Friday, April 08, 2016

FRIDAY!!!!

It's been a long week. And updating this old blog 3x a week remains mostly aspirational. And I'd really like to know why spell check doesn't recognize that word. It had me questioning myself, but yes, it is a word and I am using it correctly. Dictionary.com agrees. The spellchecker must use Merriam-Webster.com, which places that definition below the taking of foreign matter into the lungs with the respiratory current". Okay. Whatever. I aspire to update more often, but so far, it's not working out to my satisfaction.

Work is good. Love the people, like what I do, and this week I have had positive feedback about my knowing my shit. One of our internal customers told my boss how great I am. This is only partially true. That particular issue happened to hit the intersection of my prior life as a construction litigation paralegal and this one as a title wonk. I could flip through a very old eminent domain case on microfilm in a county office behind the jail and across from the trailer park, and in an hour answer the question about what happened to one itty-bitty parcel on the corner of Oldfolks St. and Rednecks Drive. (Details disguised, but yes, the county office was adjacent to non-upscale trailer parks.)

I know my title shit, pretty much. I have seen my share of arcane real estate issues and can lean over someone's desk and say, "Okay, I'm guessing that there is no deed transferring this property from Company A to Company B and then to Company C because these companies merged and it's really all the same company. Let's check to see if they recorded any articles of merger, or something else that says WTF they did." And lo, the document is FOUND, and I am a genius!

Then an hour later, I get to sit in a meeting with engineers talking about a project, and it's all Charlie Brown's teacher noises until my niche of participation is mentioned. I'm a dog whose ears perk up at the mention of my name, or in this case, any number of key words that apply to what I do, but the rest might as well be Klingon. Interesting noises, but yeah, they lose me in the first minute and a half, and I struggle to follow the thread. Scheduling soil borings I know. Encroachments and conservation areas and wetlands and all that, yes. I speak that. It's not in my scope of the project, but I get that part of development. I'm totally with them! Then they launch into the Tech Talk, and the this thing connecting to the that thing, and the loops and the taps, and I'm utterly over my head. I've been reassured that this is normal and I'll pick up the technical language as I go along, and I do see it happening, gradually. It's just a reminder that I'm not really a genius (never thought I was) and I have a lot to learn (totally). And that is good. It's fun to be constantly learning new things and new aspects of development at the ripe old age of almost 58. I like it. I'd still much rather win the lottery and retire, but until that happens, this is okay.

But it's the weekend and the weather is going to be lovely, for what is probably the last time for the next six months or more. High of 79, zero chance of rain, and we are, you guessed it: Going to Disney! The Magic Kingdom, to ride roller coasters and race cars and the Haunted Mansion, and I am finally going to get to ride Space Mountain, for the first time since I can't remember when. For the last couple of years I've been the Delaney watcher while her parents went on Space Mountain, because she wasn't quite tall enough. This trip, Mom scheduled Daddy and Delaney for the race cars (which Mom and Grandma don't enjoy much) while we sneak off to ride. I don't think Miss D will be ready for a while, because you ride single rider. She won't be able to hold onto Mommy or Daddy or Grandma if she's scared, and I think that would really scare her. Space Mountain can wait until she's a big girl of six or seven. But her coaster riding will be fulfilled with a ride on Big Thunder Mountain and she loves the race cars, so all will be well, I think.

I'm getting new glasses. My new insurance is different, but Costco Optical is on it and Consumer Reports gave them raves, so I'm going to give them a shot. I walked through this evening and saw many cute frames for $60-$80 a pair, and they offer the HD digital progressive lens my special eyes need. I don't need just ONE pair of glasses. I need at least two, and preferably three, new pairs. I need HD progressive lens glasses as my normal, walking around glasses. I also need high quality computer glasses, because damn, all I do is stare into computer screens all day. I can downgrade the computer glasses I am wearing now to "home" glasses, because they are almost adequate but not quite, and at work that makes a difference. Then my wish list item is progressive lens Transitions glasses in a light, less sweaty frame, for outdoor activities. I don't really want to wear them all the time, just for field work and Disney trips and such. My regular glasses need to be more trendy and professional, while my outdoor glasses need to be able to deal with Florida summer sweat AND allow me to read small print in bright sunlight.

This isn't even counting my current two year old prescription Ray-Bans, which are still good enough for the beach and the pool, where I'm not reading or doing anything important but would still like to recognize people. I'm not replacing those. They have withstood salt spray and chlorine for two years and are still functional for that purpose. I miss the days of readers over contacts, but that won't work now.

Bottom line: I need a goddamn wardrobe of eyeglasses at this stage of my long, nearly blind life, and as long as they can get the prescription right,I'd much rather pay $80 for the frames than have a choice between $200 for the fancy designer frames and the boring, ill fitting cheap crap I've dealt with elsewhere. I need to buy glasses in bulk these days. Cross your fingers for Costco - they are on my insurance, and I saw quite a few frame styles I could live with.



2 comments:

wednesday said...

Glad you are getting a weekend of fun and nice weather. I've never used Costco optical, but I've used my prescription to order from EyeBuyDirect.com, and they are terrific. The frames are really nice, and the most expensive pair of complete glasses I've bought was 42 bucks with shipping.

I know your prescription is complicated, but you could try them out on a clearance pair and see if they are up to snuff on the lenses. That's what I did at first, when those were great, I bought myself a whole wardrobe of glasses.

Catherine said...

I could probably use something like that for computer glasses because that's basically a single vision prescription. My HD progressive lenses require a lot of eye measurements to get right, and I am not sure that could work through mail order.

I really miss the days of my expensive special contacts and occasional reading glasses.