Well kids, my ego and vanity took a huge hit today.

[Glamrock]

I finally threw in the towel, broke down, and bought a pair of reading glasses. It's happening. I'm getting old!

[Aristus]

1. I got lineless bifocals earlier this year.

No one else has to know. I just wear them in private. They make bifocal contact lenses now, too. And I got some of those, as well.

Growing old ain't for wimps...

[Glamrock]

28. No man, it ain't.

I tell ya, I'm giving it up as my New Year's resolution.

[dixiegrrrrl]

105. I tried that......

It doesn't work.

[Glamrock]

106. Damn!

Spoiler! Ya coulda let me figure that out on me own!

[bitterross]

2. Welcome to the club!

I have bi-focal contacts and progressive lens glasses.

I don't really feel old mentally. It's just the physical parts that are annoying.

[Glamrock]

31. Ain't that the truth.

Just ordered progressive lense glasses today. But I usually wear contacts and Mrs. Glam hated hers so I declined....for now.

[2naSalit]

3. Awww...

Just think of what value they'll have as props when making your point or trying to look noble or something.

[Glamrock]

32. I like the way you think 2na!

[Donkees]

4. Which color frame did you pick?

[CrispyQ]

6. I want one in every color!

[PJMcK]

5. Here's what I do

Buy several and leave them where you usually need them. For example your reading chair, by your computer, in your car and maybe in the kitchen.

Welcome to the club.

ETA: Get a folding pair to keep in your pocket. By the way, get good quality lenses.

[Glamrock]

33. Yep,

gonna hafta get another pair for work.

[tblue37]

92. I am farsighted--have been since age 6. I always use my insurance to help pay

for new prescription glasses each year. I only need them to do close work--read, write, sew, etc.--so I don't wear them otherwise. The older ones are strategically placed wherever I must read things or do close work, & the new pair are always available in my purse.

I read and write all the time, so I can't be without them. Plus, I can't read my caller ID, cooking instructions, or anything else without glasses.

I also scatter cheap drugstore magnifying glasses around, in case a pair of prescription glasses are not within reach, though they will cause a headache if I read with them for too long.

[Donkees]

7. These are nice ...

[Glamrock]

25. Those are pretty sick!

[zanana1]

90. Don't feel bad.

I just got a Jitterbug.

[sdfernando]

8. Been wearing glasses since early twenties

Mostly for distance. I take them off when working on the computer or reading as I don’t need them for that.

I did get progressives lenses though so I can drive. See the instrument panel clearly and the road ahead.

Tried Torix (sp?) contact lenses but I was always uncomfortable with them in....and when I laid on the couch on my side to watch TV they were useless.

[Ms. Toad]

27. That's not an age issue.

Your arms not being long enough to keep the newspaper from being fuzzy is the age-related vision impairment.

[sdfernando]

34. I get that

Basically was trying (rather inelegantly) to show that wearing glasses doesn’t have to affect your vanity.

[Ms. Toad]

49. Less vanity -

more a recognition of the inevitable march of time. It will make sense to you in a few years . . .

[dixiegrrrrl]

107. Mty getting older vision changes have one positive note...

I don't need glasses to read any more! Something about shape of eye or something changing. Lovely, almost makes up for lousy night vision .

[Ms. Toad]

108. The eye doctor my spouse uses told her that -

As you age, you are either near-sighted or far-sighted, but not both. That is true for us - I did not need glasses until I was 40 (although I have been mildly far-sighted since my teens). More distant things are fuzzy now, but it is only becuase my focal point is now about 50 feet (rather than about 4', when I first needed reading glasses).

My spouse, on the other hand (who has been blind as a bat (near-sighted) since childhood) takes her glasses off to read.

[Iggo]

9. I remember.

I was in my mid- to late 40s when I accepted the inevitable.

Welcome to the club.

EDIT: In fact, I was sitting at the kitchen table, mid-day, brightly lit, and I couldn't read the tablature in the back of my recently delivered guitar mag. I'm 57 now, so this was before I discovered the YouTube explosion of musical instruction, otherwise it'd've been a few more years.

[Glamrock]

36. Yep 47.

My Dad laughed his ass off at me today. He is very familiar with his first born's vanity.

[Iggo]

70. Oh, how they laugh!

[Boomer]

10. The dam has broken.

You'll start deteriorating really fast now.*





* Speaking from experience here!

[Glamrock]

37. That's what Dad said.

Now he's trying to will me to go bald like him...prick.

[lame54]

11. I'm next

[safeinOhio]

12. Bigger print,

brighter lights and longer arms. All you need.

[Glamrock]

39. Hmmmm

Perhaps I'll start hanging from monkey bars daily...

[Ferrets are Cool]

13. Welcome to our collective decline into agism.

It is NOT a joyride either.

[Glamrock]

40. No it doesn't seem to be.

But hey, I've yet to start going gray. So there:s that!

[keithbvadu2]

14. By the time it's happened (and we admit it), we're not 'getting', we have 'gotten'.

By the time it's happened (and we admit it), we're not 'getting', we have 'gotten'.

[rickyhall]

15. I was having trouble reading the text on the pc monitor

So I bought a 32 inch tv for my room & moved the 24 inch to my pc. Much better, I can read stuff from 6 feet away now.

[djacq]

16. Nothing wrong being Optically Handicap because age.

Embrace it!

[elleng]

17. HEY GLAM, didn't happen to me til weeks after birth of first child

when realized couldn't focus on her face as I'd have liked; I was 40 at the time. NBD!!!

Only 2 years ago had cataract removed from 1 eye, next year, #2.

[Shrike47]

19. I began developing cataracts in my 40's.

My eye doc says they can now zap floaters. I will find out if it works on Thursday. I’ve had that flock of birds (the ones I see flying by out of the corner of my eye outside on a bright day) at least 40 years.

[elleng]

23. SORRY about floaters; I've only had a few, occasionally.

Great they can zap them!

[Lars39]

104. I would love to hear how it goes!

And I hope it goes very well, too!
I’ve got a real pesky one to deal with.

[Glamrock]

42. Well, I made it to 47

And I know mine wasn't caused by childbirth...

[elleng]

48. HA!

Neither was mine 'caused' by childbirth, just NOTICED then!

[Glamrock]

50. I knows, I knows.

Just trying to get a laugh. Looks like I succeeded.

[elleng]

52. Yes, and THANKS!

[Glamrock]

55. .

[pansypoo53219]

88. at least my eye dr says i am likely to outlive the cataracts i could get.

[BigmanPigman]

18. I had to start wearing glasses when I was 5.

My sister didn't until she was 53 and finally bought a pair at CVS. When I saw her for the first time I laughed out loud...she had the sticker with the power of the lenses still on the glasses! I asked her why she was leaving it on and she said she didn't know you could take it off. Her husband never told her and he knew she looked like an idiot.

You can get Lazik surgery. It does work. I worked for an eye doctor while trying to make ends meet and back in 1995 and he was one of the first to know about Lasik. He told me that it would wear off after about 5-10 years and it did at the 5 year mark. Oh well, I had 5 wonderful years when I could see in the shower and I could see the alarm clock. It was really nice.

[Shrike47]

21. My cataract surgery really improved my sea sickness. I think the curvature on my lenses caused it.

It was so cool to be able to see my feet!

[BigmanPigman]

24. My mother and brother in law

had that surgery and for some reason it corrected their vision. Both had been wearing reading glasses for years. My dad just had the surgery and still needs his glasses but has been wearing them for 45 years. Unfortunately I am both far and near sighted and now have astigmatism too so I am virtually blind, and forget driving at night. No way!

[Glamrock]

43. I started wearing them at 6 myself.

Have worn contacts since HS. But in the last few years, my arms aren't long enough!

[BigmanPigman]

54. My eye doctor told me that glasses are sharper

than contacts can ever hope to be. We discussed this and more Lazik, etc but it seems that my progressive glasses are the best for near and far...he is right, they are sharper so I wear them at home.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

59. That is absolutely not my experience.

I recall being unable to see the blackboard in first grade. This was in 1954. Got glasses the next year, and every year for the next decade I had to get newer, stronger glasses, and initially I'd see well, and then as I got progressively more nearsighted, didn't see as well.

When I was 16 or 17 I got contact lenses. What an amazing difference! I could see clearly; I could see clearly in any direction and was not limited to looking through the center of the glasses, and my eyes stopped getting worse, or at least the deterioration slowed down quite a bit. For the next 40 plus years back up glasses were highly unsatisfactory. I just couldn't see as well with them as with the contacts.

Then, at the relatively young age of 63 I got cataract surgery. I frequently say that cataracts were the best thing that ever happened to my eyes. My vision is very close to 20/20, I use reading glasses, and can see things in the distance that I could never see before.

One issue, as I understand it, with lazik or any vision-correcting surgery, is that if down the road you need cataract surgery, those results may not be as good as the cornea was already tampered with.

[BigmanPigman]

61. I probably won't know if cataract surgery

is the best solution u til I actually have it. Would I be like my dad or my mother and brother in law. I don't need it yet. I wonder if that is covered under Blue Shield of if I need to buy special VSP insurance?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

63. Medicare pays for basic cataract surgery and lenses.

I was not on Medicare when I had my cataract surgery. The health plan I had covered some of it. Whenever that time comes you'll be offered various options about what kind of lenses you want inserted, and you may well wind up paying a fair amount out of pocket. When the time comes, you'll discuss the options very carefully with your doctor, and find out for sure what your insurance pays for. It wouldn't hurt to research that ahead of time.

Cataract surgery is apparently by far the most common surgery there is, and there are almost never bad outcomes.

In the run-up to my actual surgery I noticed that I, at age 63, was at least ten years younger than every other person in the waiting rooms. That seems to have been because those older people remembered when their own parents had cataract surgery, and is simply wasn't as simple or corrective as it has become. Older techniques often did not get read of the entire cataract, which would then grow back. And before they started implanting new lenses, people were left wearing hideously thick glasses to be able to see at all.

What I'm in awe of is that now when I open my eyes in the morning I can SEE! The world is crystal clear, not the vague blur it has been for as long as I can remember. All of my life I've been grateful for having been born in an era and culture where my vision could be correct, with glasses and then contacts. I'm even more grateful to have been born into a time when I'm not doomed to simply go blind as I get old.

[BigmanPigman]

64. I have been procrastinating in renewing my ACA Blue Shield

since I will see an increase naturally. I know they now have vision plans so I will have to ask them what it covers. Glad I read this.

Whenever people get the surgery they say, "I didn't realize how much I had been missing" when they are finally able to see clearly. They notice how dirty everything is when it appeared super clean before surgery.

[pdsimdars]

20. What was that cute joke posted here. . . "I'm amazed at the number of old people who are my age."

[TNNurse]

22. Been wearing glasses since I was 10.

Wait until you need hearing aids. It is humbling.

[Glamrock]

65. Bite your tongue!

[Ms. Toad]

26. That's 20+ years in my rear-view-mirror.

The reading glasses didn't bother me - but at some poing I transitioned to wearing my glasses from the moment I wake up until I go to bed at night.

That bothered me - and I'm not even sure when it happened. I went from always taking off my glasses when speaking with people (because I hated looking through the glass) to wearing them all the time.

(I can still pass the driver's license test without them - did that about 3 months ago - but now my focal point is about 50 feet away, so anyone standing less than 50 feet away from me is fuzzy.)

[LakeArenal]

29. Cataracts next old man!!! 😬😑

[Glamrock]

45. Brutal!

Shame on you Lake! Don't you know how bruised I is right now?

[LakeArenal]

71. You haven't talked to really old people have you?

We play symptom one upmanship all the time. If necessary we will bring up our cousin joe’s, ex-wife’s, grandson’s hernia operation. You have so many discoveries.

😷🤕😨🤒

PS let us know when the old man hairs start out your ears and nose and eyebrows.

[Glamrock]

72. You can't be that old.

You rec'd a Life ,Sex, & Death video I posted awhile back....

[LakeArenal]

73. I like almost everything you post.

Pretty old. Old enough that I wasn’t fibbing about old people.

The nose and eyebrows is definitely true.

Today at the gym I mentioned to the trainer that my back hurt today. This petite 23 year old person said... Oh mine, too.

Sheesh.

[Glamrock]

75. Well hell. I'm flattered.

And impressed!

[LakeArenal]

76. I say a fact's a fact... Which reminded me of...

Something you might like, too.

https://m.

[Glamrock]

78. Kick ass!

Never a fan of the band. Always loved this song!

[Me.]

30. Call Me

[Turbineguy]

35. It's nice to be able to read instructions.

Of course, as an engineer, it's still against my religion to read them!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

44. Hey, Turbine - go easy on the instruction books.

They keep the MEs busy designing better bookcases and filing cabinets..... (I'm an EE, LOL).

Brings back memories of the EEs vs the MEs in college - we hated thermo and they hated basic circuits classes.....

[Glamrock]

46. Hahahahaha

Man I know your type!

[KY_EnviroGuy]

38. Thanks for sharing - I started using them in my early 40s.

I've been very lucky to not need prescription glasses and I'm 70 now. I currently use 2.75 reading glasses.

Here's another hint for you: If you start having trouble reading distant highway signs whereas you could see them clearly in years past, try a pair of 1.0 or 1.25 reading glasses. Those made a tremendous difference for me with driving comfort.

There's enough bullshit to deal with as we age as it is. I'm grateful we have so many things that can assist our eyesight so we don't have to struggle with that one.

........... ...........

[dem4decades]

41. I was wondering why your old posts didn't have actual words in them.

[Glamrock]

47. Bwaaaaaaaa!

Glad I wasn't drinking anything! Thanks for the belly laugh Dem4!

[TEB]

51. It's ok

[underpants]

53. Getting old sucks but it beats the alternative

Just saying.

[Glamrock]

56. True that, underpants. True that.

[regnaD kciN]

57. Wait until the first time you're prescribed multifocals!

Sure, they helped my vision, but I felt like they came with a huge flashing neon sign reading "YOU'RE OLD!!!!"

[Glamrock]

66. Ha!

That's how I real about the readers!

[True Dough]

58. I highly recommend

dual monocles. It will make you look more distinguished.

Okay. Okay. Maybe not distinguished, but definitely more memorable!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

60. The best reading glasses, in my opinion,

are the ones you can buy at Michael's. They're about three or four bucks a pair, come in lots of colors, and often come with a case.

It's been my experience that there's no point in spending any more money than that as you'll lose, them break them, they'll fall apart with use.

I suppose that expensive reading glasses bought from an eyeglass place might last longer, but if you're like most people you'll just put them on as needed, then leave them somewhere. I have extras stashed everywhere.

As for regular eyeglasses, I'm horrified at how expensive they've gotten. The last time I bought a pair, sometime in the mid-90s, they cost $400 and I still couldn't use them, because they were bifocals and my doctor forgot to note that on the left eye I needed a "slab-off", meaning two different kinds of glass needed to be fused together because of the extreme difference in the prescriptions for distance and for close-up. Contact lenses were vastly cheaper.

[Phentex]

62. at 47, your'e late to the party...

Oprah warned it happens around age 42 or 43.

[Glamrock]

67. Well that's good to know.

I'm on the good side of the curve!

[JDC]

68. Let us know when you start to buy multi-packs

So they are available when you misplace those and in every room.

[Xipe Totec]

69. The most important moments of your life are done in the dark

By feel, and you don't need glasses.

If you do, you're doing it wrong.

[Codeine]

74. I didn't mind reading glasses

but at some point I’m going to need to break down and purchase bifocals. Not looking forward to that.

[MarvinGardens]

77. I probably need them now.

I'm 44, never wore glasses. But my arms are still long enough, unless the print is really small. So I think I will wait until my arms aren't long enough. In a few years, ill be joining you.

[Glamrock]

80. You'll be in good company baby!

And no, I don't mean me (alone. LoL). Peruse the thread.

[Dave in VA]

79. Feeling Old?

My father used to say that inside every 70 year old was a 35 year old wondering what the hell went wrong!

Just sayin'

I'm 66 now and he was absolutely correct!

[Glamrock]

81. Hahahaha!

So true! And 35 was a damn good, shit, damn near perfect age.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

82. me too

but I am proud of glasses and gray hair

[Glamrock]

83. Sumpin wrong witchoo!

[Trailrider1951]

84. Ha! Just wait until you have to

hang them around your neck so you can find them when you need them!

[LeftInTX]

85. Reading glasses and me don't get along

I use a magnifying glass....I also have the screen magnified on my computer.

[Ohiogal]

86. First pair of reading glasses?

Yer just a babe!

Wait till the doctors start pushing you to have a colonoscopy....

[Glamrock]

87. Bite your tongue!

That's a one way street fer christsakes!

[Jane Austin]

89. Good for you!

Maybe if Mr. Trump had your lack of vanity he would have been able to read the Apostle's Creed at President Bush's funeral.

[Glamrock]

94. Lack of vanity?

Oh Jane. You really don't know me too well...

[Jane Austin]

110. Well, you went for the specs.

I thought it was vanity that kept you from them before. No?

But there's good news out there.

When it's time to get cataracts removed, you get new, artificial lenses that let you see perfectly No more glasses!

[Harker]

91. Never thought it would happen to me.

I think about sometimes at night, when I go outside to look at the moons.

[Glamrock]

93. Right?

I thought aging was something that happened to other people!

[Harker]

98. In my case, everything beyond 18

has been bonus time!

Please recycle that milk jug that's in your toilet.

[DFW]

95. If it's any consolation

I had to get glasses at age ten.

If I drive without them, it's not a misdemeanor, it's attempted murder (not to mention very stupid).

[Glamrock]

96. It's not needing glasses that's the issue (I started at 6)

It's the reading glasses I find so offensive.

[DFW]

97. I'm nearsighted, so I take my glasses off to read.

I learned not to read while driving, too. You invariably crash into things just when the story is getting exciting......

[panader0]

99. Once you get "over the hill", the road down the other side

starts out slowly, but picks up speed quickly until your vehicle is
out of control. (68 here)

[Glamrock]

100. Yep. That's what I hear.

And the reading glasses feel as if I cut the goddamn brake lines!

[EffieBlack]

101. Jesse Jackson once said

"I finally got glasses and discovered three new letters in the alphabet I didn't even know about."

[SallyHemmings]

102. Been wearing glasses since I was 4

My hubby thinks they are sexy....

Buy more than one pair. You will misplace them.

[Glamrock]

103. Yep yep

I'm on it.

[trev]

109. I started wearing glasses my senior year of high school.

But no optometrist has ever been able to get my prescription right. When I joined the Army, I really pissed off the sergeant in charge of prescriptions, because I gave him conflicting reports of my ability to see his test patterns. He literally threw things around the room. I ended up not wearing the glasses he eventually gave me.

Today I just wear $25 reading glasses that I buy at Fred Meyer's.

[Hotler]

111. Soon you will have the uncontrolable urge to

drive in the far left lane of traffic 10-15 mph under the limit. Don't mind the horn honking people are saying hi.