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12-12-2011, 11:34 PM
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#21
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,401
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Htown Harry
52 for me.
I've been nearsighted since 18 or so - I discovered I couldn't see the chalkboard from the last row of the big college lecture hall, where I liked to hang out. The need for bifocals came on very suddenly, as if I woke up one morning and decided I was better off reading the newspaper without glasses at 12 inches rather than with my glasses on.
DW was about 4 years younger when she started wearing the cheaters for reading. She never has had glasses otherwise.
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+1 on the college experience. I couldn't see what the physics prof was drawing on the board from my assigned seat in the last row.
I had a brief flirtation with contacts in my 20s, until I stood on one (SCRUNCH!) during ward rounds in the hospital. Heck, glasses are easier!
I got progressive lenses in my 40s.
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12-13-2011, 12:55 AM
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#22
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Caldas da Rainha, Portugal
Posts: 583
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Early 40s, about 2 years after I realized I needed them. Got away with it because I'm nearsighted and can read perfectly when something is between 8"-10" away. But that started to be both a pain in the neck and a really stupid way to avoid admitting I was aging.
__________________
ER Oct 2008 at age 54. An expat enjoying a mild 4 season climate after 11 years in the tropics.
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12-13-2011, 02:10 AM
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#23
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 746
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Went to an Opthamologist right when I turned 40 because of pain in one eye. Grandma had glaucoma at an early age and I was concerned I also had it. The Doc was about 112 years old and told me the pain was from eyestrain. I remember his exact words "when you get to be our age you need glasses". OUR age?
I am appreciative of that visit because I have had annual checkups ever since then. This year I was diagnosed with Normal Tension Glaucoma (optic nerve in one eye was a bit off off color so that set off a whole set of tests to exclude other factors). I have not had any loss of vision because the disease was diagnosed so early.
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12-13-2011, 05:38 AM
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#24
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Central MS/Orange Beach, AL
Posts: 9,067
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Started contacts in my late 20's, stopped wearing them around 40 due to dry eyes. Reading glasses kicked in at 44.
__________________
Retired 3/31/2007@52
Investing style: Full time wuss.
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12-13-2011, 05:55 AM
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#25
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2011
Location: South Eastern USA
Posts: 1,068
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Started wearing glasses at age 30 and bifocals in my 40's. I noticed my prescription had a definite change a few months after FIRE after about two decades of steady prescription.
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12-13-2011, 06:01 AM
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#26
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Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Flyover country
Posts: 25,199
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Glasses in first grade (couldn't read the blackboard from the first row, so teacher clued my parents in).
Bifocals starting at age 47.
Wore contacts (loved them) between ages 24-25, 29-31, 35-41.
Finally had to give them up permanently due to conjunctivitis.
Now I'm looking forward to the day when my cataracts develop to the point of needing removal. The replacement lens should give me the best vision of my life.
__________________
I thought growing old would take longer.
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12-13-2011, 06:20 AM
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#27
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,318
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I started reading glasses in my early forties. When I was about fifty I discovered "monovision" - a single reading contact in one eye, nothing in the distance eye. That was like a miracle. It feels like having normal vision in both eyes. The brain reads from whichever eye has the appropriate vision for the task. Look out and the distance eye dominates, look at a page or anything close and the reading eye takes over all seamlessly. I have progressed over the years from a 2.0 reading contact to a 3.0. I also added a slight correction for my distance eye but recently stopped bothering with it since my distance vision is "good enough."
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
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12-13-2011, 06:23 AM
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#28
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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I had fantastic vision for most of my life -- 20/15 at least, maybe a little better. As soon as I turned 40 everyone warned me that my eyes were about to start going south. Sure enough, within a few months my vision was starting to deteriorate, and by 43 I was wearing glasses.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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12-13-2011, 06:40 AM
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#29
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 13,202
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Early 40s. Had to read a map to get around a closed bridge on I-64 at night, and could only make out the red lines of another freeway and just guessed. Got the drugstore readers. A few years ago I got driving glasses since I was having a bit of trouble with reading road signs at night (apparently my LASIK wasn't done perfectly), and last year I got bifocals so I could both drive and see a map while driving. Unfortunately I don't like those glasses for driving, the lights seems to glare more even though they are supposed to be anti-glare.
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12-13-2011, 06:47 AM
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#30
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Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,302
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Nearsighted in only the right eye since about age 12, then one contact in that eye starting at about 30. Starting in the late 30's I couldn't read driver's licenses in dim light when writing traffic tickets and had to get reading glasses then. Bummer.
It wasn't long after that the left eye started to go nearsighted and I had to get a contact lens for that one too. But both are still correctable to 20/15 and I use drugstore reading glasses for close stuff. I get an annual eye exam, so far so good.
__________________
When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
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12-13-2011, 07:16 AM
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#31
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 13,566
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Donheff, I'm thinking about trying that.
I've worn glasses/contacts for distance since I was in high school but in the past 6 months or so I quit wearing the contacts because I can't see up close with them.
I really miss wearing them instead of glasses sometimes and wondered if the monovision thing would work for me.
__________________
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.”
Gerard Arthur Way
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12-13-2011, 07:26 AM
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#32
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,205
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I was 20/15 when I was (much) younger. Age 44, started with +1.25 reading glasses. When the realization hit me, I was very surprised. Now 17 years later, I'm at +1.50 or +1.75. Fortunately all I need is drug store readers, though I assume my correction will continue to slide. DW's prescription is much more complicated and therefore expensive.
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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12-13-2011, 07:34 AM
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#33
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,132
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Got bifocals during my 40's also.
Still, just taking my glasses off and reading tiny print up close can't be beat. That's what I do for upclose reading. The only trouble comes when I work with tools that need eye protection. For that, I put on the bifocals and safety glasses and struggle to see clearly.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
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12-13-2011, 07:46 AM
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#34
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: East Nowhere, 43N Latitude, NY
Posts: 9,037
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20/15 until age 38. Left eye started seeing things a bit blurry, right eye not so bad. I was getting slight headaches when reading large volumes of text. I did a lot of reading and long duration computer use when I was still w*rking. I used Dragon speech to text software when I developed carpal tunnel and tendinitis in both hands, so I needed to see the computer screen perfectly to be able to use that software.
I tried the drugstore cheaters, but they just made things worse. So I bit the bullet, and got the graded index lenses (no line bifocals), with the bottom view for reading smaller print and the straight ahead view optimized for the computer screen.
Post-FIRE, I do not wear my glasses unless I am reading a book or need to see finer print on labels. I turned up the font size on my web browser so I do not need them for casual computer use.
I have an eye exam scheduled for early January, so I will get a new optical Rx. My frames are still in perfect shape, so I will simply have the lenses replaced.
__________________
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney
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12-13-2011, 08:43 AM
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#35
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Gone but not forgotten
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Sarasota,fl.
Posts: 11,447
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Quote:
Originally Posted by donheff
I started reading glasses in my early forties. When I was about fifty I discovered "monovision" - a single reading contact in one eye, nothing in the distance eye. That was like a miracle. It feels like having normal vision in both eyes. The brain reads from whichever eye has the appropriate vision for the task. Look out and the distance eye dominates, look at a page or anything close and the reading eye takes over all seamlessly. I have progressed over the years from a 2.0 reading contact to a 3.0. I also added a slight correction for my distance eye but recently stopped bothering with it since my distance vision is "good enough."
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If you do great with monovision contacts you'll do great with monovision cataract surgery . I had it and it is amazing . I had worn monovision contacts previously .
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12-13-2011, 08:56 AM
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#36
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Southeast USA
Posts: 548
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I began wearing glasses for astigmatism/myopia at age 12. until about 20 years ago (I am now 66) I could see very well up close. Then I graduated to trifocals. Now I use progressive lenses and I will not go back to trifocals.
The megacorp I retired from had a program that furnished free computer glasses which had the far vision in the bifocal part at the bottom of the lenses and the near (computer) vision in the top part of lenses. Those things were awful! I gave up after 3 tries. However, I find the progessive lenses to be ideal for me.
I only wear glasses when I want to see. Many of my activities require safety glasses anyhow and my ever-present glasses have saved my eyes a number of times.
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12-13-2011, 09:46 AM
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#37
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 6,499
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Eye glasses at 7, bifocals at 53 or so.
There are trifocals available for the truly insane. Near vision at bottom, distance at middle and intermediate at top. For say, auto mechanics working under car on a lift. They can only crane their necks so far.
Edit add: Cataract lenses implanted at 63. True joy, real colors and only a 1.25 el cheapos fro near vision.
__________________
There must be moderation in everything, including moderation.
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12-13-2011, 10:06 AM
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#38
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 17,205
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Started with glasses at about 5.... had bifocals at about 6...
Had them until I was in my mid 20s when I went to another doc.... he asked 'how long have you been wearing bifocals?'... I said since 6... he said 'you do not need them, do you want to keep wearing them?'.... HECK NO...
Now 54 and still not wearing them.... I NEED them, but I have tried the regular bifocals and the progressive and can not get used to either... I think I will have to break down and get them soon as the menu (as others have pointed out) is harder and harder to read....
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12-13-2011, 10:24 AM
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#39
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Crownsville
Posts: 3,711
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I'm 41, and don't wear glasses of any sort yet, but I have a feeling it's going to happen pretty soon. I've noticed that I can't read some fine print the way I used to. And as I was rolling coins the other day, and came across a penny that looked really old. Tried to focus, but I couldn't read the year on it.
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12-13-2011, 10:59 AM
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#40
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,205
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre1969
I'm 41, and don't wear glasses of any sort yet, but I have a feeling it's going to happen pretty soon. I've noticed that I can't read some fine print the way I used to. And as I was rolling coins the other day, and came across a penny that looked really old. Tried to focus, but I couldn't read the year on it.
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In time your arms will get too short...
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
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