Eyes Everywhere

I keep a pair on my bedside table.

There's also a pair on the window ledge, next to the chair in which I sit to watch TV. Not to actually watch what's on the television but for when I want to check something on my smartphone, during a commercial break or when I've lost interest in whatever program I'm watching.

There's a pair in our cabinet in which we keep our home laptop, from where I mostly write posts for this blog or edit photos, or work on my YouTube videos.

I keep a pair in the storage compartment of the centre console of our Niro. I don't need glasses to drive but they're there for when I leave the house without a pair and I find myself in a situation where I need to read something up close, like my phone (not while I'm driving, of course) or if we go to a restaurant and I want to read the menu.

I recently had an eye exam and had considered laser eye surgery or even lens replacement to correct my vision, but the sheer cost made me reconsider glasses, and I had a new pair made with my updated prescription. I keep that pair of glasses in my home office and wear them when I'm working. They're progressive lenses so I can use them to clearly see my computer screen and I can keep them on for when I hold my phone closer to read what's on that smaller screen.

And I have a pair of glasses that I used to keep at work, but since I've started working from home, this pair moves around the house and serves as a backup pair.

I have eyes everywhere.

But because I've begun to rely on my progressive pair of glasses more often and don't want to move them all over the house or in the car, I've started thinking that maybe I should have a pair of glasses that I can wear all the time.

And, if I was going to have a pair of glasses that I could where everywhere, I wanted them to be fun.

I ordered a pair of full progressives that would allow me to see objects at a distance, where I don't require glasses to see, but would work for reading a computer screen and allow me to see things on my phone. I also went for frames in my favourite colour and made a departure from my typical, rectangular frames.

Here's what I ended up with:

And because I would potentially be wearing these glasses outside, I added a set of clip-on shades, in a blue mirrored style.

I find that there's more of a learning curve to wearing full progressives. For one, I can't simply keep my head straight and move only my eyes to look around. I have to move my whole head, especially when I'm driving and want to check my mirrors.

I have to keep my head still when I watch TV, and maybe that's a good thing. It teaches me to not get distracted, as I often do when watching a show.

I didn't usually keep glasses on my face while eating, but I find that my food and the company that sits opposite me are so much clearer. It's like watching a video in 720p resolution and then realizing you can watch it in 4K.

DW doesn't like that I can see her with such clarity.

If these full-progressive lenses work well for me, I may invest in a second pair—one that isn't as flashy. And if I do, I may have to collect all of the glasses that are placed strategically throughout the house.

It hasn't even been a full week, so time will tell.

The Cheap Route

In the end, I just couldn't justify it.

I mean, if someone in our family was to spend big bucks on corrective eye surgery, it should be DW. Without her glasses or contact lenses, she is basically blind. If she drops her glasses on the floor, she is literally like Thelma, in Scooby Doo, on her hands and knees, feeling around for her specs.

After visiting a clinic for corrective eye surgery, I was leaning toward lens replacement surgery (Refractive Lens Exchange) over laser eye surgery because it was permanent and prevented ever having issues with cataracts—not that there's any history of that in my family.

But the $10,000 price tag is what ultimately got to me. That's a lot of great camera gear, or it would go a long way to paying off our Niro. It would be a nice vacation for our entire family.

It was even hard for me to reconcile the price of the laser eye surgery, which was half the price. I can be tight with a buck, and as I said, if anyone was going to pay this much to fix their eyes, it would be DW before me.

So I opted to update my eyewear with my new prescription. I would get myself a pair of progressive-lens glasses that would allow me to see my computer screen from a couple of feet away or read a book up close.

I returned to my optometrist's office to get a quote for glasses and to shop for frames. An eyewear specialist talked to me about the various types of lenses I could get: not just for reading computer screens and books, but ones that would be normal glass at the top, which I would use to see distances.

I wasn't looking to make glasses a permanent fixture on my face. I only wanted one pair of glasses for seeing things three feet away or closer.

When she quoted me the price for the lenses, I fought to conceal my shock. I was looking at $500 for the lenses and at minimum another $100 for the frames. The last time that bought prescription glasses, I paid just over $200 for the lenses and frames. I knew that progressives were more expensive and that it had been a long time since I had a pair of prescription glasses, but I wasn't prepared for a three-fold increase.

I thanked the woman for her time and asked for a printout of my prescription.

For several years, I've been wearing basic reading glasses and have several pairs around the house and in the car. I have magnifications for seeing the computer screen and another magnification for reading up close, but these reading glasses are the same magnification for both eyes.

My eyes are very different, with a 1.75 magnitude difference between them. My dominant eye takes over when I don these glasses. It could be why I get headaches after a long day at work, staring at my monitor.

I returned home from the optical shop feeling frustrated.

DW told me that for the past few pairs of glasses that she's bought, she has ordered them online. She suggested that I do the same. We measured the distance between my pupils and I took some information from the last comfortable pair of prescription glasses that I have, and we shopped on Zenni.ca.

I saw a couple of stylish glasses that I liked but I reminded myself that my glasses are only for reading up close and wouldn't spend much time on my face, with the exception of work, and who looks at me while I'm working from home?

I got simple black frames. Nothing fancy. Six business days later (yesterday), the glasses arrived in my mailbox.

They sit nicely on my face.

I can see fine while I'm in front of my computer and I can read off my smartphone with no problem. It took a couple of hours to get used to moving my head, not my eyes, to keep everything in focus. But so far (less than 10 hours as of writing this post), they're fine.

Total cost, including taxes: $169.

I may order another pair so that I have one in my home office and another in the car (I find that I often forgot to bring glasses with me when DW and I headed out to restaurants, and I would have to squint to read the menu or worse—have her read the menu to me).

I know I made a big deal about eye surgery a few weeks ago. But the stingy side of me came through. And considering that I've gone the cheap route for years, buying off-the-shelf reading glasses, this is actually a step up.

I still miss my old eyes but with these progressives, I won't have to muddle through when I'm trying to see things up close.

A New Pair of Eyes?

What was the distance between Tunney's Pasture and Westboro Station, along the transitway? Was it 400 metres? A half-kilometre?

I'm talking pre-LRT. I'm thinking about 2001, when DW was at home, on parental leave, when Kid 1 was a newborn. Twenty-one years ago, I used to take the bus to and from work because DW needed our vehicle and we only had one at the time.

In 2001, I worked at Corel Corportation, on Carling Avenue. In the mornings, I would take the bus from Fallowfield Station, in Barrhaven, and would get a good connection so that I could transfer to a bus that would take me right to the office.

In the afternoon, my connections wouldn't be that great and I'd often find myself on a crowded bus, especially the one to which I'd transfer, at Lincoln Fields. But I discovered that if I walked down Churchill Avenue to Westboro Station, I'd be able to get on an express bus that would take me all the way to my neighbourhood (Fallowfield Station, at the time, was the terminus for buses coming from downtown, except for express buses, which continued through my suburban community).

While I waited at Westboro Station for my bus—the 73—I liked to look down the transitway corridor toward Tunney's Pasture, from where the 73 would emerge. The distance, I guessed, was a half of a kilometre away.

But what I would also do, especially if there were other riders waiting at the stop, was to call out the number of the approaching bus as soon as I saw it emerge from a slight bend in the road, just after leaving the previous station. These buses were easily 400 metres away.

The other riders who heard me call out the approaching bus numbers would look at me with amazement. The numbers from that distance were very small, indeed.

"How can you read that?" one would ask.

"That's incredible!" remarked another.

In my 20s, I had my eyes tested and it was estimated that I had 70/20 vision. That is, what some could only read at 20 feet, I could read at 70. I also had very good night vision and to this day, I rarely turn on lights in a darkened room because I can make my way around quite well.

When I reached 40, my eyes started giving me trouble. When I read a book, I would find that I would hold it farther and farther from my face and I would need more light to clearly see the words. When it got to a point that my arms would be fully outstretched to read, I knew it was time for another eye exam.

It was determined that I had become far-sighted and that I would need glasses to read. But my right eye, which is my dominant one, was weaker than my left, and so I needed a different magnification for each eye.

But my eyes were still changing and I found that over the years that followed my first prescription, I was once again holding my books farther and farther away.

Being the lazy and cheap person that I typically am, I didn't want to take another eye test and fork out more money for new glasses, and so I picked up a set of reading glasses from the grocery store that corrected for my dominant eye. The other eye would just have to adjust.

More years went by and more changes caused me to buy stronger and stronger reading glasses. I also required different magnifications, based on whether I was reading a book, looking at my smartphone, or working at my computer.

I have reading glasses all over the house and in the car.

I think that over the pandemic, with me working from home, I spend more time in front of a computer screen. All of my meetings are now virtual, so I don't give my eyes a break from the monitors. Sometimes, when I finish work, I stay in front of my computer, choosing to write a blog post from where I'm sitting, rather than wait until later and work from my personal machine.

I watch more TV because I don't go out as often as I used to and I always have the television going when I work out on my spin bike.

As a result of the increased screen time, I find that I have headaches more frequently and I get incredibly tired, fighting most afternoons to keep my eyes open as I continue to do my job. Almost every day, I have to take 30 minutes to lay down and close my eyes, to get away from any and all screens.

I miss my old eyes.

Last week, for the first time in at least 15 years, I went to an optometrist and had my eyes tested. But I explained that I didn't just want the bandage solution of prescription glasses: I want a permanent solution.

The optometrist referred me to an eye clinic, where we could discuss laser eye surgery or even lens replacement surgery. Surprisingly, I was contacted by the clinic the very next day and, the day after that, was in the office, talking to a specialist.

I learned that laser eye surgery is performed on the cornea, where lasers reshape the cornea to better-direct the light before it passes through the lens. This procedure takes about 15 minutes, per eye, and after about 72 hours and a follow-up appointment, I'd be good to go.

I would need to have each eye set up for different focal lengths: one, for seeing things up close; the other, for distance. It takes about three weeks for the brain to adjust to focusing one eye for a specific function, but I've been told that my eyes have already been doing that for years.

Unfortunately, laser eye surgery is rarely permanent and I may find myself requiring glasses down the road or another procedure.

The other procedure involves replacing the lens itself with an artificial one. The lens would be designed so that I could see at all distances from the one eye. Because of my eyes differing, each lens would be specifically corrected. It would be like having a new pair of eyes.

Of course, my vision wouldn't be as good as it was before my 40s but I would never need prescription glasses again and I would never require cataract surgery.

But this option costs twice the price of laser eye surgery and I tried to curb my shock when I saw the price tag.

So now I'm reading up on both and I have a lot to think about. And I'm very interested to get feedback from any of you who have had corrective eye surgery.

Have you had laser eye surgery (intralase SBK)? Lens-replacement surgery (Refractive Lens Exchange)? Both?

I'm looking to hear about your experiences—good and bad. Please leave me a comment, below, and talk me into or out of one procedure or the other, or both/neither.

I'm not looking to read from half a kilometre away. But it would be nice to never put glasses on my face again.

Not a good look for me.

Happy Monday!

(BTW: today marks the 2,500th published post on The Brown Knowser! I love milestones!)

Black and White Project: Week 11

Photo Friday: The Eyes Have It

There are certain rules that you must follow when you're shooting models, but there are two that are especially true.

1. Never touch them.
2. Never stare.

At my last model shoot, I broke the second rule. I couldn't stop staring. I couldn't help myself.

Those eyes were so blue, so dazzling, almost hypnotic. I felt so drawn to them that when I looked through my viewfinder, I found that I couldn't take my own eyes off them. When finding a point on which to focus, before I recomposed the frame, I chose to focus on the eyes.

Wouldn't you?

Happy Friday!