Keeping An Eye on Things

Keeping an Eye on Things.

Glasses, glasses everywhere.

I have now convinced myself that I need to have my eyes checked.

It’s not just the food I ordered that was never delivered -- that came about because I read my credit card incorrectly. Matters were complicated when the restaurant tried to reach me and they, on their end, had written down my phone number incorrectly. By the time we sorted it all out, it was after 9pm.  I had a bowl of cereal and went to bed.  Nor is it the messages that I have left on the wrong phones (this I know because some people have been kind enough to call and tell me.) I have been able to live with being unable to read cooking instructions on boxes, cans and cookbooks because I keep a pair of glasses from 1995 in the kitchen drawer -- and who knew strangers would be so kind and read them for me in the store?  When I try to forgo my glasses, mistakes happen. I doubled the water in a rice mix,  misread how many dish cubes were required to use in a new dishwasher, and have carefully transcribed receipt totals into my checkbook only to discover the bank had a different amount for the transaction.  Thus far, in such matters, the bank has been correct. On at least two occasions, I have entered my doctors’ appointments in my phone calendar.  When I arrived promptly for my appointment, the receptionist would be left scratching her head because she couldn’t find me on the books.  Turns out I outright missed an appointment in one instance. In the other, I arrived exactly ten days too early – but at the right time.  Restaurant menus are elusive without the benefit of a pair of cheaters, often borrowed – or, if I am lucky, I may have tossed my own glasses into my handbag. When I had dinner with my husband, and then, a week later, a friend, I watched as each of them put on their readers…..then, out of nowhere, little flashlights appeared.  They were an essential addition to their glasses  in order to decipher the menu.  Will that be me next?

I know the time has drawn near to see Dr. Santos, my much-beloved Vineyard optometrist for two reasons:

First, he told me when (not if ) I start to see double at night, it would be time to have my lenses changed in my “regular glasses with progressive lenses.”  These are my everyday glasses meant for driving, movies and seeing, in general.  I forestalled that expense a year ago by replacing only my reading glasses. (Those were a cool $425 because they have prisms in the lenses.) Dr. Santos proposed I wear my “old” progressive glasses more often. According to him, my eyes would get the point that they would be working too hard to focus. The doubling effect would occur.  Okay, so I have reached that portal. Check.

“Perhaps it is darkest before dawn,” I ponder.

The biggest reason to see Dr. Santos is that on more than one occasion lately, I have woken up, checked the clock and moved into action as quickly as possible.  Start the bath water, do morning stretches, pour orange juice, pick out clothes, then go soak in the tub for my morning aquatic therapy.  Within half an hour hour, I am dressed and ready for the day. I make my bed, pull back my heavy black-out curtains and..wait...I become disoriented and confused. It is pitch black with just a smudge of gray light on the horizon When I look at my phone, I discover it is only  6:07 a.m.  I was aiming to start my day at 7a.m.  That lost hour makes a surprising difference in how alert I am throughout the day.  I try to use the hour to meditate, go for a walk, write, read, or simply reflect….

However, I desperately guard my sleep. I believe in the value of plenty of restorative sleep.  It was for this reason that at 6:10 a.m. this morning, l was googling Dr. Santos’s phone number.  I wanted to be ready to dial his office at 8:30 a.m. when his office opens.  And I will be sure to wear my reading glasses when I dial.