Well, after much difficulty I have learned how to put a contact lens into my eye. I know that sounds weird, but I only need correction in one eye, the other has already been fitted with an artificial lens. This has been a huge problem because with glasses, I have really awful vision because it's impossible to correct this situation with glasses, without lots of distortion and double-vision. Hence the contact lens.

It took a lot of lessons from a very patient teacher to get me to be able to do it. I can. A feeling of accomplishment.

So I have to wear reading glasses to be able to read the computer screen. And they don't work very well, so what I'm seeing as I write this is very blurry and varies a lot as I move my head. I suspect I have the wrong reading glass strength. What strength do I have? I can't read the glasses without the glasses. Arrrrrgh!

I remember when I was in fifth grade getting glasses for the first time. I loved them. I didn't know my vision needed correcting. So when I put the glasses on for the first time I saw all the details I didn't know the world had. I wish this experience were like that, but it's not. 

Eventually I will have to get the artificial lens in the other eye, and then presumably my vision will go back to being fully correct without any contact lenses or glasses. But that operation will be risky, for reasons I don't want to go into at this time. So it has to be put off as long as possible. One thing I've learned from this whole experience is to avoid surgery whenever possible. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease! 

But I have nothing to complain about. When I go for my bike ride later, I'll be able to do it without glasses. That might be interesting! 

PS: I'm not going to edit this piece. So you can see what my unedited writing is like. Hope there aren't too many confusing overly elaborate or typographically awkward sentences. (I know there are no misspellings, thanks to Chrome's built in spelling and grammar checker.)

PPS: For people who may be having trouble learning how to get the lens in your eye, the trick is keeping your eye fully open and learning to apply pressure to your eyeball with your finger. Up until this experience I had never touched my own eyeball. I hated the idea of it. Now it doesn't bother me one bit. 

PPPS: I lied. I did a light edit on the piece. I am if anything an obsessive editor. ;-)

PPPPS: The big diff -- peripheral vision! Makes a huge difference when biking.