A very unpleasant trip to the eye doctor.

1. The appointment was for 8:30. It didn't happen until almost 11:00. At least they weren't hateful and overbearing, like a certain eye doctor in Thayer, who still uses her dead husband's handicapped license plate, even though she's switched cars since he died.

2. We were among the first to get there. The waiting room had, including us two, seven people in it -- one family of three in one corner, us two, and two more people. There were many, many empty seats (about 27 in all). I sat us one seat in from the end of one row, me in seat 2 and Mom in seat 3. There were at least five empty seats between us and the family of three. Because I don't like to be bothered with people, I put a magazine in the empty seat to my right, the universal symbol of "someone is sitting here; go sit somewhere else."

An old woman with a bad dye job walks in, looks around at all the wide-open spaces she could sit in, and SITS ON THE MAGAZINE IN THE CHAIR NEXT TO ME. What's worse, she ignores all my body language that I find her annoying and keeps pestering me to engage in conversation with her. Excuse me, bitch -- I am not responsible for providing you with a social life. Go bother someone else and leave me the hell alone. I don't CARE about your sugar diabetes. I don't CARE about your multiple eye surgeries. I don't care about YOU, period.

When I had enough, I caught her in the middle of one of her questions about which the answer is none of her business -- "Are you here to get an eye test?" I think it was --, got up and moved to the empty chair on the other side of Mom. The old bat looked bewildered. Good.

3. Mom's test was not good. The cataract (no, that's NOT a Japanese luxury car) in one of her eyes has gotten so bad they scheduled surgery on it for May 19th.

4. Grabbed lunch at a West Plains Sonic on the way home, because Mom couldn't see from the eye test, so we could eat in the car. Slower than Thayer Sonic. Not as tasty as Thayer Sonic. The restroom was nonoperational, unlike Thayer Sonic's. Carhop was surlier than those at Thayer Sonic. Next time I'm in the mood for drive-in food while at West Plains, I'll go to A&W. They're a better chain anyway.