This is an interesting experience…

You know how sometimes a poorly-maintained tool’s performance degrades so gradually you don’t notice until there’s a chance to compare it to that of a better one? I’m going through that right now with the eyes in my head, and it’s really weird. It’s as though I suddenly have somebody else’s eyes.

When they operated on the first eye, the first thing I noticed – even before the swelling went down and I became able to actually use the eye – is that the quality of the light around me had changed substantially. From my unaltered eye, everything seemed familiar and a little yellow, almost sepia compared to the light through the new lens, which was brighter and rather blueish. The sky seems much more blue. It’s like the effect you get from changing out an old incandescent lightbulb. My lights were going out, so slowly I couldn’t even see it.

Due to a childhood illness I’ve been extremely myopic since I was a little boy. That affects everything you do, though you may not be aware of it. For example, my vision for fine work has always been really excellent – an inch from my face. So when I want to thread a needle or fix a chainsaw carb, I take off my glasses and bring the work right up to my eyes. That still worked until yesterday morning. Now it doesn’t work at all, and I keep tripping over it. It’s a habit I barely knew I had. I’m suddenly rather far-sighted, and it’s going to take getting used to. At a drug store in the big town I bought the most powerful reading glasses they had, and with those perched on my nose I can just barely read.

This new surgery is healing much (much!) better than the first one did. The left eye is still a little blurry, but far less so than the right one was even a week after the first surgery. Unless something takes a turn for the weird this one is clearly going to heal much more quickly.

But still it’ll be a couple of weeks, I’m told, before I can get a prescription for new glasses. Right now I’m fumbling around with two pairs of reading glasses and the Grandma Shades. Clearly bifocals are in my future, but then I’ve worn bifocals since before my age hit double digits. Also whatever I get they’ve got to come with shades because everything is too bright and these old-lady bubble shades are absolutely not getting it. BTW, I already have an angel who has offered to pay for the new specs. So coming up with the cash to pay for the exam may slow me down, but money for the glasses won’t.

Speaking of money: I owed the eye kitty $200 after the Jeep’s starter motor went to heaven, but a paying gig fell through and I only had $100. Most of that actually went for eyedrops at the last minute, and when all was told the contributed money in the bank for both surgeries was almost exactly right. How’s that for kismet?