THE GREAT VISION RUNAROUND, PART TWO.
...this is nuts. I just wanna get it over with...

My eyes are just getting worse all the time. They don't work together anymore. My eyes are just too different from one another to work together on their own. So I went to the combination eye-doctor and glasses-making place for a new pair of GLASS progressive (no-line) glasses. It's a local clinic, and I felt good that I was going to support a local business rather than go to Wal-Mart's optical department. So, I had an initial exam at the clinic, located just up the North Bend, and a week later, I tried on the first pair of no-line bifocals with glass lenses that hopefully could solve my burgeoning vision problems. The glasses absolutely did not work. My left eyeball felt bruised, trying to stretch itself to see thru the lens. I was told I could wear them for a week and try to get used to them, but I absolutely refused.
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I scheduled a second exam, after which they ground me another pair of glasses. Previously, I was told that my eyes were too bad to be corrected by one single pair of glasses. I'd thot I could keep my old 'distance' glasses, use those for 'far away' and get a separate pair of glasses for my close-up viewing. So I opted for that, and waited another week for them to grind out my new $400 pair of what had become Reading glasses. I was hoping things would happen in my favor today. That's all I ask. This pair was great for close-up viewing, but I hoping that while I had the reading glasses on, I could at least see and recognize people in my immediate area, say, 10 feet away. Nope, couldn't do that. All images over 3 feet away from me fuzzed-out altogether.
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Again, I specified I wanted no-line bifocals with GLASS lenses. I was told that those weren't an option, since with the 'Progressive' no-line bi-focals, the entire lens is a lot more specific than general, since a sort of 'long curve' is used in the no-line lenses. I was asked if I wanted to try standard bifocals (with the lines). I told her, "the eye doctor told me that my visual range couldn't be handled by glass lenses"...and then she told me that old-fashioned "line" bifocals COULD be made according to my prescription. I didn't know that. She went back into the lab and verified that my eye prescription could be made with Standard Bifocal Lenses. I also wanted glass lenses, which DON'T scratch if you clean 'em with a reasonably clean shirt, like I do. She was trying her damndest to get me to switch over to plastic. She had me sign a clause that said I knew of the potential hazards of glass lenses, which can shatter. I know that and have ALWAYS known that.
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I kept having to say and say and say over yet again that "I want Glass Lenses; they fit my lifestyle". She then said how much heavier my glasses would be with glass lenses. Heck, I've been wearing glass lenses most of my life and the weight of the lenses is not an issue, and I had to tell her that several times. After I determined that the reading-only glass lenses weren't good enough, I decided right then and there that I want one pair of glasses for Everything; distance, up-close and in-between. And I had to tell her several MORE times that I WANTED GLASS LENSES, in the most reasonable voice I could muster. Then I was told that in order to have 'regular' lined bifocals made from my prescription, that "prisms" would have to be drilled into the lenses, which will cost me $200-dollars MORE, and, and, and, I would have to wait FOUR to SIX WEEKS to get my glasses made, because she told me that Glass Lenses are becoming phased out and that there were only three places in the entire nation which make Glass Lenses. Oh yeah?
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The Eyeglass Clinic also asks for one-third of the total amount to be paid in advance. I paid them HALF, and since it will take 1/12th of a year (or more) for me to get my glasses, I'll get more money soon, which will enable me to pay the other half. And then, I'll be done forever with That Particular Eye Clinic. I really had to be stubborn and emphatically entrenched, and I don't like it when people cause me to behave that way, 'cos I am a very nice (if a little scatterbrained) human being. I know these eye technicians are doing their job, but it seems to me there's a lot of paranoia in every single area of the medical profession; you have to sign disclaimers to get anything done with opticians, therapists, medical doctors, podiatrists, and anyone else who dons a white coat, and it really seems to me as if health providers are afraid of the very public they serve. TAKE 'EM TO COURT! DAMAGES! MALPRACTICE! But, and I can't stress enough, I Know What Works For Me, so give me some credit! And so I have mixed emotions about this whole deal. I WANT ONE PAIR OF GLASSES THAT DO EVERYTHING; IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
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So Glass lenses, I was told, are being phased out. Plastic Lenses don't last long, even with the so-called "Hardening" that's put into the lens material, plastic lenses are not as durable and don't last as long as Glass Lenses and they Never will. Which means that glasses will have to be purchased more frequently when and if Glass Lenses are not made anymore. Is this a way for the Eye Clinics to make more money from more-frequent eyewear purchases? The tactful side of me wants to say no, but the cynical side says, "maybe? Could it be? Is that the angle?" One of life's lessons I've learned is, "just when you think you've heard everything, there's always a new wrinkle in the fabric." So that's where I'll leave this post.
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So how am I supposed to read over the next 6 weeks? I've found that I can put Reading Glasses in front of my regular glasses, two pairs on one nose, and I can read with one eye or the other, but not both. And that's what I'm gonna do. Que Vida, I guess...