A very large problem with being extremely nearsighted almost since birth is that one never gets trained in picking out reading glasses.
You farsighted people don't know how easy you have it - your impairment has made you experts at shopping for spectacles. Most of you became veterans in your mid-to-late 20s at pawing through the optical offerings at the pharmacy or five-and-dime store.
Ah, but the nearsighted face real challenges. Most of us have been wearing glasses since we got out of diapers and many of us have such horrifically distorted lenses that we were introduced to bifocals shortly after puberty. Therefore, the doctor tuning up those lenses picked the magnification for reading.
But, when vanity steps in at, say, the tender age of 64 and one decides to try contact lenses, the trouble begins. The doctor will tell you that, yes, there are such things as bifocal contacts or that he can under-correct your non-dominant eye, allowing you to read.
Those, however, sound like gimmicks so you opt to get contacts to see far away and pick up some spectacles to read. How hard can it be? Those farsighted dudes have been doing it for years.
Well, there must be something to the old saw about teaching an old dog new tricks. It was difficult to read the cards explaining how to pick a pair of glasses - our new contacts were blurry at anything within 4 feet. We finally snapped on a pair. Hmm . . . not bad. Bought them and headed back to the office.
Unfortunately, our office is not as brightly lit as the drug store and our computer screen was a blur from our desk chair.
Back to the pharmacy for an exchange. A little bit stronger pair. Excellent.
Back to the office. The computer was blurrier than before. What's going on?
Back to the pharmacy. At this point, security was watching us, convinced we were not just exchanging glasses, but engaged in some nefarious scam. We ignored them and picked out a weaker pair than the originals. Excellent.
Back to the office. Lo and behold, we could read the computer screen. Three times is indeed the charm.
Now, the problem is the only thing we can think to write about is how swell we look in our new contacts. And, of course, how good it is to have the computer looking like it did before we had our eyes fixed.
* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.
