Ach!!!!!!!!

Going blind, and at the same time decorating your house, are not be recommended. You will spend as much time looking for crap you just put as down as you will spend painting, scraping or sanding.

My most used phrases in the last month or so have been: "Where did I put that fucking hammer?" and "Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh uuuurrrrgggghhhhhhh!" as I realize, (while holding a piece of drywall in one hand, and an electric screwdriver in the other, standing atop the ladder), that the screw I need just rolled off the tray and onto the floor... it's usually the only one I've got.

A big part of slowly going blind is a slowly increasing level of frustration that seeps into everything. To counteract this you start to learn new ways of doing things but they are usually time consuming and often lead to more frustration. For example, the dropped screw I mentioned above. In order to find that I will crouch in the general area of where I think it is and I will start to feel the floor with my hand. I move my hand in an ever increasing circular motion and eventually, after a bit more swearing and cursing, I find the screw.

My rehab teacher Ruth taught me this technique and even though it works well, it does have it's drawbacks. I often use it to find a pen when I am working at my desk. Unfortunately on the way to the pen I've usually knocked over a cup of tea and scattered a thousand other things across the floor.

Another thing about going blind is that you have a lot more accidents, I am covered in scratches and bruises from walking into things and brushing against sharp objects. I also tend to kick a lot of things, including my poor suffering cats who, for some reason, still flop down on the floor in front of me when I am walking. You'd think they might have learned by now!

Speaking of cats and learning - I am sure that my cats are turning into total wind-up merchants. Last week I got the power tools out and installed a cat-flap in the basement door so we could move the litter boxes down there.

Neither cat would use the flap, if they wanted to go to the box they just sat by the door and mewed. Eventually I tempted the cats down into the basement and shut them down there figuring that if I put food out at the top of the stairs in the kitchen, they would come out the flap to eat.

Nope. They just sat... And sat... And sat! They didn't even meow!! I could even look through the door of the cat flap and see the old ginger tabby happily staring back at me but making no attempt to come out!

Another "Aaaaaaarrrrggghhhhhh!!!"

So what do I do? I already cut the hole in the door so it's not like I can take it back to the shop. Eventually I remove the flap-bit from the flap and now it is just a plastic tunnel through a door. 5 minutes later they nonchalantly stroll through the hole like it was always there! It's working fine for now but it might be a bit draughty in the winter!

It's official, my cats are Little Poopyheads!