I started off this morning with deep angst. That ‘Oh god we made the wrong decision’ angst. What if… what if that offer yesterday was the only offer we were going to get? What if no one else would want our quirky and interesting house. What if they’d all be scared of the reclaimed wood deck, the bare brick, the fireplace in the kitchen?
My brain was a weeny bit stressed.
I watched Leverage and tried to wind down a little. Showered. Got myself ready for the day’s errands. See, today was new glasses day, but before I headed to the optician I’d scheduled a trip to the tip to dispose of something.
On Monday, that is, yesterday, we peered out of the front of our house to discover a first. Our normally very nice and tidy street had been the site of some dumping. A wheel, sporting a nearly bare tyre sat, looking god-awful on the pavement opposite our house. We grumbled about it and debated taking it to the tip, or disposing of it by some means or other… Perhaps it could be hodged into the bin. Although then there was guilt about land-filling something at least slightly recyclable.
Then we got a call; could they show the house again. So having tidied, and as we headed out the door, I hurled the wheel-and-tyre into the back of the Prius. Today then, I planned to take it to the tip (metal recycling, ra. The tyre, lord knows what’ll happen to it, but it’s better’n just land-fill for the whole thing). But as I was preparing to head out the door, the phone rang.
…the estate agents had a better offer. From the couple that saw it yesterday. The relief was immense (albeit now replaced by a new bit of stress. I’ve got a queue of stressful things and it seems when each one is felled the next hops in its place). We have, obviously, accepted. Then I did all the ansy getting quotes and arranging a solicitor… the sort of thing that one should probably do before you put your house on the market. Of course, in England a house isn’t sold until you’ve handed over the keys, really. So anything could go wrong in the next six or so weeks, and that’d be a massive nightmare-headache. Or we could not get a visa and that will cause everyone else a massive headache (and us). But at the moment, it’s looking optimistic. So, that stuff all in-progress, then I headed out to the tip.
Tip done, thankfully without incident (I was a bit worried they’d be upset at me turning up with a van wheel), I headed to Staples, where the day continued to randomly improve. I was there to copy stuff for the visa appointment, and thought while I was there I’d get some labels for our boxes. These are not contents labels, but instead ‘If undelivered, please contact:’ labels. I hear worrying things about boxes going walkies, and although that’s mainly related to shared containers, I’d rather play safe.
In Staples I stared at the piles and piles of laser-printable stickers and cursed the fact they were all £17 and then noticed, in the corner, red ones that were, curiously, only £6. I looked around wondering if there were others hiding in the range, but no, that size and style was £6 and that was it. I triple checked the part number and description. It was definitely the case. Took it to the till, and up it came £16.99. Staples did their job properly though, the guy checked the shelf-edge label, then removed it. Brought it to the till and charged me only £6. I should’ve bought a big stack of ’em…
…and then I got my new glasses. Normally getting glasses is a moderately agonising event for me, my eyes painful and complaining for the entire day after I get them. Today though, they’ve been pretty much pain free. I’ve got a bit of discomfort but that’s probably because, for the first time ever the glasses are correcting my Strabismus (or squint). I never knew I had one, and it’s pretty subtle. In fact, up until now my eyes have managed to correct themselves, but I’d noticed a weird thing when I got very tired, which was that it felt like I was looking at one of those green/blue stereo images without the 3D glasses on.
If I concentrated, everything would snap back, unless I got really, really tired (only happened once at work). But if I didn’t then I’d struggle to read, write… it only really seemed to happen to close up stuff. Whilst at the optician I described this for the n’th sight-test running. And then suddenly twigged. Despite not being two properly separate images, it actually was a degree of double vision. He checked, and lo, yes, I have strabismus. A tiny amount, enough that my muscles when not tired were able to correct it, but clearly as I get tired (or older, or both) they’re not able to.
So my new glasses are exactly the same prescription, but with a slight prism. And so hopefully, that problem will be solved. Of course, being that the lenses aren’t scratched and dirty, and that they’re shiny new, I do feel like I have superhuman vision… so if you need anything seen at great distance today’s the day…
…and that’s my update. Thank you to everyone who crossed everything, it seems to have worked… Which means that in 6 weeks or so, we could be moving.
