It’s not just ‘which line can you read’ on the chart. It’s being able to resolve items in the far distance quickly and without thought, so that you can devote attention to the speed with which you’re closing.
Got a little trace of cataract: they’ve been telling me that for nearly 15 years. Someday it may need attention, but it’s a minor thing so far.
Managed to step on my reading glasses, but the technician managed to straighten them out, and they’re pretty good. I may get new reading glasses. Or not. I prefer glass for those, because of the precision and clarity, and I need all the light I can get. The optometrist I’ve found does grind their own glass lenses, which is a good thing. But I’ve gone with plastic on the driving glasses…I swear I may attach a chain to them so they can’t leave the car. I lose them, because I wear them into the house, realize what I’ve done, lay them down—and they become cat toys. I don’t know why the cats pick on my driving glasses. I have one missing pair wandering somewhere behind the furniture. I’d like to find them, because though the prescription sucks pond water, they’re good frames.
Next thing I get to do is pass my driving test—you pass a certain birthday and they want you to come in and show them you can read the chart. Funny thing—below that age, you renew online, and one of the questions is, Can you see ok?
They’re out there driving, friends.
I always used to snicker at people who wore eyeglass chains. HAH! Not anymore!
Funny thing about license renewal. Last year they sent me my renewal application and let me do the whole thing on line…..at 71!
I too am dealing with a cataract in one eye, which has been at the same point for years. No glaucoma though, which I understand can be a problem for diabetics.
I stopped wearing glass lenses after smashing several pairs by having them fall into the kiln. I have finally found a good optometrist who does everything on computer. I am wearing the best glasses I have had in many years. In fact my alternate pair gives me a headache.
Toes crossed that someday the kittehs deign to return your glasses. Good frames are expensive and hard to find!
I don’t need to get my license renewed until 2020, and I gave up on not using glasses for the visual test long ago; it wasn’t worth trying and wasting time. I just got bifocals for the second time after several years, and am having fun adjusting. My astigmatism is the big problem, but I also had to make a special request of my optometrist to move the ‘line’ for my bifocals a couple of millimeters above where the transition would normally be. That way, I can use the reading/computer part of the bifocals without having to tilt my head back uncomfortably at the computer. I made the assistant snarf when I described wedging a blob of toilet paper under the bridge of my new glasses to make then high enough for the computer monitor. And yes, glasses are another way to experiment with kitty gravity.
I have conventional-bifocals as sunglasses and progressives as the indoor/reading glasses, being nearsighted, astigmatic, and over the hill. (Tinting helps blur the line on bifocals, and it’s not where it affects my road view.)
Glasses case on the top of the steering wheel, chain going to the headrest?
Hmmm… explanation in order here! If one attaches one-wrap velcro to the back of a glasses case, it might be persuaded to stay right at the top or at one side of the wheel, so that when the glasses stay with the head rest, you’ll have a place to put them.
Or small chain going to the headrest, with velcro’d case. Mmmm.
let’s see….have it set up so that if you open the door and try to get out, the chain pulls the glasses off your face and you don’t carry them into the house with you. However, if the chain is too long and you don’t notice it, you could conceivably drop the glasses down far enough that when you close the door .
I am glad that the opthalmalogist that did my cataract surgery in 2011 did such a great job that I no longer need glasses to drive or to see far. I do need reading glasses, though, and because I’m cheap, I buy the ones available at Dollar Tree (where everything’s a dollar!). Given how quickly I manage to destroy a pair, buying them this way seems to make economic sense to me.
Re: Cataract “surgery”.
What they do today is totally different than what they did decades ago.
My sister had hers done last year. I drove her in and home with a clear plastic “eye patch”. Back the next day and they took off the cover, and pronounced her fit to drive, albeit now with one eye having gone from 20:400 to 20:20 “overnight”. She stayed home for a week, not having a monocle. (Hmmm, guess she “lost” contacts somewhere through the years?) Back a week later 😮 for a repeat performance. ISTR she said it took some “getting used to”. Now she has reading glasses, really, really cheap.
One might wish to develop cataracts!
Interesting. If they can do it that fast, and with that little fuss, I might consider it sooner. I’ve sat still for removal of stitches (ow), for removal of numerous splinters, a nasty bout of iritis, another session for treatment of an allergy to neomycin that literally (and permanently) melted the edge of my right eye, sat still for having my cornea tacked back on (DO wear GOOD goggles while weedeating that strip near the curb: piece of gravel) and had the end of a cut branch hit me full in the eye when I looked up, all dealt with with a bottle of eyedrops and a ‘take care.’ So cataract surgery that takes 90 minutes start to finish is not near daunting.
I’ve had both eyes done. One was complicated by a previous surgery but the other was in and out in an hour and a half including prep. The actual surgery was about 20 minutes. And for the first time in 60 years I see well without glasses.
They don’t use sutures any more, either. Now they glue the (tiny) incision shut, so you don’t feel anything when you blink.
I had expected to develop cataracts since both of my parents and grandparents on both sides had them, but so far they don’t see them developing. My optometrist is watching a “freckle” on my macula in hopes that it won’t develop into something really bad like macular degeneration. I think I’d rather have cataracts.
The last time I renewed my driver’s license, I got restricted for the first time in my life; I was always farsighted and had to get reading glasses when I turned 40. A few years back I graduated to progressive bifocals and those are working well for me. I put ’em on when I get up in the morning and take ’em off when I go to bed at night. They don’t work as well for lying in bed and reading, so I got some readers for that which live on/in the nightstand. And all this reminds me that it’s time for my annual eye exam.
The cause of cataracts is living long enough to get them. Some just develop them sooner than others.
In California, you get two renewals by mail, then you have to come in for a new photo and an eye test. This is something like 13 to 15 years, so it’s not at all unreasonable. (Although last time the guy at the desk renewed with my hair color as brown, and I was standing right in front of him with my nearly-white hair.)
Oh yes, get the eye glass chains. The Little Spokane taught me that one! XD
For the record though, Sharon helped me get my prescription renewed, and those two pairs of specs are still good today, five years later! 😀 All thanks to Shejicon and my friends. 🙂
I have the untidy habit of hooking one earpiece in my collar as a glasses-holder. As graceful as rolling your cigarette pack in your teeshirt sleeve as bikers did in the 50’s, but I have to have my reading glasses constantly handy because I am blind as a bat to things very close and small. This method has one serious drawback: seatbelts can flip them right off if you don’t watch it as you unbelt.
Or when gardening. Or when picking up anything on the floor. Or when putting new sheets on the bed. Or… 😉
You could go for the biker’s jacket with a daring animal print pocket protector / glasses case at a rakish angle. Perhaps wooly mammoth? Cave bear? Camelopardus? Something exotic but common enough of its era. Le-matya hide? An auburn / ginger red zebra print?
This would seem the ideal way to offset the stigma of the pocket protector and the eyeglasses chain. Who would dare question the rockin’ cool factor of that biker chain and leather jacket and fur pocket case? Heh. Aaayyy.
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Any chance that Seeking North might be restarted after the current book is done, as a further relaxation and reward? I find myself wondering how Deke and the others are faring.
Uhmmm >blush< I tuck them in my bra.
well, that works for anyone who wears a bra……that definitely excludes ME! 😉
Dude, you’re not foolin’ anyone with those coconuts….
Hello – my first comment! I need my glasses to find my glasses.
Eyeglass cords: yes they’re useful, but with some reservations.
I always had glasses because I was nearsighted, but about a year ago I also got some reading/computer glasses, which I mostly used for needlework (as reading without glasses was easier). That was easy enough, they lived beside my easy chair.
Then I started needing them at work, to read my computer screen and whatever is on my desk. But to see my coworkers and surroundings when walking or talking I needed my old glasses, so I started constantly switching them. At that point the glasses chains came into use, which broke regularly when they got squeezed between the edges of my glasses case. A cord worked better than the chain.
After a few months I noticed that both sets of glasses had become scratched, generally very near to where I needed to look through them. Keeping the not-currently-in-use one on a cord round my neck meant it kept bumping into things like the table, and whatever was on it, usually whith the center of the glass first. As those scratches were irritating, and my glasses are too costly to have to replace them often, I switched to bifocals.
I find the bifocals ideal for doing needlework on the terrace or in front of the TV, so I can look at my work and look up at the view without any interruptions. I really dislike them for walking as my feet are out of focus and I keep slightly misstepping and fearing I’ll twist my ankle a lot worse than I do at present about once a month. They’re also very bad for looking at the computer screen at work, as I have to tilt my head backwards to get it all in focus.
So, I’m back to switching off my reading glasses and my other glasses, and have decided to embroider a simple case to wear around my neck that I can put the not-currently-in-use pair in. Sort of like a glasses chain (cord) with attached protective fabric (quilted/embroidered) case.
The great advantage of a case like that, with a nice soft flannel lining, is that it helps keep your glasses clean; whereas if you park them on top of your hair or in the neck of your blouse the glasses always get smudged.
As Jane is very handy with her sewing, she might be able to make some nice little rectangular cases on cords, colour-coordinated for your favourite driving outfits so it looks like a fashion accessory? Might make a good Thanksgiving or Christmas present…
Eyeglass cords: yes they’re useful, but with some reservations.
I always had glasses because I was nearsighted, but about a year ago I also got some reading/computer glasses, which I mostly used for needlework (as reading without glasses was easier). That was easy enough, they lived beside my easy chair.
Then I started needing them at work, to read my computer screen and whatever is on my desk. But to see my coworkers and surroundings when walking or talking I needed my old glasses, so I started constantly switching them. At that point the glasses chains came into use, which broke regularly when they got squeezed between the edges of my glasses case. A cord worked better than the chain.
After a few months I noticed that both sets of glasses had become scratched, generally very near to where I needed to look through them. Keeping the not-currently-in-use one on a cord round my neck meant it kept bumping into things like the table, and whatever was on it, usually with the center of the glass first. As those scratches were irritating, and my glasses are too costly to have to replace them often, I switched to bifocals.
I find the bifocals ideal for doing needlework on the terrace or in front of the TV, so I can look at my work and look up at the view without any interruptions. I really dislike them for walking as my feet are out of focus and I keep slightly misstepping and fearing I’ll twist my ankle a lot worse than I do at present about once a month. They’re also very bad for looking at the computer screen at work, as I have to tilt my head backwards to get it all in focus.
So, I’m back to switching off my reading glasses and my other glasses, and have decided to embroider a simple case to wear around my neck that I can put the not-currently-in-use pair in. Sort of like a glasses chain (cord) with attached protective fabric (quilted/embroidered) case.
The great advantage of a case like that, with a nice soft flannel lining, is that it helps keep your glasses clean; whereas if you park them on top of your hair or in the neck of your blouse the glasses always get smudged.
As Jane is very handy with her sewing, she might be able to make some nice little rectangular cases on cords, colour-coordinated for your favourite driving outfits so it looks like a fashion accessory? Searching for free patterns turns up lots of choices, as you can see at the links. Might make a good Thanksgiving or Christmas present…
I’ve worn glasses since I was 7, and needed them at least a year earlier. Progressive bifocals have worked very well for me (it took my eyes 15-30 seconds to adapt, for which I’m very grateful). My spouse has had the cataract surgery and now needs glasses only occasionally, so wears them around his neck using a cord (REI sells inexpensive, sturdy, and not obnoxiously colored ones). His glasses do get smudged and scratched more than mine, but the anti-scratch coating helps.
My vision is so bad without my glasses that I’m *very* careful where I place them at night or when I shower (a colored washcloth that contrasts with the counter). I also have a backup pair that lives in a place where I can find the case even when I’m without my glasses.
My husband has a little more trouble keeping track of his glasses because he doesn’t need them all the time, but has developed the habit of taking them off in very specific places, so finding them isn’t (usually) too time-consuming.
I really like Hanneke’s idea of combining glasses chain with glasses case, though. Very practical!
My mother had reading glasses she wore on a chain – she folded them and tucked an earpiece into her neckband when she was eating, though, as hanging glasses are excellent food catchers.
I just received my Trackr devices. It’s a coin-sized device that I’ve attached to each pair of glasses (threaded it on the glasses cord using the waterproof casing, which won’t slide off easily even if the cord gets loose at one end). There’s also a sticker variation. Using bluetooth on your phone or tablet you can locate the device, or make it whistle, to help find it. It also works in reverse: pressing the little button on the device makes the phone you’ve registered it on beep, to help locate that. They’re not cheap, almost $25 apiece, but for me a lot cheaper than new glasses.
There are 3 or 4 firms on the internet that make something like that; I liked lthis one because I can put in new batteries myself.
If you’re likely to lose them farther afield, other Trackr users devices can help search for your lost item, but if there isn’t much coverage of other users around you it might be better to look at a small gps-locator instead of this bluetooth type.
There is an adjustable eyeglass product out now (as of June 2015) called “AdlensFocuss”, which looks interesting. They aren’t selling it where I live though. That seems like the right approach for the future, well until we start just correcting everyone’s eyes surgically anyway.