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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
Part of today’s post is also a writing challenge. This is how it works: one of the contributing bloggers picked a number between 12 and 74. The submitted number is a challenge to participating bloggers to write at least one piece using that exact number of words.
This month, the word count number is: 22
It was submitted by: Karen at Baking In A Tornado
At the end of this segment you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them out!
Mention has been made by a couple of people in the comments about Sweetie's visual field test and his retinopathy of prematurity.
Sweetie and Brother-in-Law are identical twins, born two months premature in 1953. Their mother smoked, back when nobody knew better.
Together they weighed about 5 pounds; they've been told they were each about the size of a half a loaf of bread.
Doctors then put babies in incubators with oxygen turned up all the way, not knowing it could create film on the retinas.
By the time they went home from the hospital, they were blind; no pupil response to light, no following lights at all.
Their adoptive parents prayed over them, begging The Lord for a miracle. When the boys were 6 months old, they got it.
The doctor was waving his penlight in front of their faces, telling their parents, I'm sorry, nothing we can do for them.
Suddenly, both of them responded, their eyes began following the light at the exact same moment. The doctor yelled, dropping his penlight.
During their growing up years, they wore "coke-bottle" thick glasses and sat three feet from the TV to see it better.
Sweetie suffered a retinal detachment in his right eye playing football in high school. He ran track, but no more contact sports.
Doctors in Nashville were doing a new experiment, a freeze cryogenic surgery, to reattach retinas. He spent two weeks in the hospital.
It didn't work, but doctors love making students look at his retina and try to guess what they are seeing. They can't!
Because of laser treatments to preserve their retinas over the years, they both had to have their cataracts removed in their 40s.
They've been blessed; most children with ROP as severe as theirs was never see at all, much less have near normal vision.
Before cataract surgery, they were both very nearsighted. The corrective implants mean they are a bit more farsighted now. Still clumsy, though!
The fact that they can drive, and Sweetie can enjoy target shooting (he's rated sharpshooter) is astounding. They've had relatively normal lives.
Being blind in one eye does cause Sweetie trouble on occasion. The blind eye can "float", pointing where he is not looking.
That happened once when he was in the choir loft. His good eye on the preacher, his other drifted toward the congregation.
A lady out there was convinced he was staring at her; her husband confronted him about "ogling my wife from the choir"!
Eventually they all had a laugh about it, but boy were they embarrassed when he first explained what was really going on.
Both of them see a retinal specialist regularly to make sure to catch any possible bucklings or tears early enough to correct.
Amazingly, Sweetie's one eye is 20/20 and his glasses prescription has not changed in 7 years. Brother-in-Law is 20/20 - 20/40.
And there you have it, 22 sentences of 22 words each, and now my brain has a cramp from counting!
Links to the other Word Counters posts:
Carl had another day off work yesterday. He had applied for vacation time for September at the beginning of the year when the whole extended family were still planning their usual California gatherings. When all of that got called off for Covid19, Ms. V told him to take the vacation time anyway and enjoy it, and he has.
He had agreed to get up by 8am so i could come work with him, but when i got there, he was still lounging in his recliner, muttering about needing more sleep. He dozed for half an hour while i gathered laundry, then i shooed him into the shower so he could eat after and i could clean the bathroom.
He fixed himself cereal for breakfast, then toast, then oatmeal, and then decided he wasn't going to stay to help me, he was going to Jazzercise. He really loves to bust a move.
He came back from Jazzercise with an order of pancakes from Cracker Barrel, and i asked him if he was a hobbit, having second breakfast. He looked at me like i'd lost my marbles.
He was still eating when i left the house, pouring a different flavor of syrup on each bite. As Ms. V says, it's a good thing he has a job and it's physical labor because he loves to eat so much he'd be as big as a house.
Now for a few things Grandma forwards to me:
Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!
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Today is:
Battle of Britain Day -- UK
Dia de Nuestra Senora de la Bien Aparecida -- Santander, Spain
Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 5, Health (sponsored by We, the World)
Engineer's Day -- India
Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa) related observance
Grito de Dolores -- Mexico (Cry of Dolores,a/k/a Father Hidalgo's Cry for Freedom Day, the evening before Independence Day)
Virgin Mary of the Seven Sorrows Day -- Slovakia
Felt Hat Day (Traditional day upon which men started to wear their winter felt hats, similar to women beginning to wear white shoes on Memorial Day)
Get Ready Day -- US (help your community, workplace, or school to get ready for disasters or emergencies)
Independence Day -- Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua (all in 1821)
International Day of Democracy -- UN
Make a Hat Day -- just for fun (and if you are a guy, make a felt hat)
National Creme de Menthe Day
National Hispanic Heritage Month -- US, through Oct. 15
National Linguine Day
Opening of Parliament -- Netherlands (holiday in The Hague)related observance
Prinsjesdag -- Netherlands (technically translates "Prince's Day;" the day Parliament opens and the reigning sovereign, now King William-Alexander, gives the Speech from the Throne and the Minister of Finance proposes next year's budget)
Really Bad Ideas Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins celebration)
Restoration of Primorska to the Motherland Day -- Slovenia
Silpa Bhirasri Day -- Thailand
St. Catherine of Genoa's Day (Patron of brides, childless people, people in difficult marriages, people ridiculed for their piety, victims of adultery and unfaithfulness, widows; against adultery and temptation)
Anniversaries Today:
Greenpeace is founded, 1971
Birthdays Today:
Heidi Montag, 1986
Prince Harry, 1984
Dave Annable, 1979
Josh Charles, 1971
Dan Marino, Jr., 1961
Tommy Lee Jones, 1946
Oliver Stone, 1946
Carmen Maura, 1945
Jessye Norman, 1945
Merlin Olsen, 1940
Gaylord Jackson Perry, 1938
Norm Crosby, 1927
Jackie Cooper, 1922
Fay Wray, 1907
Roy Acuff, 1903
Agatha Christie, 1890
Robert Benchley, 1889
William H. Taft, 1857
James Fenimore Cooper, 1789
François de La Rochefoucauld, 1613
Marco Polo, 1254
Debuting/Premiering Today:
USA Today(Newspaper first issue), 1982
"CHIPs"(TV), 1977
"Columbo"(TV), 1971
"I Spy"(TV), 1965
"Lost in Space"(TV), 1965
"Bachelor Father"(TV), 1957
"The Lone Ranger"(TV), 1949
Today in History:
The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy, 1616
The French army under Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow, 1812
The first Negro National Convention begins in Philadelphia, 1830
The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time in New Jersey on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, 1831*
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands, 1835
Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell becomes the first woman in the US to be ordained a minister (Congregationalist), 1853
Timothy Alder patents the typesetting machine, 1857
RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube, 1947
United Nations gives Eritrea to Ethiopia, 1952
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
*The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C., 1981
Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations, 1981
Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, 2008
In Australia, "Indeterminate" can now be listed on a passport as a gender, 2011
A previously unknown species of bottlenose dolphin is found by Australian researchers, and named Tursiops australis, 2011
Japan switches off its last working nuclear reactor, 2013
Archaeologists document their find of the oldest-known brewery and the remains of 13,000-year-old beer in a cave in Haifa Israel, belonging to the nomadic Natufian people, 2018
Your twenty-two times twenty-two was amazing - and all the better for being true.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as always, thank Grandma from me please.
Rated Sharp-shooter! That really is amazing. Many can't do that well even with both eyes working.
ReplyDeleteIf I could find a Jazzercise class near me I'd sign up yesterday!
That is so interesting about your Sweetie and bro-in-law. My son is going thru some eye issues. Abrasions on his corneas. They have no idea what is causing it so it's eye drops and they put in these contact lens things, they call them visual band-aids because it covers the abrasions for healing. It's the strangest thing. I'm so happy everything turned out well for your Sweetie. That's a true miracle. - Love the pics Grandma sends. :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos, Mimi. Thanx.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Amazing story about Sweetie and his twin brother. Thank God for their sight. Great pictures from your Grandma.
ReplyDeleteThat was - and is - a true miracle. And I love Grany's funnies, especially the clothes-line one. Thanks for your lists.
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing about your sweetie and his twin. They are both so lucky to see what they do see! Love the photos too, some super funny ones there!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Mr. Sweetie was a twin and didn't know that happened back in the day in incubators. Yikes. Both are lucky to be able to see.
ReplyDeleteCarl is most entertaining. You seem to surround yourself with entertaining folks.
Love all the cool stuff your grand sends you.
Thank you for joining the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Happy Tuesday. Big hug. ♥
I had no idea your husband was a twin (my grandmother was an identical twin and my older son was sort of a twin for a short time). I'm shocked but so glad to hear that your husband can see, from that story I would have thought not.
ReplyDeleteThat really was an amazing story and hooray for sight! We enjoyed those amazing photos too.
ReplyDeleteMimi,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing story about Sweetie and his twin brother! I had to be put into an incubator when I was born because I was a premature but not by two months. I weighted a little over 5lbs which isn't too bad. The doctor did it because he was concerned about my lungs. I'm not sure why unless I had trouble breathing. My mom can't remember things well enough to tell me why but maybe she was just scared. Who knows. Your funnies really cracked me up, especially of the two guys not wearing safety glasses. lol
" I know I'm married. " Ha,ha,ha,. I will always always choose number " 13 " because July 13th was the day that I got married to Mary Lou and so far I've had 46 July 13th in our lovely life.
ReplyDeleteCruisin Paul
Glad to hear about the brothers being able to see well despite problems ~ Xox
ReplyDeleteAw fun jokes and beautiful photos from Grandma.
Live each moment with love,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Hahahaha! Your funnies got me!
ReplyDeleteWhat story about Sweetie and his brother! Loved hearing it!
nice job with the word count Mimi; I can see why your brain "cramped". I am happy both brothers have some sight; clumsy is a nice thing to have ....hey !!
ReplyDeletehope carl's vacation was great; the funnies today were !! ☺☺♥♥
Oh my goodness, the word count ! I didn't guess until you said. So clever! The first of Grandma's photos is quite amazing. I am thinking it is photoshopped - but it is still amazing!
ReplyDeleteYour sweetie and his brother are so blessed...what a miracle. LOve your Grandma pics and here's a little story about my eyes: I had 20/250 vision as a young child and as I grew older my vision began to improve- it now is 20/40 and at the age of 78 I have so far no cataracts. Miraculous says my doc. Why this happened no one knows. Cheers and have a lovely day!
ReplyDeleteThat was an interesting story. I am glad your hubby and his brother are not blind. My hubby was born in 1954, a preemie born at the entrance to the hospital which was a good thing or he would have been put in the incubator right away.
ReplyDeleteThat was very fascinating about your Sweetie and his twin. My grandmother (maternal) lost her sight when I was 8 from a detached retina and I have those very same eyes and I am vigilant about getting my eye exams. Your Sweetie has a true Miracle Story.ALways my pleasure being here with you and all the fun you provide. I linked up at both blogs today so you may see a double comment. HUGS across the miles XO XO
ReplyDelete