Gasp
It’s the 2002 World Cup, sitting in The Lab and we’re commenting on how fed up we’re going to be listening to “A Little More Conversation” in 4 weeks time. I was drunk. Very drunk. During the night I dropped my glasses and stood on them.
Today I replaced them. 5 years of squinting, getting closer to the telly to play games (my sense of logic was that obviously what I really needed was a 50″ plasma), having to be 2 meters to read a train notice board, waving at shapes in the distance if I think they maybe waving at me. The list is endless.
Not that my eyesight is that bad. Jude, the very nice optometrist at Vision Express, told me that I have slightly above average eyesight. I have dealt with the fuzzy well and enjoyed it. But today….
It was like moving from analog to HD. Everything was perfect. Looking down Buchanan Street and putting the glasses on for the first time was simply amazing. Instead of seeing a mass of shifting colour I saw people. Hundreds, thousands of them bobbing along. It was glorious. Back to work and I could see the view from our office for the first time. It’s beautiful and inspiring. I’ve seen it but I’ve not looked at it until today. Paul asked if I was having “a moment”, I told him that I’d had at least 6 in the hour since I put them on.
The walk from office into town took twice as long as I kept stopping to look at the view. And the canal. And to take pictures of things I hadn’t looked at before.
I amazes me that you can do something as simple as put two bits of glass held together by metal and it can literarily change your view of the world. Thanks to Jude and Paul at Vision Express in Buchanan Galleries for making it also so easy. I had a hair cut too while I waited for my specs. I’m having a great day.
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It is amazing, isn’t it?
Eyesight is such a powerful yet fragile thing. Cherish what you have - every. single. day.
That’s wonderful you have an appreciation for crisp/clear eye sight Stewart.
Most people aren’t even aware what they’re missing until they’ve had an eye exam and corrective lense prescribed (do I sound like an optometrists wife or what! lol). Enjoy looking at the world through a ‘new view’.
rb
Glad you got your peepers taken care of, shug. And it does make such a difference. I need new specs, too, but cash is tight just now. Everything seems to be breaking down at once from the air conditioning to the microwave. Bleh.
I just love it when you post stuff like this. The new view will be great with the boys, too! I’m sure they have lots of stuff to show their dad.
That happened to me when I first got specs in 1986, after I’d finished high school and was about to go for my driver’s licence. I had always been short-sighted at school but no-one bothered to diagnose it at the time. It explained the headaches, the inability to read the blackboard and almost missing my bus because it would nearly go past by the time I could read the number and hail it.
So I too remember walking out of my opthamologists and looking down city streets and oh!my!god! it was like someone had got out the windex and wiped my eyes clean. But the BEST thing was seeing the stars at night !!!
I now wear contact lenses.
You had your specs when I met you in Log Island in 2002 Steelso. So nearly the whole time that has passed since then is time you had been vision impaired. Time flies.
I meant “Long Island” (New York).
been there myself Stewart, although it was a looooong time ago, when I was in school. I had glasses to read the board but hated wearing them otherwise. My parents agreed to get me contacts, and I remember walking out of the doctor’s office and the first thing I noticed were the green leaves on the trees. I could never actually see the details before! Absolutely brilliant! So, enjoy your moments of awe and inspiration. Hope it lasts a long time…..
Ha ! I’m sorry, i had to laugh when i read you stepped on your glasses, i’m sorry. I’ve done that a few times and the sad part is i was sober when i did it. Being able to see clearly is such a treat that we take for granted sometimes. I got Lasik, a laser procedure, done to my eyes and i no longer need glasses or contacts. It’s so great to be able to roll over 1/2 asleep in bed and be able to see what time it is without squinting or having to get closer to the clock. I also can relate about it taking you longer to get to work because of stopping to look at things maybe you didn’t notice before because you simply didn’t SEE it before and weren’t aware. Very cool, Stewart. -Kathleen
For being the most happy person of the day, I salute you!
congrats on the new, clearer, view of the world…and for taking the time to notice the little things…