Saturday, January 28, 2006

I'm a Presbyopian!


It's been a challenge to spend much time in the cafeteria this week. My world, you see, looks a lot like that eye chart. I got new specs this week.

They're bifocals. (Gasp!)

Truth be told, they're tri-focals. (Triple Gasp!) These new little lenses are designed to bring things -- near, far and in-between -- into focus.

Uh huh. So far, they're mostly making me nauseous. As my eyes move from one line on the screen to the next, the bottom of my monitor appears to make quite a dizzying move. (Whoah!)

Ugh.

Give it time, my optician says. My aging eyes, he assures me, will adjust.

Such is the life of a Presbyopian. (And, I thought I was a Cafeteria Catholic!) And, as a baby boomer presbyopian, I am enjoying the benefits of my generation's demands to stave off old age, and appear as youthful as possible for as long as possible.

Unlike generations before me, my over-40 corrective lenses have no lines, are apparently quite high-tech, and are packaged in a pair of nifty Australian frames that will have my colleagues mistaking me for a 20-something executive, I'm sure.

While visiting the optician earlier this week, I was reminded how we baby boomers have been reinventing everything we're up to. And, adapting to our aging eyes is no exception.

You see, these nauseau-inducing things on my face are no longer called "bi-focals" or "tri-focals." These days, they're called "Progressives".

Gotta love it. But, first I need something to settle my stomach.

1 Comments:

At 1:25 PM, January 29, 2008, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, it only took me 2 years and 1 day to find this! I just realized last night ( the TWO-YEAR anniversary of your post ) to realize that I am a Presbyopian too! But of Mennonite heritage, ha! The biggest problem right now is that I lost my "distance" glasses on the bus in September 2007, and I don't have the finances or medical coverage to replace them. And THAT makes ME nauseous. Sometimes lately, though, just the sight of food makes me sick. ( Blame it on the fibromyalgia. ) Well, maybe that was tongue-in-cheek, but, hey, at least that's SOME protein in my mouth!

 

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