Journal - Coming Home

So on Wednesday morning, we were in no particular hurry to get up and go anywhere. Checkout time was 11am so there was no need to rush. I can’t even remember what time I got up yesterday morning. It might have been around 8 or so; Joni was already up of course.
We went downstairs to the little café area off the main lobby where they have a continental breakfast every morning.. I wasn’t really in the mood for much. I was a little worried about the car ride. By this time I had gotten to where I could walk around unaided, but I was afraid a long ride in the car would make me sick. I had had some very minor bouts with what I guess you would call motion sickness since the bandage had come off on Tuesday. Nothing serious, just a few stomach flip-flops now and then.
Anyway, I was hoping for a couple of sweet rolls or something, but they didn’t have any that morning. There was sausage and scrambled eggs, but I definitely didn’t want that in my stomach. There was bread for toast, and some muffins, but none of that really appealed to me either. I finally decided on a waffle. They had a batter dispenser where you could squirt out some waffle batter into a cup. There were two waffle irons hot and ready to go, so you just had to pour in the batter and close the lid. Once you flipped the thing over, the timer started. After about 40 seconds, out came a nearly perfect waffle. That really hit the spot. I ended up eating a couple of sausages with it after all because I just can’t resist sausages. I only ate two though so I thought it would be all right.
After that, we went back upstairs and packed up our things and were ready to go. The lady at the counter that morning had evidently noticed me, first with a cane, then with a bandage, then with neither. She said, “You take it easy now, a little healing each day.” We leftthe the hotel and stopped to fill up the gas tank, then we were off. We merged onto I-80 at a few minutes after 10am. I enjoyed watching the GPS unit and helping Joni navigate.
I was enjoying looking at everything, but I was still very tired. Once we were on the highway and cruising, I put my headphones on and closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, we were coming up on York, the main stopping place between Lincoln and Kearney. We stopped at Wendy’s again to eat, same place we stopped in on our way to Omaha. After we ate, I got up from our table and walked to the restroom. All by myself. That felt very strange, and very good. I don’t know if I’ve talked much about public restrooms, but let’s just say I always avoided them whenever I could.
From York, it’s only about an hour’s drive to the Gibbon exit, and I was getting very anxious to get home and see where Ihad been living for the last two anda half years. I was anxious to see Sassie too, I had been feeling pretty guilty about leaving her for three days.
The rest of the drive went by pretty quickly, then we were pulling off the interstate. I have spent alittle more than half my life in oraround Gibbon, but never spent much time south of I-80, so the drive from there was especially interesting. I enjoyed seeing corn fields.
And then we were home. Things did not look the way I had always pictured them outside our house. Seeing exactly where the trees were, and our little shed, and the propane tank, and Joni’s country fence was fascinating. Inside the house was even better. I don’t know why, but I had always imagined our house as kind of a dumpy little place, but when I saw it for the first time, I liked it. Liked it quite a lot actually. It was just so strange seeing all those familiar things, things I had never seen before.
I spent the rest of the afternoon just walkingfrom room to room, looking at everything. I went outside a couple of times to walk around andlook. It’s kind of pretty outhere.
When you’re blind, distances are often hard to judge. Even inside a house. I would look around and think things like “I didn’t know there was so much space between the couch and the wall”, or “I thought the back porch was bigger than this.” I knew the layout of the house, but nothing looked quite like I expected.
And it was great to see my dog again. She kept looking at me all the time. Maybe she always did, but it was kind of strange. When I first went blind, I used to trip over her a lot. She likes to lay down right in the middle of the walkways of the house. After a while she adjusted, and learned to move out of the way when I came walking along. After we had been home a while yesterday, I started testing her. I would walk up to her, and instead of moving she would just lay there and look at me. I don’t knowhow, but she seemed to understand.
I suppose I could go on for along time about all that, but I guess you get the idea. Maybe I’ll be able to put it into words better later on.
Wednesday night I was very tired again of course, and we got to bed at our usual time. It was so good to be home, and especially good to be climbing into my own bed.
And that, at last, brings me to the present time. I have an appointment with Dr. Feilmeier today at 3pm in Kearney. If everything is to his satisfaction, then I’ll just be seeing him once a month, each time he comes to Kearney. I’m looking forward to seeing a little bit of Kearney today. Being the nearest town of any size to my hometown of Gibbon, I was very familiar with Kearney. But I know a lot has changed there, and I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself. That reminds me, I need to go see Gibbon too, and Mom’s new house, and the new school, and the empty lot where the old school was, and Mom’s store, and gosh, there’s just so much to see. Stay tuned!