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.