New Glasses, Been Too Long

I finally got new glasses, and I shouldn't have taken so long about it, since my old ones were very crooked. Not only did they make me look like some nutty, eccentric old lady, but since they're multi-focal and turn into sunglasses, neurologically bad for me.

As has been my custom for probably close to ten years, I went to Michlelet Hadassa, the Hadassa College. It's located in the center of Jerusalem, a few minutes' walk from Zion Square.

You've all heard the saying "time is money," and that's a reason I go there for prescription glasses rather than to a private store.

The vision exam is very time consuming in Michlelet Hadassa, the Hadassa College, because you're examined by both a student and a teacher. Sometimes that necessitates repeating the whole process. In their optician shop, where you choose your frames, you also deal with a student and a professional. It's like bringing along your entire family. Everyone has an opinion and advice. I helped a woman by reminding her to notice some decoration on the side of the frames. Most people only pay attention to the front view. I ended up hating the decoration on the side of my old glasses; I felt it looked cheap. But I hadn't noticed it when I chose them. The woman was very grateful and didn't take those frames.

To be honest, I wasn't crazy about the selection available, though I loved the prices. At NS150 for my new frames, barely $40 or even less, I found frames that were fine, though not my dream ones. Lenses also cost less than in the stores. Quality is good, as is service.

About the service...
For the very first time since getting prescription glasses, a good twenty plus years, I didn't have a "wow, now I can see so much better" reaction when putting the new ones on. It was the opposite, especially for reading.

I immediately complained/reported it. The staff was very attentive and understanding. They didn't say that I'd adjust. They took back the glasses and told me to make an appointment with a "professor." At the reception desk, they told me to return later in the evening, which I did. The senior teacher re-examined me and found a couple of problems with the prescription.

A week later, I got a call that the new glasses were ready. They are better, but I was still unsure. The woman, not a student, in the optician shop told me that because my old glasses were crooked, I should give myself a few more days, up to two weeks, to try them out.

They seem OK. I wore them all day yesterday without any problems. Now my old computer reading glasses don't seem so great. They had been perfect before I got my new glasses. I may just go to a neighborhood optician to get new lenses in those frames, since it's just a matter of getting relatively simple lenses. I'll see what she charges, of course. Getting old isn't cheap.

52Frames and Multifocals

This week's theme/challenge in 52frames, the photography group I'm in, was "something hidden."  Too bad that I couldn't reproduce the effects in the "illusion workshop" my grandkids participated in at the Israel Museum a few months ago.

I understood the challenge to be creating a picture that makes the viewer think they're looking at something not quite what is there.  There are always members of the group that take it more literally, so thought of having one or more of the grandkids pose reading books that hid their faces.

"Hidden behind a book."

But this is supposed to be a photographic challenge, so I went for the visual.

Yes, that's a "selfie." I figured that most people would look at the picture, with the hat and dark lenses and figure that I was wearing sunglasses.  The truth is that I'm not, and these aren't the type of lenses that change color/darkness depending on how light or dark it is.  I'm using old-fashioned clip-ons.

The ironic thing is that I originally had planned on buying glasses with those special lenses but was put off by the price. I saw that my sunglasses easily went over them, so just got plain lenses.  And on my way home from the optician I somehow lost the sunglasses in one of the rides.

When I realized that I had lost the sunglasses, I took the clip-ons I had once bought my husband.  We never succeeded in getting them on his glasses, so they'd been waiting rather forlornly in the closet. I had no problem putting them on and off my new glasses.

In another post, bli neder, I'll write more about wearing multifocals.