Don’t worry, I have two other pairs of glasses that were donated to me, one of those donated pairs actually works better than my last official prescription.
It was just another day at the park, where my friend brought his wife and two daughters to enjoy the weather. Well, while we were all sitting out on the bench, talk about glasses came up, so I was like yeah hey look through these (my stupid thick coke bottle glasses).
Well, her husband insisted she look through them, cuz he knows how nearsighted I am. So she looked through my lenses, but much to my surprise, rather than say wtf your vision must be horrible, she said “Wow, I can see everything now! And you folks let me drive!?”
That last phrase really threw me for a loop, self admittance that her vision is that bad that she shouldn’t be driving without glasses. I kept my thoughts to myself though, for a bit, while their family went out on the pier to go fishing/crabbing.
I went ahead and discreetly told her husband, our good friend, that I wanted to give her my old glasses, since they seemed to help so much. I told him don’t tell her, and asked if they might be there for a short while longer while we went back home to get the glasses.
It took about 30 minutes or so to go back, get the glasses, and get back out to the park. Of course by then they’re starting to put their gear back in their car, while of course the wife is fussing with the husband and she was walking away, as me and my roommate were driving up.
The husband knew what time it was, and he shouted to her “Where you going [wife name]!?” And I shouted out similar, like “Yeah where you going!?”
Roommate told me to just give the glasses to her husband, but I’m like no, I wanna give them to her in person and see her expression…
When I approached her and tried to give her my old glasses, she insisted multiple times that I don’t have to do that. I responded by telling her that “Yes I do, I had 2 other pairs of glasses donated to me a couple years ago, and you just missed that fella by minutes”
And that’s no lie either, we hadn’t seen the old fella that donated me 2 pairs of his old glasses for months, but while their family was out on the pier, he showed up for about 20 minutes or so for friendly conversation and to let us know he’s still alive.
I’m not much of a spiritual person, but I felt that was a sign. I had 3 pairs of glasses total, my glasses work nicely for my friend’s wife, who had no glasses, so I felt obligated to donate her a pair. When you’re blessed with a useful gift, be ready to help others and pass something forward when it helps someone else.
Put it this way, she hugged and thanked me multiple times, and she’s probably not fussing with her husband anymore tonight…
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
And yes I’m subbed to your new community @ExtremeDullard 🤓
Oh man, bifocals?? My condolences, I’ve never tried those and I know they’d be like a fish-eye lens if I put them on. Still though, you’re right about anything better than nothing and I’m really glad she didn’t hurt anybody and could use them, good job!
Yeah, bifocals weren’t exactly on my menu either, but seriously, all 4 lenses are by pure coincidence an even better match to my vision than any prescription I’ve ever had, plus the lenses are still practically crystal clear and scratch free, despite being made around 1988.
Note that these bifocals aren’t the newer progressive type, these are older lenses with the hard shear line. Upper lenses let me see at great distances, lower lenses let me see at mid distances. It took a while to get used to the shear line, but that’s a nothing burger for me now.
When I first got the bifocals though, indeed they did give me headaches. Not because of the focus though, that was perfect to start. No no, the headaches came from the earpieces, they were putting pressure on different spots over and behind my ears.
So, aside from replacing the old dryrotted earpiece tips, I spent like 3 hours per side, carefully re-bending the earpieces to match up to my own ears and skull, to distribute the spring loaded pressure evenly for me. No more headaches 👍
Anyways, thanks again for coming to my Ted Talk.