Coffee Break [4/1/24]

1/4/24 Hannibal 31

Glasses you can adjust for near or far with a swipe of the frame? I hope this is the future of eyewear and not an April Fool’s joke. I would pay a tidy sum for the convenience.

Brag or bitch about your vision, DaedSplinters.

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31 Comments

  1. I didn’t have my first eye exam until my early 40s because I never had vision insurance until I started working for my current employer 12 years ago.  I’d asked Mrs. Butcher to take me there because I’d heard all the horror stories of not being able to see anything afterward.

    She was in the exam room with me and when the doctor was done he said, “OK, you’re 20/20.”  Mrs. Butcher was…not amused.

    “REALLY?  Are you KIDDING ME?!”

    She’s had to wear glasses since she was a kid, so she was supremely annoyed that I still had 20/20.

    Three years later, my luck ran out and I had to start wearing readers.  It was a red letter day for Mrs. Butcher.

    • Readers made more sense before computers and smartphones. Now that we need them for more than just reading books it’s time for something better.

  3. I’d buy those glasses in a heartbeat. I’ve occasionally used my phone camera as a vision aid — aim the camera at what you’re trying to see and blow it up on your screen. If would be awesome to have glasses that would do that for me.

    I’ve been wearing glasses since second grade, so it’s hard for me to imagine not having any. I’ve worn contacts but allergies and a condition called keratoconus makes them somewhat uncomfortable. I envy people who have excellent vision, though. Currently I’m facing cataract surgery (my doctor says I’ll be the youngest person there, courtesy of a lifetime of blue eyes under the Florida sun). It’s possible they might be able to completely fix my vision, at least for a while, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

    • I had cataract surgery right before the Covid lockdown. I was the only person under 80 there. And I’d needed it done for years but the insurance company wouldn’t authorize it. I think many people need it done younger. My optometrist told me it’s because they could come back and they don’t want to pay twice. I started seeing a new optometrist and he said that’s not true, that they can’t come back. So I assume it’s because they’re hoping we die before they have to pay to have it done.
      When you do it make sure you tell them how you want your vision to be afterwards. I like reading without glasses and thought I was clear on that but they did the opposite. I can see great for driving and watching tv but I read more than I do those things so I’m screwed.

      • Yeah, my doctor warned me about that. They’ll automatically make you farsighted unless you tell them you want to be nearsighted, and based on your experience, sounds like they need to be told repeatedly. I’ve been nearsighted my whole life, and while farsighted sounds intriguing, that’s how my last set of contacts worked. They can’t correct me for both, so the contacts made me farsighted. Which was great for outdoor stuff, but if I forgot and wore my contacts to the store or something and didn’t bring readers, I was screwed. Couldn’t read labels or price tags or anything.

        Basically after decades of nearsighted I’m pretty much conditioned to work that way.

  4. I’ve been a glasses guy since 2nd grade, so I feel this. My wife’s vision is even worse, which is why we’ve been so surprised to find that our son — now 8 — doesn’t need glasses yet. But the doctor said most likely in the next few years, he’ll stop being able to outrun his genetics.

    • My wife and I have terrible vision, but my daughter was fine until she was 16 or so. We were really surprised — we expected her to need Coke-bottle glasses early on, like we did. She can still get by without glasses, but really does need them for school and driving and stuff.

  5. I got glasses when I was 13 and my vision went down hill fast. Pissed me off because you need a minimum of 20/30 to be a fighter pilot. So my dreams of hearing the “sound of freedom” ended up 16 when I got bifocals (I had other obstacles too… but this was the biggest for me.)

    It turned out I didn’t need them and got them for regular glasses at 18. Whew.

    Still my vision was shit and one of the reasons I didn’t go into military service.

    Anyway, my long distance eyesight hasn’t changed, but my reading distance has. I’m wearing progressives now since last year (I’m the last of my friends who got all theirs in their mid 40s.)

    I can pretty much “blame” dad as it turns out dad was like WW1 British Ace Mick Mannock who was pretty much blind in one eye (Mick and dad fooled the eye examiner by covering the same eye (the blind one) and they didn’t notice) and got away with driving on one eye. FYI, he only got into two accidents in 55 years.

    • That’s okay. I’m not sure if I would have been a good Maverick at all. Learned how to deal with disappointments and pivot on other things.

      Besides, I got a cheap thrill in my 40s when my friend and I went to a networked fighter sim place and we got to dogfight with other players. I ended up torching everyone including my Air Combat Maneuvering instructor (who was a retired Canadian AF Hornet pilot). He was not happy I picked him off with the Hornet’s gun (not easy to do at 400+ knots.) That’s what playing hours of accurate flight sims in your 20s will do sometimes.

  7. i only need glasses to see further away…..up close i see extremely well

    so…the fancy glasses wouldnt be much use to me

    (im only like -0.75 anyways)

    only having one eye that works properly is a bigger issue tho

    the other one is cylindrical or whatever….i dunno…it works well enough to give me depth perception..

  8. I got glasses in 2nd grade. My eyesight got worse every year. I tried contacts a few times (hard, which when I was young was the only option, and soft) but I was never able to wear them. I can feel them, I can’t get them in, I can’t get them out. I had the laser corrective surgery somewhere around 2006 or 07. I did have close to 20/20 afterwards but now I have chronic dry eye and halos (think like astigmatism). It makes night driving very difficult. I didn’t have that before, and now with the insane LEDs on street lights, signage, and car headlights/blinkers, if I drive at night, it’s on a wing and a prayer.

  9. I had the laser surgery back in 2018.  It was for cataracts, but they fixed everything while they were in there.  Didn’t do anything for my Third Eye though.

  10. Glasses since 3rd grade. Needed them earlier, but as a short person I was always in the front row and could see the blackboard okay. I’m currently -5.50 in one eye and -6.50 in the other – so – blind as a bat? I pop them on my head to read, even though I have progressive lenses. I used to wear contacts, but can’t be bothered anymore. I also have single vision computer glasses for the distance between my chair and the screen. And I am looking forward to doing Luigi has done, once I am covered by insurance. My third eye works just fine as is!

  11. I’ve been wearing glasses since fourth grade. My vision got slightly worse in my teens but has remained steady at -3.5 ever since. I happily wore contact lenses every day for the past twenty years. Now I have about 5 oil glands left (not a good thing) and had to switch to glasses. Those oil glands don’t grow back but I haven’t been experiencing any discomfort or pain soooo *shrugs*

      • I do! They only bothered me when I played video games for multiple hours in a row…I don’t blink enough.

        I don’t mind wearing glasses except I got a pair of cat eye frames and now my cap doesn’t fit. I hate my insurance and like to get as much out of them as possible so I’m waiting till next year to get a set of prescription sunglasses. In the meantime, I might sport a floppy bucket hat.

  12. I really only need them while driving to read signs, and for reading really small print.

    I tried progressives but hated them – I didn’t like constantly tilting my head to switch between distance and close up vision. So I generally just go without glasses altogether and put them on when really necessary.

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