What Was That?

Photo by Deena Englard on Unsplash

This was written Thursday, November 30, 2023.

Today, I was expecting a package. The past weekend I had ordered a bunch of art supplies. This was my second order from my new favorite art store. It was supposed to come on December 1 but it changed to today. The package would be too big for the mailbox and for the special package boxes at the mailbox kiosk.

I heard the doorbell ring as I was at my computer in my home office. I ran to the door and opened it. Sitting up against the wall was part 1 of my packages. Part 2 is coming in the next day or two.

I grabbed it and brought it inside.

I looked out the window and a UPS delivery person got into a small UPS van. I had never seen a vehicle like that before with UPS insignia. The person jumped into the passenger side. I saw them grab a drink can and guzzle some liquid down. They sat there for a few minutes. The driver was fiddling with his cell phone. Eventually they moved onto their next stop.

I sat down in the chair in the living room. The chair is beige and faces the sliding glass door that goes out onto the screened-in balcony. There were two pull tabs on the top of the box saying to pull to open the box. It was your normal brown cardboard box. It had the name of the business across the top in red lettering. One small section of the box was open. Luckily, everything was packed in tight with bubble-wrap to protect it.

I pulled the two tabs and that didn’t open the box. It just opened a small horizontal line across the top of the package. I couldn’t even see the contents. Then I had to pry the two sections up with all my strength. It was tough but I managed to get it eventually.

I pulled out the supplies and looked at them.

After I had looked at most of it, I heard and saw something fly off my face. Yikes! I thought what the heck was that.

I said what was that to my Mom. She was sitting on the couch watching the excitement on my face when I opened the package.

I put the supplies on the coffee table and lifted the object off the bubble-wrap and then it slipped out of my fingers and I lost it again. I got rid of the bubble-wrap and started looking around in the box. I removed the bottom bubble-wrap and I saw what it was.

One of the nose pads from my glasses had fallen off. I thought oh no!!!!!

A number of things went through my mind at the time. How am I going to live with this until I can get to my eyeglass place? How will I last through work tomorrow? My shift is from 4am-1pm. With it gone, it was already cutting into my skin. One other time when this happened, I had to place a rolled up napkin on the area while I was at home. I was thinking I can’t do that now. I can’t go to work with a napkin on my face!! 🤣🤣

I went to the computer to read and reply to some Substack comments. I was behind schedule. I thought about it for a few minutes. Today, I had been released from work an hour earlier. I decided to go and see about getting it fixed right now. I had thought about going to work the next day with tape on it, but that didn’t sound very good. Imagine the looks I would have gotten.

I decided to go to Walmart and see if they could fix it for me. They weren’t my regular eyeglass place but I thought I would try. All I needed was a new nose pad and one for the other side too since that hadn’t been replaced in a long time. Walmart was only 15 minutes and 6 miles away.

So at 2:54 p.m. I was on the road. I took the main road out of my place and made a right hand turn onto the next main road. I decided to go the back way to Walmart. So I took another main street and they have this thing called the “Diverging Diamond”. You actually travel across the road on the other side. It’s better explained another time.

I turned down another main street and traveled behind one of the local high schools. Traffic was light at the time. On my way to Walmart, I got cold feet. Several things ran through my mind like: “Will they ask me if I’m a customer?”, “Will it cost me money to get the nose pads?”, “Will they charge me for labor?”. I was thinking with not being their customer, they would probably charge me. I know I could have just gone in and asked them but I didn’t do that.

If I’m going to Walmart, I’m usually in the left lane, so I can turn across traffic into the store parking lot. I never made it to the left lane. I stayed in the right lane and decided to go to my eyeglass place that I got my glasses at. The only problem with that was, it’s 15 miles south of where I live.

I didn’t even look at Walmart as I drove right past. I approached the roundabout at the next main road and had to stop as there was a lot of traffic. As I soon as I cleared the roundabout, I was on my way south traveling on a road I had only traveled on once. I saw new stores and apartments. The apartments had either 3 or 4 stories and were still in the building stage. There was a small shopping plaza with 4 stores. I passed subdivisions where it was once pastureland or woods. The people who owned this land made a killing. I’ll be writing about that too some day.

As I traveled south, there was absolutely no traffic or traffic lights. The roadway is split up with one lane traffic on each side of a large median. As I got closer to the turn-off, I started seeing smoke. I smelled it too. I had the windows open slightly. I immediately closed them until I got past that area. They were burning woods to clear more land for either houses or more shopping. I got down to the light for the turnoff and saw the new Costco store and the gas station. There were only 4 cars turning east. Boy did that change and fast. The road I was on takes you to the Interstate. As I got closer to the off ramp and the on ramp, there was major traffic. It was bumper to bumper on the other side. I told myself not to come back this way.

As I approached the turn off to go south again, I started getting over because I saw a turn lane. It was for Walgreens, so I swerved back over to my lane. Then I was able to get into the correct turn lane. I underestimated the traffic at this time of the day. I forgot about school getting out. It was heavy all the way to the eyeglass place. A couple of times I got into the left lane and passed people. I was trying to hurry but I had to be careful. A few times, I looked down at the speedometer and I was going a little too fast. My idea of too fast was 5 to 10 mph over. Time to back off.

I made good time. I got there around 3:20 or 3:25. I told them what I needed and the guy, who was tall, said he would replace both of them. He told me to have a seat. There were three employees helping other people. There was a guy with white hair and a white beard wearing the customary blue shirt helping an individual select the proper glasses. They were sitting within inches of each other as the customer tried on the glasses. There was another woman doing the same thing with a woman.

I saw the Optometrist come out of the exam room with a customer. A woman started helping him locate the best glasses for him. She asked me if I was being helped.

About 5 minutes later, the gentleman came back with my glasses. He asked me to check to see if they felt right. I said yes and I walked out the door. The good thing about them is that they do it free of charge. It took longer than I thought for him to change them. A few other times I was in there, it went much faster.

I got back in the car and made my way through the front parking lot of multiple businesses. This is the only way to get back to the street that I needed to use to go back north. There is a Shiny Shell Car Wash, Taco Bell, True Value, and Boston Market.

There was no traffic and I was able to get back on the road and the light changed immediately and I turned north for the trip home.

I should step back to before I started the car. I thought about calling my Mom and telling her that I had gone to Melbourne. As all Mothers do, she worries whenever I leave the house. But I decided that I could probably get back home quicker without any interruptions.

I was headed north and watching the clock. I was timing it to see how long it took me to get home. Traffic was medium at the time. A few times, my speed reached a little higher than I was used to. I guess I was hurrying too much to get home. When I saw that, it was foot off the accelerator.

Once I hit the usual back way to get home, there was that foot on accelerator too much. The back road I use has a speed limit of only 30 miles per hour. You have to be careful on that road because there is usually a deputy sheriff sitting alongside the road looking for speeders. I slowed it down and then once I turned onto the last road out of that neighborhood, where it’s still 30 mph, I got a warning. Someone coming in the opposite direction was flashing their headlights. As I continued on, I saw a deputy sheriff had someone pulled over. Obviously, they were going over the speed limit.

The light had just changed before I arrived at the main road. I knew I had time and I called my Mom on my cell phone to let her know I was on my way and that I would be there soon. I mentioned that I had gone down to Melbourne. I told her I would explain when I got home.

I got out of the car back at my condo at 4:01 p.m. It had taken me 26 minutes to get back home. The whole thing only took me a little over an hour. Not bad.

Conclusion

You should never be in a hurry for something small like a nose pad. :) Take your time. It’s not worth getting into an accident or worse.

This was the longest I had gone without the nose pad falling off. I think it was like 2 years. I read that you’re supposed to replace them every 6 months. I had no idea about that.

My Mom had figured I had gone to Melbourne when it was taking so long. She said it was fine that I bypassed Walmart. She said you need to feel comfortable and if it meant going back to my regular eyeglass store, that was fine.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt