hazardwarning

@variablepulserate Well that’s good. Hope it works out. Eyesight is a very precious thing.

I’ve worn glasses since I was seven. Yeah, pink nhs frames on a kid with bright auburn hair. I don’t think I’ve recovered from the trauma. I was so relieved when they brought out tortoiseshell ones. I started off long-sighted, then short, then I got given a prescription for astigmatism when I was about 15. They warned me my brain would take a while to adapt - they weren’t wrong. For several days it looked like the ground was at 45°. Horrid feeling. It’s a damn nuisance when it changes, because it makes previous specs unwearable unless I want to feel queasy. I still don’t know why it should change, but it does. I’m hoping that if my lenses harden as I get older, it will stop that, but who knows.

Luckily I don’t have the extra holes in my eyes. I just know what to do if I ever have an acute attack, (basically get to an eye emergency dept), plus I have to wear photochromic lenses to lessen the impact of going from light to dark places - something to do with the iris having pigment cells rubbed more if the pupil changes quickly. Not that my pupils contract properly anyway. I dunno, never really fully understood the issue. It’s never caused a major problem; it isn’t glaucoma, but too much pigment liberation could cause a blockage and an acute glaucoma attack. Yay.

variablepulserate.10centuries.org.

@variablepulserate Well that's good to know. 😀 I guess you could always close one eye.

They can fix all sorts of things with lasers, but I can’t say I fancy the thought of having laser surgery on my eyes. The medics threatened to laser an additional drainage hole into my eyes because of the pigment dispersion. I wasn’t keen, but agreed. Luckily the day I went for it, I saw the consultant who was happy to agree that it wasn’t really needed, as the condition had never caused any damage to my retina. Phew!

If I ever get cataracts then assuming they insert a correctly shaped lens the astigmatism should go away. Then I could buy cheap reading glasses maybe.

My eyesight isn’t really that bad: +1 and +0.75, with a reading addition of +2.5 & +2.75. I think the worst I ever was, was -1.25. The astigmatism angle just means that horizontal/vertical is the least in focus, so I get eye strain easily. And of course since the age of 40 I’ve needed a reading addition. But I’m typing this on my 6” iPhone without my glasses on, no problem at all.

My brother, however, has always been very short-sighted, though maybe less so now he’s in his 50s. 🤷‍♀

variablepulserate.10centuries.org.

@matigo Agreed. It was instilled into a lot of my generation through Scouts, Brownies & Guides. Not sure how popular they are nowadays.

It’s a scarily isolating world at times, though I’m lucky to live in a fairly small community - but conversely I don’t have the usual network of Mums whose children have gone through school together, or local work colleagues.

We now have a cohort of youngsters who missed out on valuable socialising thanks to Covid. Some kids fared worse than others, but most people I know say their children/grandchildren were affected to some degree. My younger nephew found it quite hard at times, I think. I do wonder quite what we have done to the next generation - nothing much that’s good!

matigo.ca.

@variablepulserate Trust you to be weird! I'm slightly unusual in that my astigmatism is because of mis-shapen lenses in both eyes: most often it's the shape of the eyeball, or the layer of fluid in front of the eye.

variablepulserate.10centuries.org.

@matigo I'm firmly in the analogue camp, with my Seiko 5. I had a Fitbit for a few years, but I find having to get new batteries for quartz watches irritating, so the Fitbit annoyed me; imagine what an Apple watch would do for me. Although, with my post-Covid balance issues, and living alone, I rather like the fall detection on them. Still, I can't see me deserting my old-style watch any time soon.

// @jussipekonen

matigo.ca.

@matigo No they won’t - not if you keep a count of the rows you have done. It’s easy! They even have little twisty things to put on needles to make it easy to do, though I tend to tick mine off using pencil & paper.

// @variablepulserate

matigo.ca.

@variablepulserate Perhaps your handsy hobby should be knitting or crochet, so you can make yourself some nice warm jumpers. Says the knitter/crocheter who has a couple of projects on the go, but who bought a fleecy top (budget Oodie) from Amazon. Just preparing for the winter and avoiding crippling energy bills…

variablepulserate.10centuries.org.

@jussipekonen Love her books.

jussipekonen.10centuries.org.

Watching a tv programme with actual adverts. There's one for Pandora which opens with a woman singing "there's a light…" Unfortunately for them, my brain immediately fills in "over at the Frankenstein place".

@matigo I remember that phase well! Luckily I was able to part ways with my employer. 5 years ago at the end of this month!

// @jussipekonen

matigo.ca.