Monday, March 29, 2010

Making a spectacle of myself

Had an eye exam today because I've been feeling some eye strain and it's been 6 years or so since I last updated my prescription. The doctor recommended I have that pupil-dilation exam because 1) it was included in the cost of the overall exam and 2) I'm 46 years old and have never had it done before. The good news is, my eyes are perfectly healthy. The bad news is, she said it would wear off in 2-3 hours and it's now been nearly 4 hours and I still look like a belladonna freak.

Something new today, though. She told me that my right pupil is slightly larger than my left. I was not surprised at this, but curious as to why no other optometrist I've ever seen in my life had noticed it before. I wasn't surprised because I've always felt that my right eye is more sensitive to light than my left. I guess this explains why.

Turns out my prescription didn't change much, and she recommended I keep my current spectacles for a backup in case I break my new ones or something.

Had a curiously interesting conversation with her (male) receptionist about the origins of our last names and families (he is Polish, or according to the doctor, "half Polish" which kind of cracks me up). Somebody else in the office had a cellphone ringtone of the first few notes of "The Entertainer" and for some reason he asked me what that song was. I told him the title and that it was a classic old ragtime piece by Scott Joplin. Strange how a semi-obsessive interest in music can impress some people. Of course I do have an album which includes that piece.

It also turned out that whoever supplies Walmart with frames had some kind of snafu at the factory and they were dumping a bunch of frames cheap. So I got some $64 frames for $9. Now that I have a new prescription, I can get some free safety glasses thanks to my employer. I won't have to wear my nice new glasses for work.

In other news, today I received a CD of Open Office. Already tried out the spreadsheet and it looks really nice. Not totally identical to Excel, but it will open my old Excel sheets and I won't have to resort to that p*r*t*d CD of Office anymore.

2 comments:

  1. David Bowie's left iris is paralyzed. As a result, the pupil is always much larger than that in his right eye. Is this how you looked after your appointment?

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  2. Not that dramatic of a difference. My iris still works, it's just slightly different.

    My eyes were still screwed up when I went to sleep last night at about 9:30. They're okay now.

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