The story is about . . . my glasses. Now that might seem like it's not too entertaining, but since we all have a laugh at another's stupidity, maybe this will make you chuckle. And since geeks wear glasses (admittedly a stereotype, but the Geek's pic on this website is typical), I thought this would be particularly appropriate to the audience here.
For about the past several weeks, my nosepieces had been digging so far into the sides of my upper nose that they were becoming sore and almost ulcerated. It got so bad that I had to wear my glasses perched far down on my nose, like those half framed reading glasses, which was very uncomfortable and distorted the correction of the lenses (how do those people that wear those half framed things tolerate them low down on their nose??).
I've had these frames (and lenses) since 2001 and never had that sort of problem, so I assume my upper nose got fatter or something like that. Sometimes that sort of thing can be caused by a blow to the side of the frame, like when opening a kitchen cabinet door and not standing far back enough, but nothing like that has happened recently.
In any case, it got so bad that I finally went to the optician to get the things adjusted. The problem now is that since I let it go so long, the sores are so sensitive that any pressure whatsoever aggravates them. Consequently, what may have been a proper adjustment early on is now not as effective. Plus, the optician makes slight adjustments, and if that's not enough I have to go back to get them adjusted some more . . . which I have had to do. The optician will say "There, does that feel better now?" At first it does, but about an hour later the soreness is back again with a fury.
When I went to the optician the time before last, she had said that if I had a backup pair of frames, that I should wear them because they may put pressure on a different spot. I had gone for an eye exam in 2005, and had gotten a second set of frames then, but I couldn't remember if the result of that exam was a new prescription for corrective lenses or not. I tried on the backup frames, and for a time they were comfortable but then they too became painful.
Now here's the stupid part. I also noticed that my vision through the lenses in the backups was dramatically improved. So improved that I began to wonder if in fact that 2005 eye exam where I had gotten the "backup" frames, mounted with new lenses, resulted in a new corrective prescription. So when I went to the optician this last time (just a few days ago, and I'll have to go again in the next few days because these things are getting unbearable again), I asked her if she could check the strength of the "backup" pair, and compare them with the pair that I had been wearing since 2005, which was also the same pair that I had been wearing since 2001, in addition to adjusting the nose pieces. Lo and behold, my suspicions were correct. The "backup" pair was indeed an improved correction. So, it was a real duhhhhh moment for me. I had in fact been wearing a much less powerful correction since 2005 when the eye exam had resulted in another correction. Since 2005, the improved lenses had been collecting dust.
I can only assume that I wore the old frames when I left after getting the new ones in 2005, and never put the new ones on, and eventually forgot about it. What I had been wearing as my primary pair should in fact have been the backup.
So now I'm wearing the right ones but, as I said, they too are causing me soreness.
End of story about my recent stupidity.
