The Eyes Have It--Or Not

I disappeared from this blog last September thinking it would be a short term hiatus to get through the beginning of school, but the year certainly hasn't gone the way I expected.  This is probably true for a lot of others as well.

I spent last summer feeling puzzled because my sight was blurry but the eye doctor said that my prescription should be correct and she couldn't figure out what was going on.  Fortunately she had me come back in October and then immediately sent me to a retina specialist.  I had laser surgery on a torn retina in the office at the end of November and then had a vitrectomy in early December.  They then had to do two very painful "clean-up procedures on my left eye.  At this point I have sight-inhibiting cataracts on both eyes, and I will be having those taken care of in July.

None of this has been easy, and working online for school has not been easy either.  We went through the whole year teaching virtually, which has been challenging and stressful in ways we could not have imagined a year and a half ago.   We also learned all sorts of wonderful new skills, and each of us learned coping mechanisms to get through.  

I was planning on working part-time at school this past year, and I was going to take advantage of some time to think about what I want to do next.  The pandemic and the eyes put me is a bit of a holding pattern, but I have learned that retiring from formal teaching is the right thing for me to do at this point.  Doug and I have had much more time in the same physical location than we have had in years, and this has given us time to think about the timing and priorities of the next few years.  

So, I am back--as long as my eyes cooperate.