it is called "senile" retinoschisis, I was the youngest person in the waiting room by like 40 years. And we piled up in there because the doctor was over an hour late this morning. He was kind of special. He said, I should only worry if I start seeing fireworks in that eye, "but at least you have a retina specialist now." I felt like saying, well, buster, you were an hour late and I have choices about where they poke and prod my eyeballs. (But I probably won't go somewhere else because they'd have to do the baseline all over again. And I did not like having my eyeballs prodded.)

While I was waiting, I was stitching. This old lady says to me, "Well, that's a good sign, you sitting here doing that." And she's right. I can see; I've got to keep it all in perspective. Later, after my eyes were dilated, and I couldn't see to stitch, I was reading the new JCS Ornament Issue (full report soon). She says to me, "you can find that stuff" in the little shop in her "home" where they sell dead people's things*. (She didn't actually say dead people. She said, "where they sell things after people " and she acted out dying.) Anyway, she continued, "you can get ornaments like that for twenty cents." My heart felt a little stab. She made sure to tell me they clean everything with Lysol so you're not getting their germs. I'm pretty sure that I'm not dying from what they're dying from for 50 years or so, you know? She kept going, "There's also Waterford and antique furniture...not just junk" she says waving her hand in the direction of my magazine. The old people certainly can turn a phrase...and one that makes you feel extra special for doing needlework. 

There were a couple of older nuns in too. The younger one asked if I was working on Hardanger fabric, and when I told her it was 35 count, she told me it didn't look that small. She said she had a basket of needlework in her closet. She thinks she'll start carrying it around. Really? I thought stitchers just automatically carried it around. Anyway, she had brought a book but wouldn't read while the older sister was sitting there even though she had encouraged it. They sat together in silence. Yeah, definitely bring the needlework next time, Sister.

Today's post is illustrated by Liz Turner Diehl's Sixteenth Century English Knot Garden, stitched on a random khaki evenweave with the Madeira threads and Glissen Gloss I bought in 19dickety2. There's a lot of confetti stitching in these outer borders...

*White Horse Village's "The Stall." Open Thursdays 9-1.