Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Snow Day Blindness

We've a little snow and some ice, thus the children have today off from school. Yesterday was a day off due to teacher inservice, so they nearly had a four/five day weekend- after having one last week due to MLK (Martin Luther King Day) & the inauguration being side by side. It'll be a miracle if they recognize their teachers by the time they return to school.

The problem for me is that very little gets accomplished when the precious darlings are home from school. Reading, yes. Keeping up with my feed reader, maybe. Domestic stuff, yes. Writing & posting, not much. I guess I'm not figuring out how to organize myself and them well enough to get blog work done.


Image found on Eyeglasses 123 & no, I didn't buy Prada glasses.

Minor emergency today. I'm as blind as a bat. Seriously. If I take my glasses off, in order to read I have to hold a paperback so close that it nearly touches my nose. We have crappy vision insurance. Now I must admit: glasses are one of the things that I make an effort to be choosy about. I'm a short, round couchpotato who spends her fashion money on books. Pretty much all of the time I live in jeans and sweatshirts. I like to spend a little extra on my glasses, though. Not a huge amount by any means, we don't have the money for super expensive chic glasses. But still: upgrade the lenses so I'm not wearing coke bottles.

Anyhow, my glasses have been on life support for months. After getting out of the shower, the screw came out of the left arm. Now, like I said above- the arm had been loose for months and I'd been babying them as long as possible to put off the expense. The screw is teeeny tiny. No glasses = completely blind. I couldn't find the screw. Two eyeglass repair kits later didn't yield a screw small enough to fit to make another temporary repair.

Hubby drove me over to the optical shop in our local Wally World. One glance at my poor old glasses & the clerk said, "Maybe I can put the lenses in new frames, but both of the arms would have to be replaced. The remaining arm is cracked. We don't carry these kinds of parts here." Great. Wonderful news. My presciption is old & it'd be a huge hassle & a bigger delay to see the doctor & get an up to date prescription. After a few phone calls to the insurance company, we decided the most cost effective way to try and fix the situation would be to try and put the lenses into new frames.

Then the clerk, a heavy set, deep voiced, kind young man says, "Are you worried about how you look or do you just want to be able to see?" On the horns of a dilemma. Hoist on my own petard. Yes, I want to look nice, but this is an emergency & I don't have the resources to be picky right now. I gulped a little and said, "I need to see most of all." He hands me a pair and says "I might be able to fit the lenses in here." As soon as I put them on both he & hubby tell me they look nice. To me they look like 60's throwbacks. Vaguely cateye, black rimmed. Hubby says the dark color matches my own coloring better, and the heavier frames are more popular than the wire rims I had before.

I guess I'm ok with them. *Snort* all that matters is that I can see to read and to cook and to drive and I won't be a prisoner in my own home. I've made an appointment with the optometrist for next week so I can at least have up to date lenses put in these. Maybe I'll see how pricey contact lenses would be. The newest problem? Now that I've glasses that fit properly? I've had a fierce headache.

2 comments:

CindyS said...

I tell you, of our benefits, each member of the family has 400 every other year. Now, I don't need fancy glasses cause they are only for reading but my Bob can't see a thing without his glasses.

I think an insurance company should be able to tell by the prescription that there are people who need glasses at the very least on a yearly basis. Not only that, his glasses can cost up to 800 bucks.

Makes me mad.

Hope your glasses grow on you ;)

Cindys

Bob & Muffintop said...

Cindys~ With our coverage the appt. to have your vision checked is covered, but the glasses and the lenses aren't. :( I wish we got $400 every other year for glasses!