It's that time of year again...yes, today is Daughter Number One's birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DNO!
Several people have asked how she is since her emergency eye surgery to correct the detached retina. The gas bubble they placed in her eye ("Think of it like a cast for a broken arm," she tells people) is slowly dissolving and when it has completely dissolved, she'll have full vision back in that eye and be able to drive again. Not being able to drive has been a real hardship—the small town where she lives doesn't exactly have public transportation. But other teachers, cousins and friends have helped her out—that's the plus of living in a small town.
She's also trying to buy a car, since hers was totaled shortly before her eye problem. No one knows if the accident (her car was bumped from the front by a reversing car) and her retinal detachment were related; the doctor can't say one way or another.
Buying her first car has been an eye-opening experience (pardon the pun). The older members of her family have warned her about the duplicity of car salesmen, and she's seen evidence of this herself. I read an article about some of the sneaky tricks they pull—like turning on their phone intercoms so their sales managers can listen in—and indeed, this did happen to us while we were sitting in one salesman's office.
But she's been able to wait them out, and may eventually get the Mazda she wants at the price she's willing to pay. What an introduction into the adult world, as a newly minted 24-year-old.
