Vision (6)

I grew up with poor vision, and wore glasses, and then contacts, for much of my life. Then about twenty years ago I had Lasik surgery, and corrected my vision: to 20/30 or so in the left eye, for distance, and 20/something in the right, for reading. I remember waking up the next day and, instead of having to grope for my glasses, being able to see. It was a miracle! My brain figured out the differential, and for years I've been fine relying on one eye or the other to do the bulk of any job.

Until earlier this year I noticed that I really had to get up close to see clearly what I was reading. That was weird. And so I went to the eye doctor, and sure enough, my right eye has been getting progressively worse. I believe the culprit is a cataract. The doctor says we should just let it be until I can't stand it anymore. In the meantime, glasses will help.

And so I went to Lenscrafters and ordered two pair of glasses, one for distance (blue frames), one for reading (red). It's kind of a pain, but I am getting better and better about keeping my glasses in designated places where I can find them: in front of the TV for the distance ones, on my desk or by my reading chair for the others. And I can still drive without glasses (until my next DMV visit, at least): my left eye hasn't changed. 

We are fragile creatures. If you stop to think about it, it's astonishing that we work at all, never mind as well as we do. Even when we're not working exactly perfectly.