Attila worked last Saturday, leaving one day of rest this week. He will be working the occasional Saturday throughout the winter. This should not prove to be intrusive, as starting time is flexible and sleeping-in can be accommodated. All is well in Attila's world. Sleep!

From my perspective, it is a privilege to participate in the aging process. The alternative, and lets be realistic there is only one alternative, is to die young. No one has come back from the dead to fill me in on what it is like to die young. I am left to my make my own comparisons and reach my own conclusions as to the pros and cons of untimely endings. Not knowing any better, I prefer living. On a pragmatic level, this involves a preference for aging and the accompanying side effects.

Having accepted the aging process as inevitable has not exempted me from emotional distress as my body reminds me of the passage of time.

What leads me to ruminate over such matters are my eyes. They are not as young as they used to be and apparently not as fit and limber.

The Ontario Health Care System is not what it was a few short years ago. The last time I had my eyes checked by an optometrist we both expected to see one another again in one year's time. Our government decided that no citizen really needed to see an optometrist that often and changed the health care coverage to allow one visit every two years. This may work well for the average patient, but in reality, it does not work well for a great many people. There are those who do not need their eyes checked every two years, who do not experience serious deterioration in their eyesight. However, many others do experience a more rapid decline in their ability to see. I fit into the latter category.

My eyeglasses have not been adequate for reading for over six months. I have taken to using a magnifying glass, which I carry about with me in order to read things like the newspaper or books. All this time I have been waiting for eligibility for an eye examination and the subsequent prescription for new eyeglasses.

Wondering if my optometrist had devised an approach to deliver the necessary care to patients, I called her office. After explaining my situation to the receptionist I was cheerfully told that "most of our patients just pay cash". This seemed the only solution to the problem as far as the health care provider was concerned.

Not completely deterred, I called our local Conservative (PC) Provincial Representative. The receptionist listened carefully to my dilemma and cheerfully said "write a letter to the government department". This seemed the only solution to the problem as far as the government policy representative was concerned. I question the efficacy of this assumption. This exchange will effect the way I vote in the next election.

This week my time came. Feeling abandoned by my family optometrist, I visited a walk in practice for my eye examination. As suspected, there has been a significant deterioration in my eyesight over the last two years. So significant, in fact, that for the first time in my life I need eyeglasses to drive a car. This came as a complete surprise, a nasty shock, and has legal ramifications. Two pairs of eyeglasses will be needed, one for driving, and one for arms-length activities, I need bifocals. Bifocals are much more costly than single focus lenses. Health insurance does not recognize the increased cost and does not cover the added expense of bifocal lenses, nor of two rather than one pair of eyeglasses.

"Just pay cash", say the cheery young girls on hire to answer the telephones and stand behind the counters. Someday, many years from now, they too will hit the wall of the Ontario Health Care System. The way Health Care seems to be evolving in Ontario, instead of a cheery "just pay cash", they may be met with hysterical laughter.