Living in Oklahoma with Glaucoma

       

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Living in Oklahoma with Glaucoma – Summary June 5, 2025

     What an odd ‘name’ for a blog. For some strange reason, I found it appropriate for this stage of my life that I am in the right. Well, I at least owe you the back story on how all of this formalized in my head. If you have been following me for years, you can tell that at one time in my life, I was in the Army. I did 36 years, to be exact. I also worked in the civilian sector as a project manager for a well-known national bank. To offset my time, I was also a fitness instructor/personal trainer.
    My life for the past 30 years was convuluted with deadlines, and busy schedules. It wasn’t until last year that my youngest daughter got my wife and I to consider a relocation to Oklahoma where she lived with her husband and 3 kids.
     We were already in grandparent mode, visiting Oklahoma at least once a year to see our grandkids. As we talked more and more about it, it made sense to look into this prospect. All of our children were grown up, and married with their own families. So when we decided to retire after the pandemic, we had nothing time on our hands.
     The decision was made during Christmas of 2024. By faith, we started looking at homes in Oklahoma. Another thing that was working for us is that we were close to paying the mortgage on our house off. We’re in our 60s now, and the thought of going into another mortgage at our age seemed a bit scary to me.  Our overall health, for the most part, for both of us was pretty good. Many of my friends did know, but I recovered from prostate cancer the year before. My PSA blood count numbers had successfully improved after the surgery. I unexpectantly had to undergo some radiation treatments and compression therapy treatments as well. Yep, it was a very productive time for me that year.   The last bit of bad news was that I contracted glaucoma in both of my eyes.
     The vision in my right eye is at about 20% while my left is still showing 100%. So with that being said, I now take at least 4 types of eye drops a day. The goal is to keep my left eye healthy. So there you have it. We were able to locate a house in Yukon, Oklahoma just within 2 weeks of our decision to move there! God provided the resources for us to hire movers, and I was able to tow both of our cars to Oklahoma myself. We decided to rent our house out to provide rental income for us. We moved to Oklahoma within 30 days!
     We have been here since January 29, 2025. The people of Oklahoma, we have found, are some of the friendliest people that I have ever met. Historically, this is Native American land. I believe 6 or 7 tribes are represented here in this state alone. This is also where the famous ‘Trail of Tears’ is located. There is a lot of history that, when I get settled in, I will no doubt partake of. The famous Route 66 is just minutes away from me.
     I thought it would be all in good fun and a gesture to call this online blog ‘Living in Oklahoma with Glaucoma’. This is where I will post my stories of reflection, humor, and human interests> My goal is to make you laugh, make you think a little, and maybe just maybe connect with me.
 
June 6. 2025
      I had to go to Lowe’s to pick up a few items for my backyard. I love the backyard of our new house. Well, actually, I miss the backyard of my old house where we lived in Charlotte. Our house was in a perfect location. We were about 4 doors down from a cul-de-sac. We had little if no traffic on our street. Wendy and I raised both of our two children on that street. When we bought the house, the street was a new extension of an old neighborhood. All of us who lived there knew each other. I was and still is a quiet and peaceful neighborhood. Our backyard faced a high configuration of trees. When you sat outside, it gave you the feeling that you were in the woods. Over the years, this would be my place of solitude. I would eventually add a gazebo, bird feeders, outdoor furniture, a garden, and a mobile storage shed. There is one thing that only a few of my close friends know about me. I am an avid bird watcher.
     I set up 5 bird feeders, and I would watch them from my kitchen window, drinking my morning coffee. I loved it!
     Well, life here in Oklahoma would be no different. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I was at my local Lowe’s store to buy supplies for my backyard. While standing in the checkout line, this elderly woman turned around and started a conversation with me. She shared her love for daisies and how much work she had ahead of her today. I was taken in by her congenial demeanor and friendly nature. She told me her name was ‘Jerry’ and she shared how she loved riding on the back of her husband’s motorcycle on sunny days. Wow, the conversation was simple, but our engagement with one another was so honest and natural. I soon made it to the cashier to pay for my things and was making my way out to my car when I stopped again.
      A man named ‘Scott’ stopped me, and we were engaged in a meaningful conversation, too. He was a grandfather like me, and we both laughed at the antics of our grandchildren together. The conversation in the Lowe’s parking lot was only a few minutes long, but the fact that these random people decided to engage with me made my day. Sometimes I can’t help but ask myself. Why is there so much conflict in the world today? Is life really that hard?
 
June 20, 2025
     Life is going well, living in Oklahoma with Glaucoma these days. The people of Oklahoma are the nicest people you would want to meet. I don’t feel that unusual ‘vibe’ that I can get with people who might feel uncomfortable talking with me because I am a black man. I that because all of my life it has been the ‘invisible wall’ that minorities feel when they are the only person of their kind in a social environment. Over the years I have learned to live with it and at times use it to my advantage to make new friends. No these people appeared to me to be sincere and genuine. I know bad people are everywhere but it is refreshing to be in a place where people respected you. 
 
June 21, 2025
     As a man in his 60’s, I do appreciate I have been able to live to experience some of the major things in life. For example, I am from the generation to have used an actual dial rotary phone. I am also the generation that grew up without the internet, a computer, or a cell phone. I remember that we only had three television stations, and they would end their broadcasting at midnight with the playing of the National Anthem. Communities were more connected with each other. The church that I went to was made up of the people in my entire neighborhood. I fond memories of us kids playing outside, riding our bikes and playing touch football in the street. What worries me now is how technology has become a intracate part of our lives. 
     I can go into any public place and I see people everywhere sitting there with their cell phones out and engaged in some kind of interaction with it. The cell phone has become a necessary item that everyone must have in order to communicate with the world. I  have never been much of a ‘text’ or ’email’ person when it came to communicating with people. However, it has been unavoidable and necessary if we are to stay connected to our friends, families, and business affairs. Now that I am retired, my volume of emails, texts, and phone calls has dropped significantly, but a new connection has emerged. This is ‘spam calls’. Beware, if you fill out a form online or register for an app, you will eventually get spam calls. I have done everything short of threatening the telemarketer to stop calling me. By law, we are allowed to ask them to place us on some kind of ‘do not call’ list, but I think no such thing exists. 
     I have also tuse the ‘block’ feature on my cell phone to block their calls, however, I think they are using some computer program to recycle the phone numbers they use to call me. I know there are apps out there [I just got a spam call while writing this blog!] that can monitor these calls but they charge a fee for their services. I say all of this to say this, we are slowly becoming disconnected from each other. People everywhere are becoming more and more comfortable with the new way communicating. I personally hate it. I am socially driven by interacting with people. I need to see your facial expressions. I need to read your body language to understand you. You can’t get that from an email or a text message. Recentlly statistics have shown that ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ has increased with the invention of social media.
       So what’s the answer? I think the has grown so big, I really don’t know where so start. However for me, I am going to take steps that are intentional. I am going to purposely interact with my friends, neighbors and people in general. I am going force myself to engage in conversations, and interactions. I will also try to reduce my time that I spend on my cell phone and social media. It’s going to be hard but I believe it’s worth it.
 

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I am Sgt. Roy and I am so excited about the opportunity to meet with you to help develop and inspire the next generation of strong ‘intentional’ leaders within your organization. Let’s schedule a call.

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