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Unpopular Ideas

Ramblings and Digressions from out of left field, and beyond....

Name:
Location: Piedmont of Virginia, United States

All human history, and just about everything else as well, consists of a never-ending struggle against ignorance.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Eyes Only

In an hour or two I go to the eye doctor's to pick up my changed glasses. I had had the old ones for five years but hadn't gotten much use out of them. They were bifocals, and the reading area was so small that the specs were unusable. So I just used the glasses for driving, even though I could see almost as well at a distance without them. Even then their use was mainly in case I was stopped by the police, as the glasses are on my license.

I hope the new lenses, which I asked to be made "progressive" and to be set into the old frames, will improve both the near and the distant situations.

In addition to small cataracts in my right eye, which the doctor doesn't feel needs an operation yet, I have glaucoma, but it seems to be under good control. I have to take drops in my eyes for it twice a day.

The other day, while I was still struggling with the intense July glare from the drops the doctor had put in my eyes to examine them, my wife had a lady guest who spoke of having floaters. Predictably not having had much to say till then, I piped up cheerfully and said that I had them once, and that was when my glaucoma started.

I guess I never expect things to befall other people the same way that they do me, but she instantly turned edgy, and I apologized quickly for imparting that clearly unwanted info. Later my wife brushed it off by saying that her friend was unusually alert to all kinds of health threats, obviously much more so than I am..


Despite these difficulties I'm pretty happy with my vision. So far, 95 percent of the time I can make do without the use of glasses, though reading the computer is increasingly becoming a job, and I have to use the ctrl-shift-+ trick a lot.

Websites too often seem to be designed by young people who never expect anything to impair the 20-20 vision that they were born with but shouldn't expect to be able to take for granted forever.

3 Comments:

Blogger LeftLeaningLady said...

Ok, I hate to be the retard, but what is the ctrl-shift-+ trick? I tried it, nothing happened.

My husband (44 next month) has started using reading glasses in the last few months. I think they annoy him, but I find them incredibly sexy. :-)

I (just a baby at 41) have EXCELLANT vision up close. The eye doctor was kind of shocked at how good it is. Distance? Yes, legally blind without my lenses since I was a teen ager. Everyone tells me I should have lasiks and get rid of the contacts, but I don't want anyone coming near my eyes with a laser or a scalpel or anything else.

I hope your new glasses work wonderfully

9:55 AM  
Blogger Steve Bates said...

LeftLeaningLady, while viewing a web page, try ctrl-+ (without the shift key). That enlarges the text size in either IE or Firefox. If you use the shift key as Carl suggests, ctrl-shift-+, it works only in IE. Of course, as you might expect, ctrl-- reduces the size again, but you probably wouldn't guess that ctrl-0 (that's a zero) returns to the default text size.

Regarding Lasik, a lot depends on the doc: my s.o. Stella researched for months before choosing one here in Houston, and her results are effectively flawless. I personally consider contacts not merely a bother but also an infection hazard... I just use reading glasses.

5:22 PM  
Blogger Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) said...

Actually Steve, on my Firefox that enlarging trick works quite well. Maybe it's the version. I hardly ever use I.E. but I do use Firefox 90% of the time and it works okay on version 2.0 on one machine and on the new version 3.0 on another.

BTW I learned about that trick from you, while we were visiting the website of one of your lady constituents. I forget her name. The one with the highly mysterious black and purple site. At first, as with LeftLady, it didn't work too well, but eventually it came around and now I rely on it heavily.

Lady, I had the laser operation on my left eye a couple of years ago. It was somewhat traumatic, the very idea of having tiny holes punched into my retina or whatever, but the doctor thought it was essential to ease the pressure causing the glaucoma. But the ordeal was over quickly and I haven't noticed any ill effects so far. I can't see as well out of my other eye, because it's the one with the cataracts, but apparently the glaucoma isn't as apparent there, and so the laser on that eye hasn't been done yet.

But being so much older than you, I can afford to be much more blase and relaxed about these things.

Though it wasn't quite what you were saying, I've always thought that wearing glasses adds a certain touch of sexiness to women. I know why I think that, but it's a little risky to go any farther into that. :)

9:01 AM  

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