Ashley and I had appointments with the optometrist last night. Ashley’s been complaining that sometimes she can’t see the board in class and she almost always has a problem with the overhead projector. I noticed it over the weekend when she and I were Mother’s Day shopping and she asked me the price of an item on a high shelf. “You can’t see the price tag?”, I asked her. “Well, kinda… but not really”, she answered. “Uh-oh, good thing your going to the doctor”. And it was a good thing too – Ashley is slightly nearsighted. We pick up her glasses in about a week.

I, on the other hand, mentioned to the doctor that some days after sitting in front of the computer all day I have a hard time readjusting my eyes to see things that are farther away than say two or three feet. He examined my eyes and told me that I’ve got near perfect vision but that my eyes are getting older and having a harder time refocusing. Sitting in front of the computer for almost 12 hours a day is just speeding up the inevitable. He suggested +1 strength reading glasses only for reading or sitting in front of the computer. “As you age, the natural ability to focus on things that are closer to you becomes more difficult. Reading glasses will take some of the stress off your eyes when your doing close-up work like reading or writing” Fine. I picked up a pair at Wal-Mart and tried them on. I look like a huge dork. But, I’m writing this paragraph with the glasses on and I have to admit that everything is slightly bigger and it doesn’t feel like my eyes are working so hard. Does that make sense? I don’t know. It’s gonna take some getting used to.