On sight, and on memory

[vvalkyri]

So it came to be that I spent about 4 hours yesterday Thursday opting to move about in the world with my eyes closed. A patch over one eye for unexciting reasons* made it much more comfortable to have both eyes closed anyway, and apparently served as somewhat of a signal to others

Comments

[lizkayl]

I was helping out at Anime USA and went to get the pizzas. there were 14 boxes and 2 two-liters and I didn't want to wait for help. I found out I am terrified of getting onto an escalator when I can't see it/time it. And I ended up with a huge bruise on my leg because I stepped one foot on and didn't want to drop the pizzas by loosing my balance and panicked and left the first foot in place until I sat down.

[vvalkyri]

Yipe. And escalators are /sharp/.

We didn't do any stairs. A few low curbs and there was a ramp getting from the door to the table at the restaurant but not from the table to the bathrooms and back. We also went down and then back up curb cuts, which M noted were [sometimes] a way to find store entrances.

I didn't even remember to write about being able to see the difference (b/c eyelids are translucent) between outside twilight and inside, say, Petco.

I'd also been surprised when it turned out to be past 9 'cause I thought it was still light out. This was likely oncoming headlights and streetlamps.

[turnberryknkn]

Thank you for sharing.

Hope the eye is better soon.

[vvalkyri]

I'm a bit flummoxed by it still having a slightly tender bump, albeit a differently shaped one. Tonight I switch to hot compresses. I really don't want to make a habit of taking off work to be poked at.

[keith_m043]

If you had an eyepatch with a skull and crossbones on it, would you dislike it less?

[vvalkyri]

no. At least not if it were my right eye. That one is sufficiently dominant that having my eye open under a patch (which when it's a bandagey one you're not supposed to have anyway but the construction of my face is such that it requires more gauze than apparently expected to force my eye closed, and then the tape pulls on my cheek and ugh) means that I start having the dark take over. Visual field testing is teh suck for me, too for that reason - I end up holding the right eye closed instead of using the handy dandy pirate patch they provide.

And keeping an eye closed under a patch also sucks.

Hence just closing both eyes. That I was with someone who could take that and run with it was marvelous. And not getting sent loopy from the lidocaine also helped.

[en_ki]

1. Nice book! I mean that sincerely.

2. I'd be surprised if you hadn't thought of this already, but to me, in the right context, going voluntarily without sight for days would be pretty hot.

3. Do you turn on the lights at night to find your way around the house?

At some point I started making a point of not doing so, maybe when I started having someone else in my bed often, and I've been doing it for years. There's a different gait to avoid stubbing toes, hands in position to avoid crotch-height table corners, and the always fun experience of having slept in an unusual place or even at an unusual angle and as a result waking up with a completely wrong mental map of where you are, blundering into closets and getting trapped, ah, memories... but I digress.

[vvalkyri]

no, I don't turn the lights on at home. But there's also a lot of light coming in. At badmagic's I never turned on the light in the bathroom at night, and could navigate fine in pitch dark.

And yes, that context did occur to me. Without sight cues I was very focused on M.

He's offered to teach me more, as has M.NZ. I'd like to.

[weskeag]

Interesting. I wonder what blind people who are also deaf do, because they perhaps can't tell where sounds are coming from? Probably rely more on guide dogs? I have a friend who installs assistive technology for SSA employees, and she's told me some interesting stories over the years...

[vvalkyri]

Don't know. I know there are a lot of assistive technologies available, but I'm insufficiently familiar.