Friday, September 23, 2016

The Cost of Staying in Focus Weekly Link Round-Up




Since I don't have the best eyesight in the world (cough) and since I also can't seem to take a shine to audiobooks, I have my eyes checked every year and pray that none of the eye problems that run in my family (glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, etc.) get their hooks in me. Unfortunately the process of aging isn't kind to a person's eyes.

Last week it was eye exam time, and when the dust had settled, I spent $541 on four pairs of new glasses. (Hey... I remember when I had to pay $120 per lens-- not including frames-- when I bought new glasses!) Part of that price wasn't a shock. I knew my reading prescription needed to be changed because I could read more easily with my glasses off than on. But... four pairs??? Yup. Four. 

(1) an everyday pair, (2) sunglasses, (3) reading glasses, and (4) computer glasses. This is the first time for computer glasses, but I spend about four hours a day on the computer, and if they'll help keep me in focus with no eye or neck strain, so be it.

As I was perusing the selection of frames at Costco, I was dismayed to see that bling is coming back to women's eyeglasses. I hate rhinestones! I'd keep pulling out frames that I liked the shape and color of only to find rhinestones on the ear pieces. Yuck! I did find some fun frames for my reading and computer glasses, though. I won't be wearing either one in polite society, so who cares if they both have shades of bright blue on them?

And may I just say that I feel a bit... extravagant... with my four pairs when I know there are so many people who can't even afford one. I am very fortunate indeed to be able to keep my world in focus-- especially since I have to get out to the corral and round up all these links I've been keeping for you! 

Head 'em up! Mooooooooooooove 'em out!

 

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • What do your reading habits reveal about your personality? 
  • For those of you who are on Pinterest, take a look at Ann Parker's boards. She's letting us take a look at the type of research she does for her excellent historical Silver Rush mysteries.
  • Science says silence is much more important to our brains than we think.
  • I had to laugh as I read this millennial's review of Columbo
  • Barnes and Noble is opening a concept store in Texas.
  • 77% of Americans say libraries provide needed resources.
  • The manuscript of Jane Eyre is on its first trip to America. 
  • More than thirty Charleston Southern football players have been banned in a bizarre bookstore violation
  • Alvaro Enrigue welcomes a globalization of Latin American writers.
  • The return of the omniscient voice in literature.
  • Americans aren't reading less, they're just reading less literature. 
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald's last unpublished stories will be released in 2017. 
  • Meet the parents who won't let their children study literature. 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

►Fascinating Folk◄

►The Happy Wanderer◄

►I ♥ Lists◄


That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!


8 comments:

  1. Ugh! I know all about the cost of vision care, Cathy! Still, it's worth it to be able to see clearly and enjoy books (among many other things!). Actually, I ought to be scheduling my own appointment... After I read up on that Mayan calendar, that is.

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    1. Yes, I enjoyed reading about that calendar, too!

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  2. Great links. I especially like the dogs one. I have always thought of literature as fiction, but I'm really wrong! The dictionary says, written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit: a great work of literature. So nonfiction is definitely literature. I have a friend who just got trifocals, and I expect one of them is for the computer. I recently got two pairs of glasses - regular bifocals and bifocal sunglasses and they cost me a cool thou!

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    1. Yikes! I'd tease you and ask if you got solid gold frames, but I won't!

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  3. My last pair of glasses cost more than the sum of your four pair and then some, but I'm blind as a bat. Someone like me should not shop for glasses unaccompanied but I can't imagine anyone going willingly with me, and I draw the line at blackmail. I went to a new place for my latest pair of glasses. It's located in my neighborhood, I know one of the co-owners, it's a lab as well as frame shop so they could make my glasses there, including all the special elements I require. I tried various frames and attempted to see how they looked on my face, not easy when you are as nearsighted as I am but I finally selected a pair. When I went to pick up these very expensive glasses, I nearly died when I put them on and noticed for the first time that there are rhinestones on the temple pieces. My friends tell me they are hardly noticeable but it wasn't a choice I made knowingly.

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    1. I think the greatest advance in eyewear was the plastic lens. Now my glasses don't slide down my nose all the time, and it doesn't look like I'm wearing Coke bottles.

      I do have to admit that you made me spit iced tea all over my desk when you said you got home with glasses that had rhinestones on them. It was all too easy for me to put myself in your shoes! Lordy!

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  4. Great article about Lillian Gilbreth! I 'know' her from my multiple readings of Cheaper by the Dozen!

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