Dancing with Dave

This evening we attended our very first C-2 dance, called by Dave Heffron. We danced with Dave and Heidi in Southern California, when w were all members of the Trailblazers Advanced & Challenge Square Dance Club. At that point we were advanced dancers. Dave and Heidi came up to the dances from San Diego. Later Dave took a job in Austin. Now he travels weekly from Austin to the RGV for his work. He takes advantage of the opportunity to dance C-2 on Monday nights with Darryl. Now Darryl has asked him to call a class level C-2 dance for our class on Tuesday evenings.

It was exciting to hear a different caller and be at an actual dance, but it was also rather frustrating. Dave started with the calls we have learned most recently. It turns out that I haven't exactly learned all of those calls well enough to dance them. With a little help from my friends, I got through most of the "deer in the headlights" moments.

This morning I had my first appointment with a retinal specialist, Dr. Vincent Vann. It was a fascinating experience seeing scans of my retinas. It was also very reassuring to hear that most of the macular degeneration I have is in my left eye, which is the eye I don't use for central vision anyway. Dr. Vann says that I have only 1/10 as much AMD in my right eye. Now if it just stays that way for a long time.... He told me that since I have only one good eye, even though the problem is not as severe in my right eye I should see a retinal specialist every six months. Fortunately, this year in six months we will be in Portland, where the Casey Eye Institute is located. It's at the Oregon Health & Science University, where Chris is the University Librarian. How lucky is that?