Glasses

I got a fair way into middle age with decent eyesight. My left eye, near-sighted since adolescence, served for reading, and my right eye, close to 20/20 for much of my life, took over past arm's length. I complied with the terms of my driver's license by wearing glasses when I drove, but I didn't really need them.

Somewhere after 50, that didn't work. I started to buy reading glasses at the local drug stores. A couple of years ago, I should have understood that this wasn't getting the job done, and that the rapid changes between distance and reading glasses were just too inconvenient. But I was stubborn, and did many quick changes.

This time, I opted for "progressives", not classic bifocals with a sharp line between distance and reading prescriptions, but  with a gradual transition. The staff at the glasses store spoke well of them, though now I wonder whether their enthusiasm was for the excellence of the lenses or the size of the bill. Having tried them now for almost a week, I still don't know.

It seems to me that nothing is wholly out of focus, and little is quite in focus. At best, there seems to be a cone of good focus with an angle of 30 degrees. In reading, it is OK for about four fifths of the width of a page. It feels at times as though I were using a fish bowl to read the newspaper through. For distance, I find myself  having to tilt my head to focus well on the faces of those not much taller or shorter. But the blurred peripheral vision near the top may be the most annoying part.

My wife says that I shouldn't drive with such glasses until I've had them for six months. I don't doubt her at all.