May 28, 2009
Dear Everyone:
I forgot to mention last week that I finally found
my old computer glasses!
Some of you may be wondering, “What are computer
glasses?”
A number of years ago our
optician, who also
happens to be our cousin, told me about a new kind of lens being
developed by the optical companies for people who are
trifocal, like I
am, and who spend a great deal of their time on the computer, like I do.
The bottom third of the lenses are your reading prescription.
The middle third corrects to about 18-24 inches away, like a
computer screen. And the top
third corrects to about 6-7 feet away.
So if you’re working on the computer and someone
comes to your office or cubicle door, you can see who it is that’s
standing there. For normal
walking around, watching TV or going to the store, you use your regular
trifocal glasses. Everybody
with me so far?
When I was a little girl, our mother would catch me
inching towards the TV in the living room and order me to back further
away. “You’ll ruin your
eyes.” And when she would
see me reading a book or the newspaper, with my nose against the page,
she would order me to hold it further away.
“You’ll ruin your eyes.”
And, because my last name began with a “W”, I was
always in the last row of desks at school, so I thought nothing of the
fact that I couldn’t read the
blackboard.
It wasn’t until I was in the Seventh Grade that a music teacher
told a boy in the front row to trade desks with me.
When I still couldn’t see what was on the board, he prompted the
school nurse to notify my parents that my eyes should be checked.
Mother took me to an
eye doctor who told us what
should have been obvious: I
was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other.
He also told her that my eyesight would get progressively worse,
over time; but that eventually, it would reverse itself and start to
improve.
A few years ago, that’s what started to happen.
I noticed that my distance vision was off.
But I also noticed that I could see better at a distance with my
computer glasses than with the regular glasses.
When I got my eyes examined a few years ago, the eye doctor
confirmed that my distance viewing had improved somewhat.
I also got prescriptions for new regular and computer glasses.
But at home, in the living room, while working on
the computer and watching TV from across the room, I could see better
with the old computer glasses than with the new ones.
(I always get two pairs of computer glasses, one for work and one
for home.)
Last month, when the movers showed up, the
laptop
computer, and the old computer glasses were still sitting in the living
room. I grabbed the
computer, with its various cords and cables and such, and put them in a
black canvas bag that I’d gotten from a software company when I took
some training. I put the bag
in the kitchen, since the movers weren’t going to be moving anything in
the kitchen.
After the move, I set up the laptop in the new
living room. I swear I
looked in the canvas bag multiple times, but couldn’t find the computer
glasses. I assumed they had
been packed in a box at the last minute.
There’s always a lot of last-minute packing in a move.
And there’s always some “finally got around to it”
unpacking. “Frankie” helped
unpack the last box when she was out to help with painting the old
place. Still no sign of the
old computer glasses. In the
meantime, I’d been making do with the old computer glasses from work.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I took one last look in
the black canvas bag, pulling out some cords and there was the eyeglass
case in the bottom of the bag.
The bag was black, the case was dark brown and under the cords.
They were there all along.
Now I use them all the time and sometimes find
myself walking around the house, or even driving to and form the grocery
store with the old computer glasses instead of the regular ones.
In other news…
Back in March, when I was celebrating my 58th
birthday, “Jeannie” and I decided that my present to me would be tickets
for the both of us to go and see
Wicked, a musical about the witches of
Oz.
I ordered the tickets online and got second row seats in the
first balcony for next Thursday.
That was the best day of the week for “Jeannie” since she works
less often on Fridays.
Despite all the uproar of the move, I know
exactly where those tickets
are.
So there probably won’t be a Letter next week.
I’m taking Thursday and Friday as vacation days.
Thursday so I’m not at work all day and so tired in the evening
that I sleep through the second act.
And Friday so I can sleep in after the late night out.
It should be a lot of fun.
Love, as always,
Pete
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