Glasses Galore

 My New "Progressive" Glasses

 Anthony in His New Glasses

 Cool Design on the Side of My New Glasses

My Little Collection of Glasses

It is glasses galore here at the Dally household.  About 6 years ago I started having a bit of blurriness with my eyes adjusting to distances while driving after leaving the office at the end of the day.  What I originally thought was a distance issue turned out to be farsightedness.  In other words I would see things at a distance better than I could up close.  I was a bit confused at first because my symptoms indicated the opposite to be true.  However, my ophthalmologist explained that my eyes were straining all day at the computer and so upon leaving work they were then having difficulty focusing at a distance.  Sure enough with a simple pair of "reader" glasses the issue immediately resolved.  He did mention that most people have difficulty with their eyes after the age of 40 and mine was just related to age.  Nothing you like to hear but just a simple fact of life for me.  After over 40 years of better than 20/20 vision I was thankful that it had not surfaced sooner.  I was also thankful that the issue was minor and took to wearing my glasses with stride.

Since I go for a routine eye exam annually I started a small collection of glasses that I would wear for computer use, reading, carving etc.  Each year I would visit my prescription never changed although he did warn me that it is not uncommon for it to change every 2 or 3 years.  The longer I used them the more I discovered that I not only needed them at work or home but also just about any time I was reading.  At restaurants looking at menus, at the grocery store reading labels, looking at my phone etc.  You get the idea.  Basically I started carrying around my glasses all the time and was constantly putting them on and pulling them off.  The one things I was not going to start doing was wearing a granny chain around my neck.  Just too uncomfortable and it would get tangled up with my necklaces.

It became so annoying last year that I finally asked Dr. Stebel at Boise Mountain Eye Care about the option of contacts.  He thought it might solve my problems but little did I know that I am all thumbs and no patience when it comes to contacts.  Not only did we fiddle with the prescription 4 times to try to get me clear vision for both near and far but operator error on my part made attempting to wear contacts a living hell.  It would often take me 20 to 40 minutes to get them into my eyes.  Then lots of second guessing if I even managed to get them in the right way.  I was not a candidate for extended wear so they had to be taken out and put back in each day.  If I am not willing to straighten my hair each day why on earth would I want to spend 40 minutes putting in contacts.  It was insanely frustrating as they would tumble down my clothing on to floor or even into the garbage can (one day one fell onto the roll of toilet paper and I could not fine it because I couldn't see it) and I would be loosing patience by the minute.  I ask you how on earth do they expect you to see what you are doing when you don't have glasses on to see.  My magnifying mirror was really of little help.  And the drops you add to keep your contact moist and supple and to assist with eye fatigue played havoc with my feeble attempts to wear eye makeup.  I tried them for about 4 weeks and traveling with them was  also not convenient.  Not only did you need all the extra supplies with you but you had to plan lots of extra time to get them in because you often ended up in poorly lit bathrooms with mirrors too far from your face to see what you are doing.  Contacts were an epic nightmare in my book.  I actually ended up donating the entire lot of unopened contacts back to Boise Mountain Eye Care.  It was either that or toss them into the trash.  I wont even go into the horror of the day I could not get one of them out of my eye for hours as it had rolled up and folded in half up under my eye lid. 

Fast forward to last week and once again my annual eye appointment was at hand.  I discussed my options and since my prescription finally changed it was time to see if there were any additional options that we had not considered previously.  I share with you today my new Kate Spade "progressive" eyeglasses.  These can be worn all day long and depending on where you look through the lens will depend on the correction you are receiving.  They did warn me that they will take a bit of getting use to.  Not only the fact of actually having them on my face all day every day but where I need to look for what.  Right now I am not sure when I should be moving my eyes or my head to see what I want to see.  I am so conditioned to look over the tops of my glasses for distance (if I do have them on) that I keep forgetting that I do not need to do that now.  Instead I can just look through the top of the lens.  I will still be carting around an eyeglasses case but I am hopeful that these will solve my issues and help me see the small stuff when I need to without rummaging through my purse to find them.  If they work I will see about taking one of my older pairs to have the lens changed so I have a backup pair in case of loss or damage.  They did say that the lense has to be big enough for progressives so I am not sure if my old glasses are large enough or not.  The other good news is that there are lots of great organizations that you can donate used glasses to and mine are in perfect condition.  Once I determine which ones I no longer need (I actually have four pairs) I can donate some of them for others in need.

Anthony also picked up his glasses.  He has been wearing progressives for years and years although he needed them for both distance and reading.  I mentioned to him last night that I was wondering if we were starting to look like each other.  If I just dye my hair gray I bet we would now that we are both in glasses full time.  You always hear about couples looking more and more alike as the years go by.  You just never know.