New Glasses

 

    The last time I got my eyes checked, I got the unwelcome news that my prescription has changed. Again. This is one thing I dislike about having vision that needs correction. Almost every year from the time I started needing glasses, my prescription has changed.

   This means that almost every year, I need to pick out a new pair of frames. I hate picking out new frames. It's almost as bad as clothes shopping.

  For many years,  I made things a little easier by choosing two different sets of frames and alternating between them. That way I didn't have to choose a new pair. It saved a little money and a lot of aggravation. For the past two years, I've needed bifocals. I get progressive bifocals which are easier for me to deal with. That also means that I can't use the frames that I used to because they are just too small. The "sweet spot", the area that I need to look through most of the time at work would be too small. 

  Last year I found the perfect frames at Costco. The  looked good and I even got complements on them. They were comfortable, something that is rare in my experience of wearing eyeglasses. I loved them, I even thought I looked all right wearing them which is a big thing for me because I don't usually like how I look and I've always hated how I look when I'm wearing glasses.

   I was hoping that I could have my new glasses done at Costco, but I couldn't. The prescription on the left eye was too strong for their lab to make. (The technician helping me suggested that I ask my eye doctor to change the prescription. I couldn't believe someone would actually suggest that.)

   I went to a different place that I know can make the kinds of lenses I needed. C and I looked over their selection of frames. Most were things I knew wouldn't work. We found four pairs of frames and them eliminated them one by one until we found a pair that looked ok. I ordered the glasses and went home.

   About a week later I got a text telling me my glasses were ready. We went to pick them up. The technician brought the glasses out. They looked good. Then I saw a problem. The nose pads were plastic. I told the tech that the nose pads needed to be changed out. Unfortunately, they couldn't. The company that made the glasses did not have silicon nose pads. I was not happy. I knew what was going to happen. The glasses were going to slide down my nose like a skier on a long slope. The pads had already made huge red indents on my nose which were not going to go away. I unhappily let the tech adjust them and then left the store.

   I put them on the next day. Fifteen minutes later I felt pain behind my ears. It got worse and worse. It got so bad that I put the bow of the glasses over my ears instead of behind them. They hurt that much. I knew what was happening. The bows were cutting into the back of my ears and were pressing too tightly to the bones behind my ear.   

  A few days later I went back to the eyeglass shop to have them adjusted. A different tech helped me. He loosened them where they needed to be loosened. They felt much better.

   Now I have a different problem. The glasses are now sliding down my nose. I'm not sure if I'm going to have them adjusted again. In order to keep them from sliding, they have to tighten the bows behind my ears. Then they'll start cutting into my ears again. I've been through this before. 

   This is why I hate getting new glasses......