Not Eye Strain

I don't have eye strain. Not exactly. But I do need new glasses. I guessed that, after several weeks of shoving my current pair down to the tip of my nose in order to see anything in either of the bifocal lenses.

Oh, yeah. Bifocals, not progressives. When I first knew I was going to need two different lenses, one for distance and one for close-up, I thought seriously about progressives. And decided against them.

I don't need to spend the extra money they cost in order to pretend I don't need bifocals. I'm not that vain. Or that stupid.

But I was in for a bit of a surprise when I talked to the optometrist about my new prescription. It seems that instead of increasing the strength of the lenses, I have to take a couple of steps backward, to where my prescription has already been.

In other words, my eyes are improving? Yup. Surprised the hell outa the optometrist, too. It seems to be a rare thing, having your eyes suddenly start to improve like that. And at my age, too...

And part of the reason I figured I had eye strain was that my eyes were feeling dry and stiff lately, especially in the mornings while I'm trying to wake up. I'd blink, and the eyelids would be reluctant to close as quickly as *blink* would indicate. I was not looking forward to being told I had something like glaucoma or cataracts, but I knew that something was wrong.

But no, nothing's wrong. I just have dry eyes. It's a natural thing to have happen when you get older. I raised a protest about it -- after all, when I was born, my owner's manual didn't say nothin' about dry eyes!

So now I'm using lubricating eyedrops. *sigh* I'd say I hate getting older, but then I think of the alternative...