New Old Glasses
Jul. 22nd, 2004 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynI last bought glasses in 2000. At the time, I got a new anti-reflective coating on them, which was really cool for around eight months, and then started to go downhill from there. The coating was very scratch-prone, and didn't protect the lenses well, either. At the beginning of 2003, I put money into my medical savings account to replace them, because they were pretty scratched up. And then never got around to doing so.
Last weekend, Lut was complaining about his glasses, too. At this point, I'd been half-tempted to limp along with my current pair until 2005, then put more money into my MSA for Lasik and get the whole business behind me permanently. (Or at least until my eyes start to degrade again as I get older). But I decided another five months was too long to suffer with these things
So last night we trundled off to the same glasses shop we hit in 2000. I got an eye exam (they haven't changed much, if at all) and the medical diagnostic tests for glaucoma and whatnot (whee, air puffs in the eyeballs. Nothing wrong there, either, assuming you don't count having a field of vision that only focuses within 3 inches of my face).
And then went to look at new frames. "What kind do you want?" one of the attendants asked.
I took mine off. "I want these. But I'm betting I can't have them."
"Can you live without them for seven days?" a man behind the counter said. He'd seen my prescription. This was a rhetorical question.
I wandered the racks of frames, looking at men's, women's, and kids' alike. My current pair of frames had been a children's pair, but the lens size on glasses has plummeted in the last few years. And long, narrow lenses are in. Very in. Very, very in. I hate shopping for new frames. It's like having to buy a whole new face when you've just gotten used to your current one.
I dug through the samples and came back to Lut. "What do you think of these?"
"Ooo, granny glasses."
"These?"
"Ah, the modern granny glasses."
"This one?"
"The librarian look."
I went back to the counter and put my old glasses on the counter. "How much would it be to put new lenses in these?"
I had my old pair of glasses at home. (They're what I'm wearing in this user icon; fairly similar to my current glasses, but with larger lenses and plastic earpieces.) The prescription isn't quite the same, and I may come to regret my vanity; it's hard to focus on text on the screen with them. But my old glasses (which had also been worn continuously for at least three years) are much less scratched up than the ones I just turned over to the shop. The slight distortion effects at the periphery of my vision I've gotten used to, but apart from the focusing-on-text issue (maybe I'll just change the resolution on my monitor) it's actually better. Everything else looks cleaner and crisper now.
They offered me the anti-reflective coating again.
I declined.
Last weekend, Lut was complaining about his glasses, too. At this point, I'd been half-tempted to limp along with my current pair until 2005, then put more money into my MSA for Lasik and get the whole business behind me permanently. (Or at least until my eyes start to degrade again as I get older). But I decided another five months was too long to suffer with these things
So last night we trundled off to the same glasses shop we hit in 2000. I got an eye exam (they haven't changed much, if at all) and the medical diagnostic tests for glaucoma and whatnot (whee, air puffs in the eyeballs. Nothing wrong there, either, assuming you don't count having a field of vision that only focuses within 3 inches of my face).
And then went to look at new frames. "What kind do you want?" one of the attendants asked.
I took mine off. "I want these. But I'm betting I can't have them."
"Can you live without them for seven days?" a man behind the counter said. He'd seen my prescription. This was a rhetorical question.
I wandered the racks of frames, looking at men's, women's, and kids' alike. My current pair of frames had been a children's pair, but the lens size on glasses has plummeted in the last few years. And long, narrow lenses are in. Very in. Very, very in. I hate shopping for new frames. It's like having to buy a whole new face when you've just gotten used to your current one.
I dug through the samples and came back to Lut. "What do you think of these?"
"Ooo, granny glasses."
"These?"
"Ah, the modern granny glasses."
"This one?"
"The librarian look."
I went back to the counter and put my old glasses on the counter. "How much would it be to put new lenses in these?"
I had my old pair of glasses at home. (They're what I'm wearing in this user icon; fairly similar to my current glasses, but with larger lenses and plastic earpieces.) The prescription isn't quite the same, and I may come to regret my vanity; it's hard to focus on text on the screen with them. But my old glasses (which had also been worn continuously for at least three years) are much less scratched up than the ones I just turned over to the shop. The slight distortion effects at the periphery of my vision I've gotten used to, but apart from the focusing-on-text issue (maybe I'll just change the resolution on my monitor) it's actually better. Everything else looks cleaner and crisper now.
They offered me the anti-reflective coating again.
I declined.
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Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 07:30 am (UTC)Too bad it is too expensive and the potential side affects(which affect almost no one, but I'm too afraid to risk it) put me off.
Why are all the nice frames for people who don't need heavy duty prescriptions?
Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 08:08 am (UTC)And I couldn't find ANY nice frames, period. The ultra-thin (ultra-expensive) lenses are lightweight enough that they go in pretty much any frame, and most of the frames were very small anyway. But that long narrow shape is just not flattering to me, and practically everything they had was like that. Bleah.
Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 09:09 am (UTC)Oddly enough, this is the side effect that worries me.
Dry eyes did not sound too serious when I first heard it. But then I think back and I have had, once or twice, eyes so painfully dry I just couldn't stand to focus on the monitor. And considering that is what I do all day, for me that would be serious.
And the people who get it get a range of it. Some it is a minor inconvenience, some it is a major problem.
I'm just paranoid that I'll be on the major problem end of it.
I figure I'll give contacts a try again, now they have an extended wear disposable that you can sleep in and toss at the end of the week. Cleaning them was such a pain, so I want disposable. But daily wears defeats the whole point that I want to not fumble around when I wake up in the morning.
If contacts don't make me happy, than maybe I can save up the money for laser surgery in a few years.
Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 09:09 am (UTC)Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 02:14 pm (UTC)Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-22 02:46 pm (UTC)Re: Surgery
Date: 2004-07-23 02:29 pm (UTC)Anyway, my biggest fear of the surgery is the highly unlikely possibility that the doctor screws up so badly, that I see worse than before, or go blind or something.
This is also why I can't wear contacts; I don't trust myself to put anything in my eyes. (Also they didn't have contacts for my type of vision problems until recently.)
Nice frames exist -- they are just pricey
Date: 2004-07-22 11:47 am (UTC)Re: Nice frames exist -- they are just pricey
Date: 2004-07-22 02:49 pm (UTC)That's the thing: I don't. Can't speak for Gary. :) Reflecting back, there were a couple of kiosks of frames that I didn't poke through, so maybe they had something like mine hidden away somewhere.
But the frames I had were cheap when I got them four years ago. It's not that they were an expensive model; they'r just not "in style" any more.