Built To Last

Located at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Kentucky is one of Sturgeon Bay's more prominent lat 19th-century commercial buildings; the Hay Hardware Building.  I paid a call last week for an annual eye exam at Door County Eye Associates and always enjoy the tasteful blend of old architecture and a new professional suite replete with modern technology.

Hardware merchants Charles Tifft and John Hay expanded their business in Ahnapee (Algoma) to Sturgeon Bay in the 1880s.   Hay moved to Sturgeon Bay to manage the store.  The business grew in popularity with Door County farmers supplying everything from heavy agricultural supplies, nails, paint and fencing.  As the business grew, Tifft and Hay built the brick building at what was then the primary business corner of downtown at the intersection of Cedar and St. John Streets.  It opened in September of 1889.

During the economic depression of 1894 the two men parted company and John Hay assumed full ownership of the Sturgeon Bay business as Hay Hardware.  Around the turn of the century a matching brick addition as built at the rear to house a tin shop for the hardware business.  Prior to the opening of the Michigan Street Bridge in 1931 this building was downtown Sturgeon Bay's business anchor.  It operated continuously as a hardware store for ninety years before closing in 1979.   

Constructed of local stone and cream-colored brick the structure is a classic commercial design featuring an ornate corbelled brick cornice. decorative brick pilasters, six bay facade with limestone sills and lintels.  The building retains its original storefront and layout and showcases the original interior structural old-growth white pine timbers tied-together with iron rods and bolts.

                           When was the last time you saw square nuts that large?

Nowadays, the building persists as a contributor to the Third Avenue Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And following my cataract surgery It has become brighter, clearer and more colorful  to behold.

New Eyes

You're probably wondering why this guy is  smiling.

It's because after wearing vision-correcting eyeglasses since the fifth grade he's driving his Mustang while wearing a pair of uncorrected sunglasses that set him back a $1.50. 

Since I retired my annual visit to the eye doc has included monitoring the progression of cataracts that have conspired to degrade my vision.  Cataracts are a clouding of the natural lens of the eye, leading to blurred vision, glare, and eventual vision loss. This spring's routine visit resulted in sufficient advancement of the condition to do something about it.

I finally got my chance to get my eyes fixed.  Two visits, one week apart, to the Eye Clinic in Green Bay.   

Cataract surgery removes the cloudy lens and replaces it with a clear artificial intraocular lens (IOL).  And for me it opened up a world where everything is clearer, brighter and more colorful.  I didn't know what I was missing.

This is an outpatient procedure performed under local anesthesia with sedation (you’re awake but relaxed).  Most commonly it is performed with phacoemulsification (ultrasound to break up the lens), followed by IOL insertion.  Truthfully, the prep and recovery took up most of the time.  The procedure itself took all of ten minutes and required no eye drops in the follow-up care. 

By all outward appearances things were busy at the clinic.  Inquiring of the surgical staff I learned that there were four operating rooms and two surgeons performing, respectively, approximately 20 procedures each day of my visits.

Cataract surgery is the most commonly-performed procedure on the planet with over 3.7 million surgeries performed annually in the United States.  Over 20 million are performed globally each year and the number continues to rise due to aging populations.

Over 98% of surgeries result in improved vision and complications are rare and usually treatable. 95% of patients achieve 20/40 vision or better (good enough to drive without corrective lenses) and many achieve 20/20 with or without glasses depending on lens choice.

Best of all the procedure is covered by Medicare and my supplemental insurance policy.  Between you and me this is good government policy; trust me, you don't want millions of vision-impaired baby boomers on the road. 

At the present time both my eyes have been corrected to 20/20 vision so I went to the Dollar Store and splurged less than ten bucks for four pair of +1.75 reading glasses and a couple of plain sunglasses - one for each automobile.   My doc sez that I need to allow a month (give or take) before a final correction in vision can be confirmed. 

We are blessed to live in a Golden Age of replacement parts.

Friday Morning Music

Reggae artist Jimmy Cliff is the only living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honor that can be granted by the Jamaican government for contributions and achievements in the arts and sciences.  

The all-knowing Wikipedia tells us that "I Can See Clearly Now" is a song written and recorded by Johnny Nash. It was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of Cool Runnings, where it reached the top 20 at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.