Cheater Glasses – A Very Useful Tool!
Jan 13th, 2011 by Doug Berch
I couldn’t argue when the ophthalmologist said “You need glasses.” I went to see him because my arms had become to short for reading. It was a realization reminiscent of the time I figured out I had to buy pants a size larger.
He said “Would you like to spend $10 or $600? You could do fine with $10 glasses.”
I didn’t have to think for very long.
Cheater glasses (over-the-counter reading glasses) had entered my life and my life has been better for it.
They go on and off quite a bit when making dulcimers. I generally wear +1.50 for reading and they also work well for most tasks in the shop where I need to see a little more detail. For up-close work I was using +2.00.
The other day I went to a store I love to hate – Harbor Freight. It is a tempting place; lots of tools at low prices that sometimes actually work. I picked up a $5.00 clip-on jeweler’s loupe.
The clip-on-loupe has proved very useful. I usually use just one of the lenses for “up close and personal” work where there is little or no room for error. The loupe-lenses flip out-of-the-way easily and I only have to remember where I left one pair of glasses!
I’m a cheater fan…have several pair scattered about my home and workplace
I was checking them out at the drug store today. There will be four weeks after my second surgery before I get new glasses, and I am going to need to be able to read during that time. I didn’t buy any because I see the doctor tomorrow and because I’ve been told that I can find cheaper ones at the dollar store. But I found some that worked very well with my “new” eye and not badly with the “old” one.
One of my eyes is better than the other which is why I might end up needing prescription glasses down the road;. I have wondered about getting two pairs of cheaters and switching lenses so I can have a stronger one for the weaker eye. Might be pushing my luck!
Or wear a patch on the weak eye and drive slow
Pirate Doug
Annette – When I was a kid I had lazy-eye and had to wear a patch on my good eye to force the weak eye to work harder. I remember how strange it was negotiating just walking for a while – driving would have been downright scary!
Amblyopia…I had to wear the patch when I was young, didn’t like it and still have poor vision in one eye
My vision is still off in one eye. I also had to wear a red filter over my good eye and write with a red pencil.
Doug, that two-glasses thing might work if you can pop out one lens and then get the other one to stay in. I did buy a pair today, and I’m wearing them now at the computer.
I didn’t have lazy eye as in nerves, but I had a muscle weakness so that if I looked out of one eye, the other would drift off. I still do it somewhat, especially when I am tired, and I can do it on purpose. Like now, for distance, I just look out of the right eye, and close-up I look out of the left. Now with the glasses I am looking more out of the right, because the glasses fix the right eye for reading and make the left a little worse, but not bad.
I developed wandering eye in my teens and had surgery for that. It didn’t help my vision but people stopped thinking I wasn’t looking at the when the talked to me!
I had surgery at 12, my right eye crossed in. Afterwards it wander out (life is a cosmic joke!)..when teaching college, 2 students would think I called on them at once. Pointing reduced confusion. Now I make silly faces for the grandkids -cross one eye in and the other eye out
@Annette Riordan, I agree, life is a cosmic joke!