I got my first reading glasses just over a year ago. I’ve been wearing glasses for over two decades and am very short sighted. My close / near vision is fine but as I’ve gotten older I’m struggling more with the in-between.
Finally after realising I kept peering over my glasses with my face inches from the computer screen I got reading glasses for when I’m working on the computer.
Although under / unemployed, I spend most of my day at my desk often only getting up to refill my diet coke glass, eat or flop on the bed.
I often forget to take my reading glasses off when I leave my desk which means the world is a little blurry. Or if I do remember I just take them off and don’t retrieve my normal glasses. In that case the world is very blurry but I know my way around my house so unlikely to walk into furniture.
It does mean however I often wander through my house – and life it seems – in a little haze. Like being a bit tipsy, when everything is… fine. Everything is lovely. People are lovely. Butterflies and unicorns. (Okay, maybe that’s going too far. People are rarely lovely.)
And then I put on my proper glasses. And I’m forced to gasp in horror. Or similar.
It’s particularly an issue in the kitchen, which I guess is where I go when I get up from my desk partially blind, and where I sometimes go first thing in the morning before finding my glasses.
Because it’s sometimes filthy. Well not filthy, but dirty. There are marks on the countertop. There are crumbs and stains on the white tiled floors. Drops of god knows what. And I can see them all. Clearly.
Without my glasses—slightly vision-impaired—it all looked white and shiny. Spotless. Unblemished.
Then I look closely and I see the grime. The marks. The failure.
And yes, this is obviously a metaphor for my life, my propensity to navel gaze and overanalyse and wondering how to remove my glasses. Other than the being tipsy thing, of course.
So I wonder, is looking too closely sometimes a bad idea?
March 8, 2021
Definitely a bad idea to look too closely at times Deb! #lifethisweek
March 8, 2021
I definitely agree!
March 8, 2021
Sometimes looking too closely is absolutely a bad idea! I (am supposed to) wear prescription glasses to see, well, anything further ahead than a couple of metres really. I do wear glasses to drive and my sunnies are prescription but I’m constantly taking them on and off as I can’t eat with them on or read with them on. Sigh. I hardly wear them at all if I’m not outside so the world is all a tad fuzzy around the edges. My close vision is still good.
March 8, 2021
I’m very blind without my glasses so can’t exist without them but don’t need them for reading. I gather the mid-sighted thing is a fact of ageing….
March 8, 2021
Hi Deb, I hear you about maybe not looking too closely. These days I wear bifocals because I got tired of taking my glasses off and on and also not being able to read labels when shopping. Now, unfortunately, I’m up close and personal to everything around me including the dust! However, my philosophy is that my home is always tidy and there is more to life than having a spotless home. Have a lovely week. #lifethisweek
March 8, 2021
I used to struggle more Sue when I wore contact lenses because I couldn’t read anything up close, but wearing glasses is better as I can look over the top or take them off to see my phone or read labels or menus!
March 8, 2021
Our kitchen benchtops are partly laminate and partly granite (go figure?) and this is exactly what it feels like when trying to clean the granite part. From far away it looks clean, but the colour hides all the stains and goop on it.
March 8, 2021
I’m really ant phobic (as in I hate them, not scared of them) and so am a bit anal about keeping the kitchen clean. I think it’s most often in the morning I stumble into the kitchen to pour my diet coke and then go back into my bedroom to get my glasses and am horrified at the state of the tiles etc… I would seriously never get shiny white tiles if it was up to me…
March 8, 2021
hehehe.
Maybe blinkers is the answer? 😉
March 8, 2021
Literally and metaphorically!
March 8, 2021
Deb, Yes, looking too closely sometimes is a bad idea. I try to moderate my thinking and activities because life is too short for me to obsess over any one thing. #lifethisweek
March 8, 2021
Natalie I’m constantly reading articles including recommendations for overthinkers – about living in the now and focusing on the good and being more grateful etc but I really struggle to learn from experience. I know worrying and obsessing isn’t going to help (and will make things worse as they become bigger in my mind than they need to be) yet I still do it!!!
March 8, 2021
I think so, life is too short to worry too much about the crumbs on the kitchen floor (the insignificant things). Not that I don’t think little things matter, but the crumbs and such, they don’t really matter and you are happier not knowing. I’d choose ignorance is bliss; go fuzzy. 😉
March 8, 2021
I love the idea of going fuzzy Melissa but sadly eventually I have to look properly at the bloody floor and clean the wretched thing! Although I do enjoy procrastinating about it….
March 8, 2021
Hahaha. Very true. It’s nice while it lasts though.
March 8, 2021
I think over-thinking, over-analysing, and over-indulging our inner critic always ends up with us only seeing the smudges and smears. I’m tending to put on my rose coloured glasses these days and leaving the magnifying ones in the drawer – life is pretty damn good if you focus on the blessings and the unicorns and butterflies.
March 8, 2021
I certainly need to get much better at focussing on the blessings Leanne. Though I do try. I had a very down incident recently and as I wandered through my house looked out at my beautiful view and reminded myself that there are things worth living for.
March 8, 2021
OMG – you just described me! I have glasses for reading/computer and another pair for distance. I mostly wander around in my reading glasses with life around me a blur. I think I’ll leave things as they are and save my distance glasses for important things like seeing a show!
March 8, 2021
My prescription for glasses is quite high (like 4.75 somethings for each eye) so I am REALLY blind without them. I have no depth perception so couldn’t walk around much without them. I used to wear contacts all of the time (pre-seachange) but as I’ve gotten older the mid-distance thing has become more of an issue.
March 9, 2021
My mom used to say that getting older and the worsening eyesight that comes with it is the Universe’s kindness. We don’t see the blemishes, the dirt, the ugliness. Or if we do see them, they are kind of fuzzy. It’s my philosophy now as I get older too. I don’t worry about the mess quite as much as when I was younger. It’s a blessing.
March 9, 2021
I remember when I was young, noticing my great aunt’s housecleaning diminished a bit as she aged. And I guess I noticed the same thing with my folks as they got older, things that were spotless years before no longer got the same attention.
March 10, 2021
I thought I had commented on this post before…but can’t see it…now where ARE my glasses! I found after my cataract surgeries a year ago everything was very crisp, clear and even glary. It’s better now and I have to use readers but never while driving …so good to change my licence !
Thanks so much for linking up for Life This Week. Next week, we are #11 and the optional prompt is Floral. Hope to see you there and in the meantime, may you be well, may you be safe and may you be content. Denyse.
March 11, 2021
Safe and content. I like that Denyse. x
March 15, 2021
Hi Deb, I was reading your reply to Sue, and I wanted to tell you that I’m also shortsighted. I’ve worn contacts for a lot of years, and I never had a problem reading up close while wearing them. Then something changed (I don’t know what) and I found that when I had my contacts in it was becoming more and more difficult to read close things. After a bit of research, I tried putting a contact for distance in one eye, and nothing in the other! It works. My contact eye sees all the things in the distance, and my contactless eye does the closeup stuff! Apparently the brain understands whats what and I can see everything – near and far! Mind you, it doesn’t prevent me from seeing the dirt and dust so it doesn’t really help with that. Back to your question, sometimes it’s absolutely better not to look too closely at things!
March 15, 2021
That’s interesting Cheryl. I know my optometrist adjusted my contacts in a similar way so I could read a computer screen. (Both eyes need 4.75 whatevers… but my right contact is only 3.5 for that very reason, but I think my eyes have deteriorated since then as I called into the grocery store while wearing them recently and tried to read the ingredients on things and couldn’t see a thing!) Damn this ageing lark!
April 4, 2021
Wouldn’t it be great to not look too closely sometimes and see the world without glasses?! But then, like everything, it shouldn’t be taken to extremes I suppose. On a different note, I’m not looking forward to the day I’m going to need multiple glasses – I struggle juggling prescription sunnies and daily glasses as it is!