When I was eight years old

and I got glasses for the first time, I was amazed that the trees had different colours, because I had never seen individual leaves before. The variance in the green was wonderful to me.

Fast forward 41 years and I'm experiencing clear vision for the first time in years. I didn't realise how off my glasses and contacts were. The old glasses were way too strong in the far vision and not strong enough in the bifocal. The contacts were close to the right strength, but I also have astigmatism, and that was off by a bit, and I think that made all the difference.

I went to Simpson Optical, and to Dr. Denham, this time, because I specifically wanted glasses with magnetic sunglasses, as my Transitions lenses, while nicely convenient in that they changed to a darker tint in the sun, were useless for driving behind auto glass, which prevented them from changing but at the same time, didn't help with the glare and the light coming through the windows. These have those sunglasses, which are polarised and will also protect against UV light--which is good, as I have the very beginnings of cataracts, and UV light makes them worse. These are progressive bifocals like my others, but have an anti-glare coating which helps with computers and driving at night as well. All in all, I'm quite happy. My vision insurance covered quite a bit of the frames and lenses. The retail for my glasses (and the frames were not ludicrous) was over $1000. The insurance brought it down to $300 and a bit. I had enough on my flexible spending card to get it down to only $67 from my bank account. Not bad. I plan to take very good care of them, especially as I'm losing my job next April and I have no idea when I'll get vision insurance again. I am planning on using next year's benefit for contacts before I have to leave my job. Fortunately it 'refills' every January, rather than going from the time you last used it.

Okay, I'm heading to bed. I want to get up early. I rested some tonight and listened to some music. I'd like to get up early and go for a walk. I really need to start moving more; it's getting harder to, and I don't want to get to the point where I'm on some sort of Hoveround or something (not that that's a problem for other folks, who have disabilities, I just don't want to be disabled by my weight). That's something I can try to change, although I'm more an advocate for healthy changes rather than insane dieting or exercise. All things in moderation, as the ancient philosopher said.