Thursday, October 26, 1922. The Italian Government resigns.

On this day in 1922 Luigi Facta, Prime Minister of Italy, and his ministers turned in their resignations to King Victor Emmanuel III.

Facta had wanted to declare martial law, which declared the King's signature. Victor Emmanuel refused, having sent Facta a secret note as to his decision. Facta never revealed the contents.  He and his cabinet resigned in protest.

Facta would die in 1930 with the public believing that he'd been to weak to encounter Mussolini, when in fact the opposite had been his desire.

U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Godfrey Chevalier became the first person to land an airplane on an American aircraft carrier.  He'd die the following month in an airplane crash at age 33.

Probably unusually for a pilot at the time, he wore glasses.

Juli Lynne Charlot, singer and designer of the poodle skirt, was born in New York. She's still living.

Blog Mirror: Four Eyes: Eyeglasses and the WW II GI

An excellent look at eyeglasses in the U.S. military during World War Two.

Four Eyes:  Eyeglasses and the WW II GI

I broke my glasses yesterday evening. . .

and by that I don't mean the lenses, although I did break one of them, but I damaged the frame.

No biggie, I'm sure most folks will say.

Well, in a year of changes, it feels like one.

Blurry image of my glasses from 2012.

I've posted on my glasses here several times, basically giving the story of how I came to use this frame in 1987.  That means that I've been wearing these frames, most days, for 32 years.  That's a long time.

That's particularly a long time if you consider that these were my father's before they were mine.  I don't know how long he wore this particular pair, but he wore this type from some point in the 1940s to some point in the 1950s.  Basically, therefore, these likely have something like 35 to 40 years of use.

I note that as after I stupidly broke them, I was looking at them, and they're pretty worn now.

What  happened is that for some reason I put them on my bed as I was getting ready for bed, and somehow it just slipped my mind they were there.  I then rolled into bed and basically crushed them, sort of, actually breaking one of the lenses.  If we keep in mind that lenses are now plastic, that's really something.

I have two, actually three, sort of, frames of the same type.  I have one that's identical actually, with sun glass lenses in them now.  So if I don't fix these, I don't have to give up the type.  And I am pondering that.  In looking at them, the almost 40 years of use has now taken its toll on that set.  Maybe I should just push one of the other sets into use.  Indeed, I have in that I'm now wearing a similar set that has screws instead of notches to hold in the lenses.  They're a set that supposedly I had done for hunting and riding as I didn't want the lenses to pop out, although I often just wore the other ones.

But for some reason, I hate to think that I've permanently damaged the other ones.  I can probably remedy it, but it makes me feel rather upset.

It's a mere material object, and I shouldn't feel that way about it. But sometimes material objects stand for more than their mere utility.

The Vision Blues

Some time ago here I posted about my struggle with vision in the context of work and daily life.

It isn't that I have really bad eyesight.  I don't. But my eyesight has arrived at the point where my distance vision isn't changing but my near in vision has reached the point where I need my regular glasses, which are bifocals, for reading and distance vision, but I needed a separate set of "computer glasses" to work with computers.

Yippee.

The problem that presents is a lot more irritating than it sounds.  With computer glasses on, my vision is clear for maybe about three feet. Or, more accurately, from about 12" out to about 3'.

Now, one of the things about practicing law is that you use your computers anymore a lot.  It's something that I'm highly acclimated to and its something that newer lawyers can't imagine not being the case.  But, when I stop to think about it, it's been enormously revolutionary.  That wasn't always the case by any means.

Lawyer Mabel Willebrandt in her law office, probably about 1920. She became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1921, something really remarkable for woman in that era.  She's doing what we used to all do, read hard texts in an office full of books.  We still do that, but we are also typically on the computer all day long.

And that has meant that I must put on my computer glasses for large stretches of the day.

What this has taught me, however, is that a lot, and I do mean a lot, of people drop in my office all day long.  I hadn't really appreciated that until I started wearing computer glasses.  As I couldn't see them clearly, what that meant in turn is that I was taking my computer glasses off and putting my regular glasses back on constantly.

That's a pain.

That's particularly a pain if, as in my case, you wear glasses that have a temple frame, which very view people do.  As I noted in an earlier post on my glasses tribulations:

Then, just before I went to law school in the Fall of 1987, I found a pair of my father's old frames that he hadn't worn in probably 25 or more years, and decided to give them a try. They were Bausch and Lomb ball grip frames.

 

Bausch & Lomb ball grip frames.  They're great. This pair of frames is presently at least 60 years old.

For the first time, I had a pair of glasses I really liked. The lenses are small, the frames are light. They temple frames won't come off. They're fantastic.  I've worn them ever since, and used a couple of additional old frames of my father's for an extra set of glasses and a pair of sunglasses.

I kept using these frames when I went to bifocals, as they can grind the now plastic lenses for that.

Temple frames, as you can see, have those ear hook things.

Very few glasses have that now.

I don't know exactly why they were so common at one time and are not now, but what I do know is that glasses reached this basic configuration, nose pieces and ear hooks, due to horseback riding.  They went to that basic style as these sorts of glasses are more secure than others.  Frankly, that's why I liked them as well, in part.  Not only are the lenses smaller than those so typically found on eyeglasses today, save for "fashion" glasses, but they hooks mean they stay on.  Having had glasses come off, on odd occasion, in the field, I can tell you that's bad.

Indeed, at least as late as the 1980s one of the two pair of highly ugly eyeglasses issued to enlisted soldiers in the Army had the hook type ear pieces.

 Me, wearing my GI glasses, at Ft. Sill.  We were apparently shooting on the day this photo was taken, as I'm wearing my glasses, and we're cleaning M16s.

Well, while I like that sort of frame as they stay on, if you are taking them off and putting them back on a million times a day, it really becomes a pain.

 My computer desk. . . okay, that's actually a very old "secretary" that I've re-purposed as a computer desk, which it does very well as I might add.  I'm embarrassed by the state of messiness in this photo, but it shows where I spend most of my day most days.

Which is why I finally reached a point I couldn't stand it, and now I'm wearing contact lenses at work for the first time ever.  And wearing contact lenses again for the first time since probably 1985 or 1986.

I don't really like it, even though everyone says that I would (pretty much).

I really hate putting them in.  Next to that, I hate taking them out.

And I hate feeling vain. That may sound odd, and I wasn't expecting to feel that way, but I do.

I guess that's because I'm old enough that contact lenses weren't the default eye correction for most people.  When I first had them in my early twenties they were sort of a way of not wearing glasses, and as I hated my glasses at the time (and that was a particularly ghastly era for glasses) that's sort of what I was seeking to to at that time.  That isn't really the case any more.  Even my recently departed next door neighbor at work wore contact lenses, and he was in his 90s when he passed away.

And it wasn't what I was seeking to do now, and in part that may just be because I do look different without my glasses, I'm used to them (and like them) and its odd. The glasses sort of became a part of my established appearance even to me.  And of course people noticed.

But. . . . it did solve the dilemma I was facing.  I change my glasses much less often now.  So it worked.

Lex Anteinternet: Glasses Redux, wherein I ask for advice.

 

Back about a year ago, I published an item about glasses:

Lex Anteinternet: Glasses: I started wearing glasses when I was in junior high.

Well, actually I didn't.

I'd just gotten reading glasses, in addition to my regular glasses.  In regards to that, I noted:

Recently, I've had no choice, and after an eye examination, I had to have a second pair made, one for work, and one for home.

My reading glasses.

I hate them.

The ones I have at home are on a pair of rimless frames, much like my Bausch & Lombs. The frame is a bit heavier, but they're still not bad.  I thought it would look silly, however, to have a set of reading glasses with temple frames duplicating my regular glasses.

Of course, the new frames have a huge lens, reminding me of why I hated that kind of frame to start with.

I'm not blaming anyone. This is just part of life.  But it's the pits.

Well, a year has passed and I hate them more than ever.

The reason isn't the frames, it's the switching back and forth, constantly.  I order to see my computer, I put them on.  If somebody comes in, I have to switch back to my other glasses, if I want to see them, it's a pain.

To make matters worse, I now find that the distance at which my computer screen is set, about 2.25 feet from me, fits into a zone that I just can't focus in now.  I found that to be hugely problematic this weekend as I was working on electrical outlets.  I hate working on electrical things in general, but it's really the pits to work on them if you flat out cannot see them.  And this now happens to me a lot.

So, the question is what to do?

I don't want to be constantly shifting glasses back and forth, particularly as some of the time I'm someplace like the grocery store where I don't want to take off one pair of glasses and put on another.  

I've given, therefore, some renewed thought to adopting contact lenses. I'd still need reading glasses, or probably two pairs. but maybe putting on reading glasses would be less of a pain than taking my regular glasses off and the reading glass on?

My son suggested lasix surgery, but having anyone operate on my eyes, scares me. But then, a couple people I know have had it done and reported great results.

Anyone out there dealt with this? What'd you do?

Glasses

I started wearing glasses when I was in junior high.

Well, actually I didn't.

I got glasses when I was in junior high.  I can't recall what grade, but probably 8th or 9th.  I didn't consistently wear them however, as I my eyes weren't bad enough to require it, and I didn't like wearing them.  Actually, I had a fairly difficult time adjusting to them, so I didn't.

I didn't even wear them when I first started driving, although that restriction was on my license.  But during high school I reached a point where I had to, more or less, although even then I would sometimes omit it, and could get away with that.

I largely did that during basic training at Ft. Sill, as I broke my field Army issue glasses, and was left with only my dress pair, which came off too early. So, unless I absolutely needed them, such as when shooting, I didn't wear them, and that worked fine.

 

 Me, wearing my GI glasses, at Ft. Sill.  We were apparently shooting on the day this photo was taken, as I'm wearing my glasses, and we're cleaning M16s.

Soon after that, I started wearing glasses full time.  It was irritating, however, in that the only glasses I could find at the time had really big lenses.  They were constantly touching your face in one way or another.

 

I'm the third in, from the right, here.  It's hard to tell in this photos, but I'm wearing some really large frame glasses.  I didn't like them.

Some of the glasses I had at that time also had "photogrey" lenses. That is, they'd darken in the sun.  I didn't like the idea, but at first the glare of glasses really bothered me.

Right about this time, and that'd be about 1983 or so, I experimented with contact lenses for the second time.  I'd tried it a couple of years earlier as well.  In neither instance did they work out for me.   They bothered my eyes tremendously, so in spite of not liking the glasses, I stuck to them.

Then, just before I went to law school in the Fall of 1987, I found a pair of my father's old frames that he hadn't worn in probably 25 or more years, and decided to give them a try. They were Bausch and Lomb ball grip frames.

 

Bausch & Lomb ball grip frames.  They're great. This pair of frames is presently at least 60 years old.

For the first time, I had a pair of glasses I really liked. The lenses are small, the frames are light. They temple frames won't come off. They're fantastic.  I've worn them ever since, and used a couple of additional old frames of my father's for an extra set of glasses and a pair of sunglasses.

I kept using these frames when I went to bifocals, as they can grind the now plastic lenses for that.

Well, a couple of years ago my vision deteriorated to where focusing on my computer became a problem.  My vision can be handled by my regular glasses at any other distance, and really isn't changing, except at that odd distance.  So hey had a pair of reading glasses made for me.  I didn't like switching back and forth, however, so I largely didn't wear them.

Up until recently that is.

Recently, I've had no choice, and after an eye examination, I had to have a second pair made, one for work, and one for home.

My reading glasses.

I hate them.

The ones I have at home are on a pair of rimless frames, much like my Bausch & Lombs. The frame is a bit heavier, but they're still not bad.  I thought it would look silly, however, to have a set of reading glasses with temple frames duplicating my regular glasses.

Of course, the new frames have a huge lens, reminding me of why I hated that kind of frame to start with.

I'm not blaming anyone. This is just part of life.  But it's the pits.

It's interesting, however, how many people hardly wear glasses ever.  Contact lenses and surgery have impacted that heavily.  Some people, however, wear them for an affectation.  I've thought about switching to contact lenses myself, but based on my past experiences with them, and the fact that I wear bifocals, I'm disinclined to do that.  Whenever I mention it as a possibility, the family is against it as well as they're used to seeing me with my rimless glasses.

But if I could omit glasses entirely, I would.