I’ve been having difficulty “doing” things in my office. Two big reasons: one, it is freaking cold. The other, optics.
Our basement is unheated, and we lose way to much heat through the floor into the basement. One of the things that I need to do is to make sure the basement is properly sealed and then to look into insulating it a bit.
With dead shoes, my feet were cold. My hands were cold. My head was cold. It isn’t uncommon to enter my office, which is isolated from the woodstove-heated parts of the house, to see 52° on the thermometer. I have a silent oil-filled heater. Over the course of about an hour the temp will come up to around 63°. On a good day, it might climb over 65°.
That issue was mostly solved by good, fur-lined moccasins.
What I didn’t realize was that my optics were failing me.
Back in the 80s, while at university, I would drive my friend around to different places because he was legally blind. He would tell me street names from memory. And I would miss turns all the time.
It took a couple of trips before I found the right place to turn. I had to find landmarks. I was not driving by street names; I was driving from landmark to landmark.
If you want the epitome of this, just ask a New Englander for directions: Turn left on School Street; it is just past where the machine shop used to be. Yeah, I’ve become that guy.
Regardless, I knew where I was but couldn’t name the street I was on. Then I did something weird: I got my eyes examined and new glasses.
Suddenly I was driving by street names. Why? Because I could actually see the damn street signs before I was driving past them.
Well, my prescription for driving appears to be good. My progressives are not. I need new glasses.
How does this affect working at my computer? Umm, I’m embarrassed to admit, but I put on my computer glasses tonight to see if it makes a difference.It does. I can actually read what’s on the screen.
So when we are talking about optics, remember that they start with the optics that you wear on your face.
I don’t do progressive lenses. Somehow the idea doesn’t appeal to me. My mother had them and liked them; my father used regular bifocals, or sometimes custom glasses suitable for his work or leisure activities. My wife uses plain bifocals, too.
One thing I did some years ago was get not just reading glasses but also “computer glasses”. Reading glasses work for pretty close up; computer glasses are for arm’s length or thereabouts. They also work well as shooting glasses, or for playing music. I like the specific glasses because bifocals are uncomfortable for me for reading, past 10 minutes or so.
My wife also has “computer glasses” but not specifically fitted for that purpose by the eye doctor; instead they are just her one or two generations ago reading glasses. I actually get mine specifically fitted because my distant vision prescription still keeps changing. It’s actually gotten somewhat better in my right eye, amazingly. I tried the DMV vision test without glasses the last time I went in, for grins; it actually worked so my current driver’s license is no longer marked as requiring glasses. 🙂
I have my everyday glasses, which are progressives. I have my computer glasses which are fitted for arms length and a smaller type. I have my shop safety glasses for arms length into 1/2 an arms length. I have driving glasses which make it difficult to read instruments in the cab but which work fine for heads up. Finally, I have shooting glasses, again custom focused for my normal shooting stance.