I tried to do today’s prompt, and even chose one person to mention, but then I couldn’t go on.  When I went through the list of incredible blogs I read every day, I just couldn’t pick three and leave out the rest, so instead, I am going to tell you about my pretty exhausting day.   Later, I will post my long list of admirable blogs along with the mention of one new blog I think you should read.                        

                       Eye, Eye, Eye, Eye!!!

Two days ago I noticed that one of the lenses of my favorite pair of prescription reading glasses was missing. They are an especially beautiful shade of green—something I have found to be rare in glasses—and a good shape on me, to boot. I looked everywhere for that lens, with no luck.

“I’ll have to take special care of my only other pair of reading glasses,” I thought, as I woke up and put them on to peruse the blogging world. I had them on at the dining room table a few hours later during Oscar’s English lessons and half way through the lesson, Yolanda appeared with my lens to my other pair of glasses, which she had found under my bed! I was overjoyed and put it in the case with my “one-eyed” pair of glasses.

Oscar was finished so we went out to play fetch with Morrie. I’m hoping Oscar and his big brother will come play with Morrie while I’m gone, so was trying to make sure they would bond before I left. When I grew dizzy watching the toy soar out to be brought back by Morrie, I realized I still had my other reading glasses on, so I took them off and held them in my hand. One thing led to another and I soon started seeing dead palm fronds, candy wrappers the workmen had left, and other detritus on the ground. I put the non-organic trash aside to take up to the house on my return trip, but collected the other in my hand, taking it up to the gazebo to throw over the fence into the jungle of my “empty” lot next door. Although I’m on a hill so the ground of the next lot is from twelve to twenty feet below me, the castor beans have grown up taller than the wall and obscure the view from where I stand. I tell myself again that I need to find someone to clear the lot, then go up to the yard and return with another two handfuls of dry plant matter to throw over the wall before I give up and go back to the house.

As Oscar prepares to leave with his mother, I want to check once more that I’ve given him the entire assignment that will keep him busy for the three weeks until my return. It is then that I realize I don’t have my reading glasses! They are not on the table, desk, in the kitchen or bedroom or bathroom or on the porch. I then remember taking them off and holding them in my hand when we were throwing the fetch toy for Morrie. I check the terrace table, the gazebo, the bodega, the bodoga and every outside surface. Then I remember collecting the dead plants in both hands and throwing them over the wall, and I have a sinking feeling that I know where my “extra” pair of prescription glasses are!!!

There is no hope. The spare lot is a huge one with dense undergrowth and castor bean plants too thick and close together for navigation. There is zero chance I would find my glasses. I check my kitchen clock. An hour and a half before I have an appointment with Eduardo to give me an estimate on painting and concrete work. I jump into the car in my pajamas that look just like clothing––sans makeup or combed hair—and take off for my eye doctor who is blessedly open, since he splits his time between Ajijic, 6 km. away, and Guadalajara—a good hour away. I find two pairs of frames I can stand, have the assistant put the lens back in my green glasses, ask the two women in the waiting room to advise me on which frames I should buy, and order the glasses. They will be ready on January 4, when the office reopens after Xmas. I pay my deposit and drive back home, hoping I can keep the green glasses––and their lenses––intact and in sight for the three weeks until then.

I get home at 2 and Eduardo shows up soon after. We spend a good three hours discussing pool steps, the little terraza that needs to be built down around the gazebo to keep me from tripping over buried pipes and tree roots that jut up from the ground around where I have to go to turn off the irrigation system, the paint and salitre repairs and pool repairs. I explain to him that I need estimates and that my present contractor Chino will also be giving estimates. It is hot and I get dizzy in the heat, so pull down the blue canvas “wall” in front of the terrace. It is then that I hear the doorbell. I’ve been with people all day, and groan as I go to once again herd all the dogs into the back yard, secure the gates and go to see who it is. It is Chino, with the iron gate man! I usher them back to the backyard and introduce them to Eduardo, who comes out from behind the blue canvas “wall.” Chino looks questioningly at me and then I see the cans of paint we’ve pulled from the new cabinet to try to figure out paint colors. I feel like a wife caught in the act—with a different contractor!!

We retreat back to our seclusion in the shaded patio, which now feels almost secretive—as though we are trying to hide something. Chino leaves, letting the dogs back into the front of the house as he opens the gate.   I offer to give Eduardo a ride down to town, thinking finally I’ll have a bit of time to myself! It is 5:30 and I’ve been rushing around, seeing one person after another all day. I haven’t even finished the Daily Prompt!!! I go into the house to have my first private moment alone in the bathroom before getting in the car to drive Eduardo down to town, and then . . . the doorbell rings again! I cannot answer at the moment and pray that perhaps they’ll give up and go away, but no, the doorbell rings again. Then, a long pause, and it rings again.

When I am able to answer it, the dogs flock around me, barking. “Who is it?” I shout over the wall. I never unlock the door without asking.

“Luis!” someone calls back to me. I have an artist friend named Luis. Plus two plumbers, one electrician and various other acquaintances. I decide it is plumber Luis, who loaned me his propane tank and to whom I’ve been wanting to talk.   I tell him to wait while I put the dogs away, do so with some difficulty, having to close two gates behind them and secure a doggie reward along the way. I unlock the gate to find, not Luis Plumber but Luis, Pasiano’s son, five-month-old baby and wife I’ve never met. They’ve trudged up the long hill to show me the baby. I’d delivered a present to Luis a few months before at his workplace—selling rugs along the careterra––and he’d said they’d bring the baby to see me. We stand. I hold the baby. The wife is hot so I turn on the fan. I don’t think to offer them a cool drink, not realizing at this point that they haven’t driven. I am thinking only that I’ve promised Eduardo a ride down the hill and that I’m dying for some time to finish my blog and be on my own without people.

I’ve been with people since 8 a.m. this morning with no space. I am dizzy with fatigue and the hot afternoon sun. I don’t even ask them to sit down! We talk for a while and I then ask where they are going next. They say to his father’s and I ask if they want a ride there. But, when we arrive, I can tell Pasiano is not there. I tell Luis he’d better check and when he does it verifies what I’d guessed. Do they want to come back to my house or to visit his mother in San Juan, I ask? I’m taking Eduardo there and then we can go visit his mother and I’ll drive them back to where they can catch the bus; but they say no, to leave them off at the bus stop. Eduardo asks if I want to see his studio. I do not! I leave him off and go to Ajijic to pay my phone bill, since we have discovered my cell phone has been cut off. By now it is 6:30 and I am desperate to be home alone swimming or blogging or doing anything but driving, making decisions or talking to other people!!!

As I get out of the car, I realize the sun has gone down and with it the temperature. It is actually chilly outside. Luckily, I’ve brought my suede jacket which I put on. I go into Oxxo to pay my phone bill, grab a Coke, and go back to the car. As I do, I absently stuff the phone bill and receipt into my coat pocket, but meet with some resistance. I reach in and draw out . . . my spare pair of glasses! I then remember that I had put my jacket on when we first went out to play with the dog.

I must have put my glasses in the pocket, then taken the jacket off as soon as I got back in the house and so when it came time to look for my glasses, it had totally slipped my mind that I had had pockets to slip the glasses into after all! I turn the car on and drive home cushioned by the security that even though I’m slightly more worried about the state of my memory than I was this morning, at least I have the cushion of three pairs of reading glasses I’ll have to lose before going into a tizzy the next time!!!

                              Luis, Hernando and Alejandra. Happy family.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/press-it/