I got my new progressive lenses today. They are nice, actually, and I'm liking them. It sucks that I need them, though. I am hoping this will lead to me doing more artwork -- my eyes have been too tired to draw whenever I'd had free time lately!

Getting old beats the only alternative!

HAHAH yeah I have had them now for a few years. When you need to change in a year or so to see better close up, DO NOT jump more than 1/2 power on the progression. I did and they had to redo them.. I could see great close up but If I had go into a store It was painfully impossible to see..
One other thing I did this time around is to buy a second set of glasses with single vision lenses (no progressive) This way you can lay down or put your head back to watch TV. They are better if all viewing is long distance like going to a ball game or in a movie theater. I am so happy progressives were invented, I could not imagine bi or trifocals
Good luck it only takes a couple of weeks to get used.

If you eyes get really tired now doing close work, you are holding your work to close and looking at it cross-eyed!

I've had progressive lenses for a couple of years now too - watch out when you go down stairs!!!

I know how you feel Ernest. I quit doing anything for awhile because it became to much of a struggle. Got an upgrade in December and it feels so good to be able to see, halfway anyway. I have to remember where I put them if I take them off because I can't half see to find them. The sad part is they won't last forever and will need replacing again in a year or two. I still struggle to read the computer though I always feel like I have to tilt my head back in order to see. I like to watch television in bed but it gets harder to see it without the glasses..growing old is the pits.

I'm pretty much as blind as a bat and have worn glasses for as long as I can remember, so it didn't faze me in the least when I switched to progressive lenses in my early forties. Now that I'm an old blind bat, though, my close up vision has actually improved to the point where my lenses interfere with it. I have to keep taking my glasses off to do close up work, but then I can't see 2 feet in front of me. Drives me NUTS!

I know the alternative is worse, but I agree with Ernest...it sucks being old.

If you feel you have to tilt you head then the glasses are not adjusted correctly. The optician should be able to adjust the frames so the glasses sit higher on your face. It took about 4 trips of adjusting to find the sweet spot for me..

I can not afford the progressive lenses but I do own a pair of bi-focals and use them when drawing ..my eyes changed bad this year and I am 46.

Mine started at 42!

Thanks, everybody -- it really helps to know we're all in this together!

Group Hug !!! For ernest eyes lol

I feel for you Ernest, and the rest of you!
46 and suddenly I can't see to read yikes!
My eyes are always tired because I never use the glasses, they make me dizzy, when I look away from the close up stuff and they are never around.
I can't believe how fast my eyes went down hill.
Soon I'll have to have them chained to my neck.LOL

You have my sympathies Ernest. fading sight is no joke especailly for an artist. I will be fifty this year and luckly I still have fairly good eye sight but I have started to notice just how much of the world is written in small print On the plus side they say that a lot of Claude Monet's great style was due to his impaired vision. So there is hope for us all

I think not being able to see too good makes my drawings look better to me. Ihave had my glasses since somewhere in the late 60s. I am 70 now and would rather put up with the glasses then to not be able to.

Didn't is sight improve and he tore up some paint's done on the bad sight?

I started wearing glasses just to read in my 40's then a few years later discovered the distance was bad... soooooo Bi focals .. Then that became a headache trying to play golf or just generaly watching TV or see the PC etc.... what a dizzy experience that was.. then I discovered contacts.. They made them for those who had to wear the bi's .. you wear one for distance in one eye and one for closeness in the other .. and because our brains are so wonderful.. they work together beautifully.. Does take a day or two for the brain to accept it but they are wonderful.. I get the Dailys.. wear a pair one day and throw them away..
Ernest it's just hard to accept any changes these days isn't it?

I've always had glasses, and when I was 14 I started getting grey hair What I don't like (35 now) is that as time marches on, old injuries such as low back/knee/collarbone/ etc etc ache more in the cold weather and I live in the NorthEast and well, winter is cold and wet here. Cold I can handle, cold and wet not so much.
Just be glad that as you grow older you do not develop colorblindness I tend to rely on software when doing computer work to make sure I have the right colors. I have issue with values/hues/shades due to red/green deficiency!! Meh, makes life interesting

I have a braile steering wheel in my car.

There is a drive-up ATM machine at the bank near my house and it has not only Braille lettering, but a place to plug in a headset jack for "voice-guided operation." I would be somewhat nervous seeing a driver that needed to use either of those options.

In some States you can get a driver's license if you are legally blind.

Yeh but those braile traffic lights hold things up somewhat!

Not over here. They just ignore them.
I actually had a lawyer tell me that they were just suggestions.

Not in Holland.
Or maybe the fine you get for driving through a red traffic light is also a "suggestion" to pay up?????

Trees

No. We just bribe the policemen when they do managed to stop us. I only seem to get stopped on one way streets.

Talking of getting old, I took an I.Q. test yesterday. The result was negative...!

LOL

What are we going to do with you Steve ? You keep me in stitches !!