And that's done

Good news: my eyes are extremely healthy, the only slightly off thing was one tiny narrowed vein (high blood pressure) that showed up on the retinal scan. And the doctor wasn't at all concerned about that. My corneas are good, which is important to me, considering how much work outside I do (and the fact that both my parents now have small cataracts.)

As I expected, it's time for bifocals. Or "progressives," which is what most people get now, and what I suspect will be a lot less annoying for me than the kind with DISTANCE VISION- LINE - CLOSE VISION like the old bifocals.

I knew I needed 'em when the doctor showed me a card with tiny little hatchmarks on it, and said, "Can you read any of those?" and I was like, "Uh....buh" and he swapped a few lenses around and I was like "Holy cow those are letters!" I think he said 2.50, which is pretty strong, isn't it, for near-vision correction? I guess I was really making do hard. (Maybe I'll feel more motivated to do complex knitting after I get these)

My insurance, despite my being told "it's not that great" paid for a lot of the exam. I did have to pay for the retinal scan as they don't cover it (it's fairly new technology) but it's crazy cheap, less than $30, and I've known people who have had all kinds of weird health issues picked up early by the scan, so I was happy to pay for it. (I wonder if it's so cheap because people have to pay for it out of pocket....)

I also got part of my eyeglasses covered. I decided to splash out and get new sunglasses as well as regular glasses. (Yes, "transitions" lenses are a possibility but I had them once and I hated them - they never went clear as fast as I wanted and indoors they still seemed to have a slight dimness to them. And as they got older that dimness got worse).

And I did pick out new frames. They had a LOT. I get a $150 "frame allowance" on my insurance but of course the nicer frames cost more than that.

I tried about a dozen. When I found the one I wanted, the woman commented I was "easy to work with" which was funny to me because I thought trying that many frames was me being too picky.

The first one I tried was mainly for fun - they had glittery pink sort-of cat's eye frames, and I always wondered how I'd look in cat's eyes.

Sadly, it's a NOPE. Bad look for my face. But we persevered. In the end, I chose something like an updated version of the old 1950s era nerd/tortoiseshell glasses. Actually they are like a much lighter, more feminine version of what Dr. Spencer Reid wore in the early seasons of Criminal  Minds:

Yeah. Mine are smaller and lighter in color than that, more feminine. And the woman helping me did go, "Oh, those are super cute on you!" and I have to admit that when I looked at myself in the mirror, I agreed. (They were actually one of the less-expensive frames I tried, so I didn't suspect her of trying to upsell me.)

(It's probably because my face shape is closer to that of the actor who plays Reid - I have a fairly thin face, for a heavier woman - than it is to the actor who plays Garcia: her face is shorter and more rounded than mine is)

But anyway. I'm probably more Spencer Reid than I am Penny Garcia anyway. (But I still wanted to try the pink glittery ones, because you never know. Then again, I might have wound up terribly self-conscious with them)

I also picked out sunglasses. I was less selective with those because I mainly only wear them for driving or when I'm out in the field, so fewer people see me in them. Also, I wanted something with good coverage....I still think of the person I know whose mother had to have reconstructive surgery after getting skin cancer on her eyelid and I shudder a little.

They do have to send out to a lab, so it'll be after I get back from break. But yeah, not sure I'd want to be adjusting to progressives with a long drive ahead of me. (I will keep my old ones, just in case. I've known people who said they had a hard time adapting to the progressives and they went to distance vision and swapped them out with drugstore "cheaters" when they needed to read or thread a needle)