Years ago there was a pest company commercial that featured a rather large bug crawling across the TV screen. Your first reaction was to grab a shoe and aim for your television to kill this rather large arachnid. It turned out that the creepy-crawly was part of the commercial, but it did get my attention. I am telling you this only because that commercial is now playing itself out in my eyes.
When I was younger, my eye doctor diagnosed me with floaters, very small things appearing on the surface of my eyes that are easier to see by looking up at the sun with your eyes closed. They were swimming across my eyes like little paramecia. I could lie on my beach chair for hours making them dance, change shapes and even hop around. It kept me busy on a slow afternoon.
I am a little older now, and the mother of all floaters has come to visit. It's right there in broad daylight. It moves like a large bug. It's much larger than a normal floater, moving side to side so fast that one would think it was flying in front of your face like a gnat or small fly. As a matter of fact, there have been several instances when I tried to swat it away, but it doesn't go away.
I stopped the swatting when people around me thought I was crazy because they couldn't see what I saw.
I went for an eye exam, and the doctor was more concerned about a detached retina, but that wasn't it. It was just a large, fly-like floater. I have disciplined myself to not swat it when it begins its flight. I just let it move side to side, knowing that it's on my lens. However, discipline can get you in trouble. I was driving to a store recently, and it appeared again, this time crawling on the inside of my windshield. I kept looking at it as it moved across the glass. My wife finally asked if that spider was deterring my driving. "What spider?" I said.
This one turned out to be real, so I smooshed it.
I am now coming to terms with the fact that I have a constant visitor flying in front of me. I want to swat it away, but I know that won't help. Keeping a can of bug spray next to me would make you think that I am crazy. What's crazier is that I never wiped away the smooshed spider from my windshield as proof that real bugs do exist.
