Life imitates old jokes

I have to say, I've spent much of the past few days ruefully thinking back to the Shoe-Bomber incident of yore. And what I've been *particularly* remembering is the joke that made the rounds at the time, as the TSA starting demanding that we step out of our shoes, "Thank God Richard Reid didn't hde the bomb in his underwear"...

Life imitates old jokes

I have to say, I've spent much of the past few days ruefully thinking back to the Shoe-Bomber incident of yore. And what I've been *particularly* remembering is the joke that made the rounds at the time, as the TSA starting demanding that we step out of our shoes, "Thank God Richard Reid didn't hde the bomb in his underwear"...

Desperately holding onto the world until it stops rocking quite so much

Good: I finally got a new eyeglass prescription a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in probably 4-5 years.

Bad: time for the bifocals. I knew that was coming, though: one of the main incentives to get off my ass and deal was when I caught myself lifting off my glasses to read fine print a week or so before.

Good: the new glasses are progressives. So while they are bifocals, nobody except me can really tell. And they really are a fair amount sharper, at both the near and far distances.

Bad: these progressives -- well, they take some getting used to. It's not simply up-vs-down: the near-focus actually covers a semi-circular area around the bottom. This means that my core focal area is rather smaller than I expected. Worse, it means that if I turn my head side-to-side and keep looking at something, it actually shifts position and size on me. Only slightly, but enough to be *startlingly* dizzying. So I have to be more careful to actually look in the direction I'm looking with my head, not just my eyes.

I'm sure this is pretty common, and that I'll get used to it fast enough. But I have to say, learning how to *look* at things differently is going to make for a strange few days...

Desperately holding onto the world until it stops rocking quite so much

Good: I finally got a new eyeglass prescription a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in probably 4-5 years.

Bad: time for the bifocals. I knew that was coming, though: one of the main incentives to get off my ass and deal was when I caught myself lifting off my glasses to read fine print a week or so before.

Good: the new glasses are progressives. So while they are bifocals, nobody except me can really tell. And they really are a fair amount sharper, at both the near and far distances.

Bad: these progressives -- well, they take some getting used to. It's not simply up-vs-down: the near-focus actually covers a semi-circular area around the bottom. This means that my core focal area is rather smaller than I expected. Worse, it means that if I turn my head side-to-side and keep looking at something, it actually shifts position and size on me. Only slightly, but enough to be *startlingly* dizzying. So I have to be more careful to actually look in the direction I'm looking with my head, not just my eyes.

I'm sure this is pretty common, and that I'll get used to it fast enough. But I have to say, learning how to *look* at things differently is going to make for a strange few days...