An Update On My Glasses
So, I was complaining that my glasses were costing more, and wouldn’t be ready for a week, rather than the hour the last pair took. I should have waited until I had them in my hands.
After more than a week and a half they arrived, and this week I am returning them and looking for someone else to do the job. I knew they were wrong as soon as I put them on, but was assured that I would get used to them if I waited and put them on the first thing in the morning.
The first thing in the morning they were just as out of focus as they were in the shop, and after giving them a couple of hours, I had a raging headache. I am well aware that you have to adjust to a new prescription, as my current glasses are my first pair of bifocals. [Trust me, you will adjust to bifocals in a few days, but don’t try to drive or use power tools until you do.]
Some day I may see clearly again, but I’m not making book on when.
16 comments
I read a post by woman who tried for a year to get the glasses to ‘work’. And finally took them back and found they were totally wrong. So take them back and don’t take no for an answer!
I have trifocals in stupid little frames that makes me either bob my head up and down to see computer/ notes/ out the window or move them up and down with my fingers…
So I don’t often wear them which kinda defeats the purpose….
I’m taking them back and put them on plastic so I could reject paying for them if the glasses didn’t work out. The place has gone corporate which is why I used plastic instead of paying with cash, which is my preference.
I wear the same “square” style that the military issues for air crews because I have excellent peripheral vision and spend a lot of time scanning when I drive. Old habits die hard. They are large lenses, but I don’t have to do a lot of head turning to see what is going on.
I wish more over-the-counter reading glasses had large lenses. I have one and only one pair that is both the right focal length for me and also has lenses large enough to take in the content of a large computer display all at one time. Ironically, it’s my cheapest pair of glasses, and I leave it on the table beside the computer so I won’t have to hunt for it.
For reading a book, I have a “higher quality” (heh) pair of the same focal length but with skinnier lenses; it’s fine for books, bills, etc. where bobbing one’s head is not so inconvenient, and I carry that pair in my pocket.
Finally, I have a pair that corrects very nearly not at all, which is perfect for driving, given that my new driver’s license has “visual correction required” as a restriction. I don’t need that at all to see from behind the wheel, but while you can sometimes fool Mother Nature, you can’t fool the machine at the TxDoT office: when it says You Need Lenses, b’god, you need lenses, or else you need to explain why not to the friendly policeman.
Given what I’m charged for glasses it would probably be cheaper to go down to a drug store and buy their reading glasses and make my own pair from the parts.
I’m going to my Mother’s ophthalmologist for the new prescription and will let him make the glasses. If those don’t work, I’ll see what the ‘Net has to offer, as I’m out of options in South Fundistan.
i don’t think i’ve ever been able to take advantage of any of the one-hour deals. my glasses have always cost a small fortune and have always required being sent away to somewhere special for the lenses.
If those don’t work, I’ll see what the ‘Net has to offer, as I’m out of options in South Fundistan.
if you want to drive all the way from south fundistan to almost-alabama, i could recommend the place where i got my last pair of glasses (pairs, actually; i always get an extra pair), but that was several years ago, so i don’t know if they’re as good as they used to be.
As near as I can tell, the only tricky part is the difference in power between the two lenses. I’ll keep you in mind, because a hundred mile round trip is not as bad as some of the other options.
Steve: Yeah, I had that problem too! My normal multifocals I got a few years ago only had a narrow band I could use for the computer. I was getting a sore neck every day. I finally found an optometrist here who made a pair with the right focal-length for the display (and the bottom part for reading notes etc on my desk) and convinced Centrelink of the necessity for them so they paid (they were over $480). Only took over a year to get the approval. Fast for a Gov agency! *Sigh*
Good luck Bryan! I hope you are able to get it sorted soon m8! I know what a PITA it all is. 🙂
I can actually get along without any glasses, using my left eye for everything except reading, and reading with my right eye. It isn’t as clear and focused as it should be, but I don’t need to find my glasses if I have to make a trip to toilet in the middle of the night. I would, however, like to use both eyes for both purposes.
i have to find my glasses if i want to see anything. even then, there’s no real guarantee… 😈
having grown up in south texas, i still regard a hundred mile round trip as a mere bagatelle, even after all these years of living in the [to me] densely populated east, and i would do a whole lot more driving if i weren’t also a treehugger and concerned about global warming and pollution.
That’s like my Mother who puts her glasses on a stand that is always in the same place. As she says, with her prescription she needs glasses to find her glasses if they aren’t on the stand.
Yeah, that’s like SoCal – you hop on a freeway for everything. It’s almost as if the rest of the roads and streets don’t exist. That is why everyone freaked out when the I-405 closed for a weekend – without the freeway they didn’t know how to get anywhere.
i [heart] freeways, but only if i can drive at freeway speeds. not sure if i could cope with socal irl, but i did have fun following the #carmageddon hashtag on twitter.
http://local.yahoo.com/info-14029952-opticlub-pensacola
stupid name for a store, but their selection of frames was pretty good [i’m picky, and also willing to pay more to get what i want, so i can’t tell you if the prices are good], but the service was primo superbo excellente.
i paid ~$500 for 2 pairs of glasses – moderately expensive frames, their most expensive lenses, and a special order prescription. that was 4-5 years ago and i count ~$100/yr to be able to see, without interruption, as a win.
one pair is the essentially frameless kind, and they’ve required modest repairs over the years [all free]. that’s probably the worst part of buying glasses in a town you don’t live in – can’t take advantage of the followup service as easily.
One advantage of living in a major metropolitan area is that there’s plenty of optical places to go to if you want your glasses to be made in Pakistan :twisted:. It appears that the modern-day business model for opticians is to charge an arm and a leg, then outsource to Pakistan for the actual lens-cutting. No, I’m not kidding. Pakistan. For true. There appears to be a major lens-cutting center there with dozens of companies that have flooded the entire U.S. optical industry with ads for their cheap lens-cutting operation, sort of the optical equivalent of what Dragasani, Romania is in the world of eBay scams.
Of course this puts them at the mercy of their suppliers. But they appear to be more interested in short-term profit. Reminds me of a major outdoors recreation vendor here in the U.S. who started selling Chinese-made camping equipment. They gradually forgot how to manufacture camping equipment, and then when the Chinese decided they no longer felt like making a piece of equipment because they’d found more profitable things to move on to, said outdoors retailer was sort of up a creek without a paddle because they had nobody on staff who knew how to make anything anymore — they’d outsourced *everything* to their Chinese vendors. Peeves me off because one of the pieces of equipment was a very trick little LED tent lantern that folded to the size of a deck of cards, and my old one has a cracked hinge, but there’s no way to get a new one because the Chinese vendor that made it moved on to other things. Siiiiigh!
– Badtux the Outsourcing Penguin
pakistan, eh? i didn’t ask last time i got new glasses, but i’ll have to ask this next time. just out of curiosity.
Thanks, for the input, Hipparchia, I know the area from giving seminars at the UWF main campus for a while. I can deal with Davis Highway if I have to by using the Garcon Point bridge to I-10.
Well, the Paks do amazing things in metal, so crafting glass or plastic is much easier, although I doubt they use the computer assisted lathes that Bosch & Lomb used in Rochester, NY. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to do it when no one notices that people are dying in the process. I don’t know that it is happening, but given the controls that B&L had in place for its processes, I assume there are definite hazards.
I feel your pain on useful tools and gadgets that are no longer available because of that sort of thing. If you don’t own your manufacturing, you don’t control your inventory. Given someone else your designs, is brain dead. The Chinese really don’t consider “intellectual property” to be worth considering. If they can make it and you can’t, how can they be expected to consider it yours?
i-10 to davis hwy is definitely the easiest. go south on davis, about a mile, maybe a little less, when you get off i-10, and it will be on your right.
It’s even on the easy side to locate. Thanks, Hipparchia.