First of all, when we were in West Virginia, I put down my glasses (which are just readers, available at all sorts of stores). Someplace. On some table at some restaurant. Some shelf in a gift shop. Some counter at some museum. When I searched for them to be able to read something, they were nowhere to be found. My cousin said she had a pair of readers that were 2.50 that I could borrow. I used them the next day and they were just right. When we stopped to get gas that afternoon, I went inside the store that big gas stations have these days, and, sure enough, located a rack of glasses. I found a pair of 2.50’s and bought them. They were perfect. That was about two weeks ago.

Today, they broke. I guess that $9.95 is not quite enough to pay for a pair of reading glasses that one expects to last for any length of time.

So, this evening, I’m struggling along with a pair of real, prescription glasses that I got several years ago. They are bi-focals, and I really, really tried hard for several weeks. I just could not get the hang of them; whenever I looked toward the ground, to go down stairs or step off a curb, or up a curb,  things were out of focus. I finally gave up and went back to the “readers.” I will say, though, that when you purchase your reading glasses at the dollar store, you are getting your money’s worth. Or, apparently, at the gas station, also.

This evening, then, to be able to see somewhat, I rustled up the old prescription glasses and that’s what I have on now. I also have a headache.

That’s just an explanation in case there are typos and bad punctuation, I am trying to hurry through this.

Remotes–

I’m talking about cars. When David’s car refused to leave the driveway, due to extreme old age, a few years ago, he got a new car. A new-to-us pre-owned car, that was only a year or so old. It’s a nice car with heated seats and electric seat controls (up/down, back/forth, reclining/upright). He drove it all the time, unless I was going to Fort Worth to get Peter, since I lobbied for the idea that the newer car should be the one on the highway. And, as soon as we got to town, he would move the car seat over to my car.

Until summer. I lobbied then for using his car for Peter’s and my adventures around town, particularly the zoo. We got a Grandparent Pass for the zoo, which opens up at 9:00 a.m. I said I needed his car for trips to the zoo because I could start the car remotely. One of the best features of a remote start is that, whatever climate control you’ve had the car set at, that’s what will come on when the car’s started. In August, it’s pretty warm, but not horrid until noonish or so. Peter and I would arrive at the zoo parking lot at 10 minutes or so before 9:00, in the hopes that we could get one of the very few parking spaces with some shade. We’d park, get out the stroller (Peter was two, and still content to ride through the zoo), get sun-screened, and be rolling up to the zoo entrance at 9:00. We’d be back at the little cafe at the zoo entrance at 11:00 or so, have a grilled cheese sandwich, and leave.

“If we’re in your car,” I said to David, “then I can start it remotely right when we leave. By time we get to the car, it won’t be really cool, but it won’t be so scorching hot.” (Even if there was shade when we got there, in those intervening hours, most of the shade had moved on.)

It was a hard argument to refute, so I got to drive Peter around in the “good” car. After we got that car paid off, we got another new car for me to drive. It’s not quite as nice (I have to move my seat manually) and it’s smaller. But, it was a brand-new car. With a remote start feature.

I find that really helpful. I can start the car and have it be at least a little bit cool (or warm) when I get to it. But, more importantly, I can find the car. It’s white (actually pearl), and looks very much like every other white/pearl car in the parking lots of the grocery store, the drug store, Target, Wal-Mart. I do know the letters on the license plate, which also helps. The problem, sometimes, is that I have driven up and down several rows at some of these places, looking for a nice, empty spot for the car. So, by time I shop for an hour or so, I’ve long forgotten exactly where I ended up parking the car.

Both car keys look exactly the same. I know which one is which by the *other* keys that are on each end, which does not at all keep me from sometimes using the wrong key/remote to start/open a car.

I have, on more than one occasion, walked confidently up to a white/pearl car, pointed my remote and punched, and the car did not start. Of course, it might be that I’m punching the buttons on David’s key, instead of mine. Or, more likely, I’m pointing and punching at the wrong car. Hmmmm. After checking the license, or, really, just the car itself, for example, is there a car seat in the back of the car I’m punching at? No? Then, it’s not my  car, which does have a car seat in the back.

Once, in the Target parking lot, I aimed my key at a car, several spaces away from me, as I walked toward it. Off in the next row over, I heard a car start. And, yes indeed, that one was my car. It’s so helpful.

Although the exact date is in dispute, it is generally agreed upon that the first pair of corrective eyeglasses was invented in Italy sometime between 1268 and 1300. These were basically two reading stones (magnifying glasses) connected with a hinge balanced on the bridge of the nose. (Google)

Miraculous.