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A Puff of Air
Once a year, I make an appointment to have my eyes examined. As I sit in the chair staring into a tonometer, knowing full well what is about to occur, the sound and quick puff of air making contacting with my eyeball always surprises me. First in one eye, then the other. My initial reaction is fright, followed by an involuntary batting of my eyelid, and finally a small giggle.
The procedure is painless, but always amazes me how quickly and intuitively our body reacts to the puff when the mind knows full well, there is no impending danger.
The tonometer measures the tension or pressure inside the eye. This is important because evaluating the intraocular pressure can reveal if there is damage to the optic nerve; an important nerve bundle with over a million nerve fibers that transmits images to the brain.
Glaucoma slowly robs you of your sight. There is no pain. The only potential sign of the disease is loss of peripheral vision, as though you are looking through a fuzzy tunnel.
According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, “glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, there is no cure for glaucoma—yet, everyone is at risk, and there may be no symptoms.”
That is why it is so important to have a regular eye examination with Dr. Douglas Swanson. He will puff your eyes and determine if your optic nerve is healthy.
Optometric Expressions is located at 55 Horton Plaza (on Broadway Circle across from the NBC 7/39 building). Stop by and introduce yourself to receive a complimentary lens cloth. Click here for details.
Visit Dr. Swanson's website at www.optometricexpressions.com or call (619) 544-9000.
Whole Foods Market - Hillcrest - 711 University Ave
The Whole Deal
This incredible 13-page publication is chock full of ways to save money at Whole Foods Market, scrumptious recipes, meal planners, fun money saving tips, and a "whole" lot more.
Click on the image to download your version.
You can also pick up the full 20-page printed version from Whole Foods Market next time you are shopping! It has even more amazing coupons.
Cost Saving Coupons
Save money between now and June 30: $1.00 off any one 16-oz bottle of 365 Everyday Value Organic Salad Dressing, buy one 365 Everyday Value Pasta and get a second 16-oz package for free, and buy one 365 Everyday Facial Tissue and get the second one for free.
Just click on the coupon image to download coupons.
For more information, call (619) 294-2800 or visit Whole Foods Market.
A-1 Self Storage offers “1st Month Free!” Move-in Special
Caster Properties, Inc. is proud to announce the Grand Opening of its newest A-1 Self Storage facility; it's conveniently located in Downtown's Little Italy neighborhood at 2235 Pacific Hwy, between Laurel St and Hawthorn St.
A-1 Self Storage has a wide variety of storage unit sizes to meet your business and personal storage needs and budget.
This new state-of-the-art facility features individual alarmed units, 24-hour videotaped surveillance, coded keypad access, and climate control on select units for your peace of mind. They also carry a wide selection of packing and moving supplies for your one-stop shopping convenience.
A-1 Self Storage is open Monday – Friday, 9:00a-6:00p and Saturday – Sunday, 9:00a-5:00p . Access hours are 6:00a to 10:00p daily.
Stop by for cookies, coffee, and a tour of the new facility on Sunday mornings from 9:00a to noon.
For more information, call (619) 696-6616 or visit www.a1storage.com.
Cardiff by Steve Tussey
I lent the CD Cardiff to a friend of mine, and with her very first spin she couldn't stop listening to it over and again. She finally called me to talk her down from a feeling she could only describe as open-heart surgery.
Her voice resonated with the immediacy of fear and elation, like she had become stranded on the sandstone cliffs of Cardiff Beach, precariously close to a beautiful death. She asked me how to close up her chest before her heart leapt to the unknown freedom of the beautiful beyond.
It was very lucky for her that I actually have the very composer's phone number - and it's a local call.
Steve Tussey now lives in Cardiff, after spending 25 years in the recording studios of Hollywood and Burbank. He doesn't mind phone calls, either - as long as you don't mind the voicemail screening.
All of us seek the magic words to open someone's heart. On Cardiff they come in the first song Cold Days in April. From the song's refrain, musically and lyrically justified in exactly the same way as the bridge in the Beatles' Long and Winding Road from Let it Be;
I try, in my way, to turn back time
I cry, for the days, you were mine
Nothing opens the heart like memories, and Tussey is a master at one trick, instilling subliminal Beatles' homage into his music. Starting with the very first sympathetic drones of an actual sitar on the first track, the song digs deeply into those lonely feelings of longing for brighter days ahead. The wet-suited surfers at Swami's may not understand, but if you have ever lived in New York or London you get it right away.
As one listens the Beatles nuance grows on you - as suitably subtle as the Beatles own self-mimickery. In "You Broke It Good," a searing rock song with a super-slinky ripping guitar solo, the "you broke it" background vocals transform into the "ah-ooom shoobie-doowah" refrain from the White Album's Revolution one syllable at a time.
Song three, another classic ballad called And Somebody Cries, is a perfectly lit nude portrait of a couple breaking up with no reasonable justification beyond naked pride.
When somebody turns themselves away
With all the little things they do and say
And someone else wants to stay around
Believing inside they see more ups than downs
Then somebody cries, and somebody cries, and somebody turns to walk away…
In the middle of the song is a Moody Blues-inspired orchestral chorus, but executed by a real string quartet. It is followed by an additional signature sound the weaves into Tussey's music, a surprisingly delicate and tastefully played electric pedal steel guitar that bears no resemblance at all to the Nashville sound. A versatile instrument played sweetly enough to open any music lover's heart.
This review is just a part of what you will hear on Cardiff as it is too hard to describe what represents years of composing and perfecting songs. But the magic is in the recording and at the gigs he now plays in the San Diego area as well as Hollywood. As a recent transplant he is just building his local following, but his performances are already must-see events.
To hear the song "Somebody Cries" (and more) visit his personal Web site at www.stevetussey.com. -Review written by Special Guest Writer Paul Motter