A Correction and A Stunning Eye Exam

I don't like being wrong, so let's just get this out of the way:

Those butterflies I've been posting about are Painted Ladies not Monarchs. There was a story about them on the local news last evening. Apparently this is a good year for them. And when you see them side-by-side, as above, the difference is obvious. So, in defense of self, my first inclination was right when on that first day I told Bud they weren't Monarchs, but I should have looked more closely.

I had my annual eye exam yesterday. This was the first time since my second cataract surgery in the fall of 2013 that I have gone a year between visits to my favorite eye doc. After the surgery on my left eye, I developed cystoid macular edema and had been seeing Dr. Stults every six months.

Cystoid Macular Edema is a risk of cataract surgery. The percentage of having it is between five and six per cent of patients. I am one of those 'luck of the draw' who developed it. The good news is that my eyes have stabilized, no changes. Ken even said my eyes "look good". I told him I still want perfect vision, but I haven't had that since I was ten years old.

Oh, the stunning part of my visit to the eye doctor? It actually had nothing to do with my eyes. During the check in, because it had been a year since my last visit, they had to have my insurance cards and go over all my information: phone #, address, marital status, birth date, etc. etc. All SOP until the receptionist asked if my husband also was a patient there. I said, yes. She said "We don't have his name linked with yours." I told her we have different last names. She then asked: "Would you like us to link your names? All the billing would go to him in his name."
I think I almost gasped. "Absolutely not!" I noticed one of the other employees look at me like, "What's wrong with her?" I said, "I went through that in the 60's and don't want to go through it again." I'm sure those young women, who take for granted credit in their own names, responsibility for themselves, freedom from being chattel, etc., probably had no idea what I was referring to.
Most likely they see The Handmaid's Tale as an entertaining television program. I see it as a very scary cautionary of what the future could hold in a fundamentalist, totalitarian world. Something my eyes won't see, but their's could.