Another Milestone Reached

Have I mentioned lately that I'm getting old? Well, maybe not old, but definitely older. Try as I might to ignore that fact, it keeps coming up and hitting me in the face!

Case in point: Thursday night after work, I had to go to my eye doctor's to pick up my new glasses. Yes, my BIFOCAL glasses. The recommendation for my new glasses is to not wear my contacts or go back to my old glasses for two weeks. I am supposed to give the glasses a chance and work on getting used to the new glasses - for two weeks. It's been two days and I'm ready to flush them down the toilet!

First let me tell you something about my lenses. They are progressive lenses, so there is no line of demarkation between the regular prescription and the bifocal. It goes from the regular prescription on the top of the lens, the middle of the lens is a lighter bifocal and the bottom of the lens is the stronger bifocal. I kind of like that part, but you hold a book and I have to bob my head up and down until I find where the right spot is to read the print of the book. Unfortunatly, you sure do give up some clarity on the peripheral vision. No one warned me about that part. Well, my brother Jim complained about the same thing on his glasses, but who listens to him?! (I love you, brother!)

One thing I should not have done is drove to work on Friday without a back up plan. I am amazed, and very lucky, that I made it there and back safely.

If I just sit here, I'm fine. If I try to sit and read a book I'm fine. If there is any movement involved however, I am in a boatload of trouble. I can walk up the stairs ok, but walking downstairs I've found it much easier to just close my eyes and count the steps. I lose all vision looking down while going down the stairs and I've almost gone ass over tincups down the stairs once already. I'm woozy, dizzy and quite a bit nauseous. Yeah, good times.

Friday late morning, I had my annual review at work (which surprisingly I passed with flying colors, thank you very much!) and when I walked into my boss' office, he said he was surprised I looked so nervous for this. I told him I'm not nervous, I'm nauseous and proceeded to tell him about the new glasses. Ok, he may laugh now, but he's only a couple of months younger than I am so his day is coming soon.

So, now I have my new glasses. I'm trying to move as little as possible so I don't throw up. Then, Friday afternoon I took my glasses off for a minute to rest and rub my eyes. I am blind as a bat without my glasses, so without them on my face, I held them up close and was just getting a good look at them. I picked them out after my eyes were dilated, so I really wasn't sure what I picked! I was impressed with myself, that I chose so well while not being able to see! They are a purple, or maybe burgandy (did I mention I'm also color blind?) well, they are a lot darker color than my last pair. They have two very small fake gems on each earpiece and then I saw a little something on the piece that holds the lens in. I went to scrape if off with my fingernail when I noticed that it was actually the paint or enamel or whatever it is was peeling off of the frames! What the hell? After the arm and the leg that I had to pay for the dang things, how can this crap be peeling off already?

I immediately called the eye doctor's office and expressed my lack of satisfaction with these glasses. The answer I received was "well . . . that's unusual". I actually had to tell her that I expected her to replace the glasses. "Oh." Supposedly she is ordering me the new ones. Here's hoping that when they come in I am not so frustrated with the dang glasses.

I may be old and I may have bad vision, but I'm not blind! Here's hoping I can find no defects with the next pair. And that I'm no longer nauseous.