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Thursday, August 20, 2020

Blinded By The Light

 

Here are those Atomik/Berd Ultimate wheels I wrote about yesterday.
Wednesday was another cracking good day, but I was not up to doing a big ride in the country due to a procedure I had done at the optometrist. So, no "Country Views" today. Sorry! I was too busy trying to find the right sunglasses to tone down the brightness of all that light flowing into my eyeballs! 

That's right, I had my eyes dilated so the optometrist could check on the health of my eyes. Yeah.....walking out of the place was a shock! It was a bright sunny day with no clouds. My sunglasses were on the dashboard of my truck. Good thing my daughter was there to guide me by the arm. All I could see was brilliant white! 

I wasn't dying, walking through the Pearly Gates or anything, but I imagine it to be something like what I experienced Wednesday morning. Yikes! That wasn't any fun! My legs were wobbly and I felt nauseous. For a minute or two. And then it took about five hours for the effects to wear off. At least enough that I could dare to try out those Atomik/Berd Ultimate wheels a bit. 

So, I rode over to the new overpass being built for the Sergeant Road Trail. Progress has been steady all Summer due to the good weather. In fact, they should be paving over the road on top soon as they were doing final grading when I checked. 

The tunnel for bikes, on the right, and the sloping bike path down to it off University to the left.
The former roadway was considerably higher than where the new pavement for University Avenue will go.
This appears to be another approach for cyclists from the East.

It's nice to see this infrastructure for cycling and pedestrians going in. University Avenue has been a conduit for travel between Cedar Falls and Waterloo long before it was 'University Avenue'. In fact, parts of this throughway may have been part of old Native American trails and certainly would have been used by horses and wagons back in the day. Back in the early days of roads, this was part of the "Red Ball Route", a kind of Northwest to Southeast passage through Iowa from Minneapolis, Minnesota and on to St. Louis, Missouri. This became HWY 218 and is now HWY 27, or the "Avenue of the Saints". 

After visiting there I went and rode my usual 'testing loop' of alleys and hilly streets in Waterloo. Then it was back home again to take care of some business, since I could see again! Hopefully I don't have to go through that again for a while. That blinding by light situation is for the birds!

2 comments:

  1. As a glasses wearer for over fifty years, I've had opportunities to have my eyes dilated and deal with that as you have. in the past few years, my optometrist obtained a piece of equipment that did not require eye dilation. The purpose for eye dilation is for the optometrist to examine the retina for abnormalities such as vascular disease, macular degeneration, or optic nerve problems. The new equipment takes a digital image of the retina that can be stored and compared to with subsequent exams. Hopefully your optometrist has or can obtain that equipment.

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  2. @graveldoc - interesting. Advancements in diagnostics and procedures are amazing. maybe I'll never have to go through that dilation process again? Let's hope so, for myself and many others.

    I did note that the technique to measure inner eye pressure has changed significantly to a non-touching type machine. That was a much more pleasant experience.

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