New Specs

Well, I recently got new glasses. These are especially for singing and for drawing: the two occasions when I have to be able to see equally well up close, and far away, and shift quickly between the two distances. Until recently, I've been wearing my contact lenses for singing, with a pair of readers down on my nose that I look over when I glance up at the conductor. But I don't wear my contacts regularly -- especially not for days like this, when I'm at the computer most of the time: my eyes are drier than they used to be,  and by the end of the day they're tired.

Still, that routine was working all right, but when I started doing more outdoor drawing I really had problems. I never knew when I was going to want to sketch something, so I might have on my distance glasses...and then not be able to see the drawing paper. Or I'd try my reading glasses, the prescription ones corrected for my astigmatism, and then not be able to see the subject well enough. Outdoors in bright sunlight with my contacts on, I absolutely have to wear sunglasses- but then what about the readers?

Some of my friends have gotten progressives, but for singing, almost all of them have had problems, because (they say) you have to move your head to see properly. I finally decided to get a pair of old-fashioned bifocals, which is what these are, in a sort of hip, oversized frame. I ordered them online, the same way I've bought several other pairs, and they were very inexpensive. Better yet: they work beautifully! I can't use them on the computer, but that's fine: I just continue to use my reading-only glasses for that.

What really surprised me, though, was that I had expected a really visible line or half-moon shape, but when these are on my face, you can barely see the semicircular bifocal part. Is this something new? In the close-up below, you can just barely see it. The stigma of bifocals may be a thing of the past: my vanity is intact, and there hasn't been any adjustment period at all. What a relief!