What's goin' on with everybody

I kind of wish I still had my upright piano, I mean not for the recent 225 mile relocation move, but to just sit and play, hear it throughout the house.

Speaking of blind, I just finally had cataract surgery on my right eye, about 15 years after the first. It was "going to be difficult", the doctor said over and over, and over, but luckily things have turned out pretty damn good, so far. To my surprise and unlike the left eye surgery, I was totally awake throughout. They did give me a little something "to relax" me, but I don't think it kicked in until he was about done. They then fitted me up with some really dark black shades. I guess in part as a clue that everything went well to my wife who was waiting, the feel good meds, and because I am a nut, as they were rolling me into recovery I was playing piano on my knees and singing Ray Charles "I got a woman, way up town, she's good to me. Oh yeah."

You were in the past asking about cataracts surgery, Grim. Did you ever get yours done, or was there some other reason for asking? Don't wait too long. I had hardening of tissue and atrophy. It could have gone either way. I'm fortunate, and at this point cautiously optimistic in short & long-term prognosis. I caught a badminton birdie in that eye many years ago and nearly lost sight. 3 strikes and you're out, so safety glasses is my frequent and forever friend.
 
Mick Doobie said:
I kind of wish I still had my upright piano
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I suppose from a convenience perspective, a clunky piano with one {2 if you play the actual strings} sound vs a MIDI keyboard that gives you access to literally hundreds of keyboard sounds plus being able to play thousands of instrument sounds via VSTis, is a no-brainer.
But if I had the space, I'd have my old clunky upright in a flash. VSTi pianos sound like pianos and pianos are probably the easiest instrument to sample and get right, even to where it's not possible to tell the difference.
But even a clunky old upright piano, sounds like a piano.
Mick Doobie said:
You were in the past asking about cataracts surgery, Grim. Did you ever get yours done, or was there some other reason for asking?
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Yeah, when I had my last eye test, the optician told me I was at the start of cataracts and though there was no immediate need, at some point I was going to need to get them taken care of. I wanted to know a] how you found the op, ie was it painful {in my mind, I can countenance pain just about anywhere, but my eyes !} and b] how have you found your vision since ? Do you feel it was definitely worth it ?
 
grimtraveller said:
I suppose from a convenience perspective, a clunky piano with one {2 if you play the actual strings} sound vs a MIDI keyboard that gives you access to literally hundreds of keyboard sounds plus being able to play thousands of instrument sounds via VSTis, is a no-brainer.
But if I had the space, I'd have my old clunky upright in a flash. VSTi pianos sound like pianos and pianos are probably the easiest instrument to sample and get right, even to where it's not possible to tell the difference.
But even a clunky old upright piano, sounds like a piano.

Yeah, when I had my last eye test, the optician told me I was at the start of cataracts and though there was no immediate need, at some point I was going to need to get them taken care of. I wanted to know a] how you found the op, ie was it painful {in my mind, I can countenance pain just about anywhere, but my eyes !} and b] how have you found your vision since ? Do you feel it was definitely worth it ?
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This might get a little long, so bear with me brother. Subject is all of a sudden near and dear to my heart.

Typically too young for cataracts, some time ago I actually thought I was going blind. Didn't want anyone to know and kept it to myself. I reckon like a lot of men I'm not one to rush to the doctor for this or that. Something happened that was caused by my poor eyesight, messed something up that I shouldn't have. It was kond of a big deal and pretty much destroyed a long time good relations with a client. Pretty devastating, well, in a way. Got honest with the wife and she pretty much made me see an eye doctor. The doctor told me I had cataracts. I knew nothing about cataracts, oh no, I thought. Doctor added, pretty nonchalantly, we can fix that. A tear rolled down my cheek.

Either he or I chose to do the left eye first, they don't do both eyes as the same time, for obvious reasons, in my mind the main one just in case the doc is having a bad day he only flubs one eye. I'd read that they don't put you completely under. I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it, the surgery. Surgery, I was out, the only thing I remember was sort of kaleidoscope visualizations, a little pressure. It was a breeze, and although I had to put ointment in my eye post surgery, I could see right away. If memory serves I think I had Lazer thing done several weeks later, which is somewhat normal. Clears post op new lense cloudiness, which again is somewhat normal, some experience it.

The problem, I was seeing extreme star burst affects, car headlights at night, anything, even the moon was sort of distorted. Although the eye I hadn't had done yet was cloudy everything I could see was normal. A nice round moon. Sounds silly, but when I looked up in the sky at night I valued seeing the moon as it was, night fishing on the beach under a full moon. Plus, I couldn't imagine having that star affect in both eyes. In my mind it would impair my vision more than seeing clearly in one eye but having the star affect, and somewhat blurry in the other, would possibly make nighttime driving dangerous. I decided to wait on the other.

Gradually things just deteriorated really bad. I could no longer see through my cloudy right eye. It was very distracting, my depth perception was horrible, you're supposed to look someone in the eye when you are talking to them and at times when I would attempt it all I could think of was how screwed up my vision was. Plus...plus, I was starting to a lot of floaters in my good eye, almost a web, and reduction in the quality of my sight. Something was going on, and if I lost that eye I would be screwed. So the wife made me see a doctor...

With all of their high tech machinery they couldn't even see inside my right eye. It was bad, real bad. "Legally blind". Return visit they placed a plastic tube about the size of my iris on my eye, and flooded it with water, using sound to see inside. Still had difficulty, although I think they were also having problems with the machine that day, repeated the procedure several times. A bit uncomfortable, but not too bad.I think it's important that they get a good measurement for the size of your new lense, curvature of the eye and stuff.

The doctor kept saying, "This is going to be difficult." I pressed, was it going to be difficult to do, difficult to achieve good results, could I lose my eyeball, potentially have one of those odd totally white eyes, etc. It was like he wouldn't commit to anything. I mean, I trusted the guy, he's a damn good surgeon. I think maybe he was a bit disgusted with me that I had let things get so bad, said it was a "3rd world" case. Said I had hardening of the tissue, some atrophy, and would have to do a lot more cutting around the iris to get the old lense out and the new in, and the surgery would take much longer, would have to be done in a hospital rather than the vision center. I was concerned, really concerned. I had also caught a badminton birdie in the eye as a kid, spent three days in the hospital with both eyes bandaged, came close to loading my sight. I think maybe rhat caused some scar tissue, and hardening?

Surgery day, arrived at 5:30 am, first in line. I was thinking maybe I would rather be 2nd or 3rd in line rather than first, let the guy get warmed up. Somewhere in the pre op discussion he said something that made me think to ask, well I know I won't be completely out, but I will be mostly out? No, he says, we spoke about that, you'll be completely awake. Damn! I did not like the thought/sound of that, but he said if I wanted to be mostly out we would have to reschedule somewhere way down the line. I sat for a moment to let it sink in, then said, let's do this thing.

Wheeled me into the operating room. I just separated myself from it, focused on the unique experience of being fully awake in an operating room, watching professionals do their job. I was a fly on the wall. I mean, they did numb the eye somewhat with drops, and gave me some to relax me. I have unusually chill blood pressure, even before procedures that cause someone to be anxious. I may be reluctant to go to the doctor, but when I do I surrender for the food of the cause and allow them to do what they have to do. It wasn't that bad. Yeah, they're going to be poking, cutting on your eyeboil. I didn't really feel any (much?) pain, mostly just pressure. It makes sense that you are awake, the doctor can communicate, instruct you to say look slightly left, which would be impossible if you were completely out. Your eyes might roll back in your head, or something, and he has to deal with limited access.

I was slightly loopy coming out of surgery, but happy it was completed. Things were blurry, as was expected, but I could see much, much better nearly right away. It was very important, I suppose given the extra cutting, to not get an infection. I quarantined that night, eyes very sensitive to light, lots of color I hadn't seen in so long, wonderful. The following night I venture out onto the porch. There was a huge halo around a full moon. But not a round halo, jagged light, and a more straight but jagged light off to the left. Not good, I thought, but given the option of legally blind, I guess I could live with it. Return post op visit the next day told the doctor, if memory serves he said that might clear up, could be fixed with Lazer, or I might have to live with it. Personally speaking, if it stayed like that nighttime driving might be out of the question. A couple of nights later I was on the porch and returned back inside the house. I thought, wait a damn minute. I went back out and looked at the moon, the jagged lights were gone! I couldn't believe it, what a blessing. I still see off to my left of my right eye what almost appears to be comparatively speaking the frame of eyeglasses. A bit distracting, claustrophobic, but I can live with it, tune it out and not teach my brain to focus on it. It's the edge of the lense, and I think maybe he said he might be able to soften it with a laser, can't remember. He also said that they must have had a difficult time with doing the left eye, they inserted a 3 piece lense, or the guy was old, stuck in his ways and used older technology.

No or very little star affect in the new eye, which sort of cancels some of the extreme star affect from the eye I had done some years earlier. Wonderful. I'm doing drops several times a day, anti biotic, steroid, and something to regulate the pressure in the eye(?). Just as long as the sack continues to support the new lense, I think I'm golden. It's a little weird, though. I think my brain is still getting used to it, it's almost intimidating, a feeling of being more exposed, vulnerable, can't explain it. But I'm so, soooo pleased. All in all it has been a breeze.

Do it, man. Don't wait too long like I did, could cause problems. As with me, and others, they will give you an option of near sightedness, or far sighted. I will still have to wear reading glasses. There's a third option where you're good both ways, but insurance does not cover that lense and it costs big bucks. Even with the lense I got, and insurance to cover part of the cost, it cost me about $2,500. Worth it for twice that price, can't really put a price on it. Do it, brother. Here's looking at you, kid.

Return visit for me tomorrow, hopefully everything looks good and he'll ween me off of eye drops(some you're not supposed to go cold turkey).
 
Oh...

My left eye, the one I had done years ago. He said "the jelly, more like a fluid" was separating from the back of my eye. One of the problems I was/am experiencing, I attended a funeral(fentanyl overdose) several hours away from my current location. Driving back at night I started seeing flashes of light in my periphery when I would cut my eyes. I thought, oh no, I had always heard of you ever see flashing lights get to the hospital immediately, you might be fixing to have a stroke. I considered calling someone just in case I went off the side of the road at least someone would know what the heck, but I just kept driving. Didn't go off the road, and I still have it. Doc said fluid is separating from the back of my eye..."some people" experience that as they get older, just keep an eye on it, hardy har. Showed me a picture of my retina, looks normal and good. But heck, if they could not have fixed my right eye, and something happened to my left, that would be bad. Real bad. I would be blind. I'd never really considered that, I consider it now. When you're young you kind of think of yourself as invincible, as you get older(I just turned 60 on the 11th), you come to the realization you definitely are not.

Now I'm seeing so many colors, flowers in bloom, vivid green foliage, my wife's beautiful face, it's almost overwhelming at times, but I'm getting used to it.... absolutely wonderful.
 
We're the same age, I turned 60 on the 23rd of last month. My next check-up is due in October so I'll be looking into fixing the eyes then. During the day, my vision is good, but I've noticed a glassiness if I'm tired or when it's dark. I have a friend of the same age and she had her cataracts seen to a couple of years ago and she's had nothing but problems. On the other hand, I know a lady of 81 that's just had her first one done and she says it's been great thus far.
 
What they are doing with eye surgery these days is truly remarkable. 50 years ago, my dad cataracts. The solution was simple enough, they took the lenses out of his eyes. Done. He got a couple of pairs of glasses with coke bottles for lenses, and hard contact lenses for normal use. The glasses were for when he woke up in the morning or at night when he didn't have the contacts in. He had to lie in bed for almost a week until they healed. He had to change the family business to a florist supply (we grew flowers, but he couldn't tolerate the dirt anymore).

When my mom had her cataract surgery about 10 years ago, it was in and out, and she could see when she walked out of the door. My son-in-law had his vision corrected last year. He had about 20/400 vision as well as cataracts. He's 39 and had poor vision his whole life. They replaced the lenses, fixed his astigmatism, and he has about 20/40 vision now. He needs glasses to read, but not much else. It's changed everything for him.

Amazing is almost an understatement!
 
grimtraveller said:
We're the same age, I turned 60 on the 23rd of last month. My next check-up is due in October so I'll be looking into fixing the eyes then. During the day, my vision is good, but I've noticed a glassiness if I'm tired or when it's dark. I have a friend of the same age and she had her cataracts seen to a couple of years ago and she's had nothing but problems. On the other hand, I know a lady of 81 that's just had her first one done and she says it's been great thus far.
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Now days cataract surgery is considered low risk routine out patient surgery. There is very little if any pain afterwards, just some scratchiness. Immediate results, you can read a newspaper or book almost immediately. Not without risks, but overall complications are on the rare side. We didn't go a lot into the injury I suffered from catching the hard end of a badminton birdie bullshot in the eye hit with a tennis racket when I was about 13 and put me in the hospital for 3 days both eyes bandaged and coming close to losing my sight, or whether that played a part in the hardening of some of the tissue. Seems he attributed the hardening to me waiting so long to have something done about the cataract. It was going to make things "difficult". The lesson I learned, and others might benefit from my mistake, don't wait too long. I don't think he wanted to say it, but it could have gone either way. I'm still a bit cautious about being too optimistic. That seeing the edge of the lense off to my right, it does caise me some concern, is the (hardened) skin covering the edge properly, healing correctly given less flexibility, or whatever...sorry, don't want to feed into anyone else's fears. It's important to consider, problems are rare.

What kind of problems has your friend had?
 
Mick Doobie said:
Now days cataract surgery is considered low risk routine out patient surgery. There is very little if any pain afterwards, just some scratchiness. Immediate results, you can read a newspaper or book almost immediately. Not without risks, but overall complications are on the rare side. We didn't go a lot into the injury I suffered from catching the hard end of a badminton birdie bullshot in the eye hit with a tennis racket when I was about 13 and put me in the hospital for 3 days both eyes bandaged and coming close to losing my sight, or whether that played a part in the hardening of some of the tissue. Seems he attributed the hardening to me waiting so long to have something done about the cataract. It was going to make things "difficult". The lesson I learned, and others might benefit from my mistake, don't wait too long. I don't think he wanted to say it, but it could have gone either way. I'm still a bit cautious about being too optimistic. That seeing the edge of the lense off to my right, it does caise me some concern, is the (hardened) skin covering the edge properly, healing correctly given less flexibility, or whatever...sorry, don't want to feed into anyone else's fears. It's important to consider, problems are rare.

What kind of problems has your friend had?
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In some peoples eyes it can turn your wife into your mother.
 
I would love an old JCM 900 100W 2x12 combo but I just wouldn't be able to use it in my current situation.
 
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dogooder said:
I have the DSC 40? all tube combo. I will take the classic fifty over it any day?
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I like the Classic 50 but it is WAY TOO HEAVY! The Classic 30 is a great little combo, small and light enough for grab and go and they sound pretty darn good too. I've got an older DSL401, and it's got that Marshall sound. If you want that, the Peavey just doesn't it the sweet spot. That's why I've kept both. I got them both used before prices went crazy, so there's not a lot of money sitting there.
 
I have a classic thrity, an old Ampeg Gemini II, an old Ampeg Echo twin, a Magnatone M15, a Pulse 15 watt head, the Marshal, a Peavey Mark IV and III. I used to use the classic thirty all the time but she started acting up. I bought the classic 50, the price was right. I have the Classic 30 all apart again. I replaced the tube sockets and filter caps. Still waiting for a few caps to come in.
 
dogooder said:
I am trying to get rid of the only Marshall I have ever owned. No one wants it?
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First ya gotta try and figure out its realistic value...If you're not getting bites locally via offerup or craigslist you might have to sell it on Ebay...You can get an idea of what it is probably worth but searching the sold ones on ebay and seeing they sold for...You have to click on the sold items thingy like in the picture below to what sold...
 

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Do people still use guitar amplifiers? Don't they bluetooth it to their iPhone app? Then to TikTok..

vintage equipment should be 'Worth'.
 
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