I needed to get in for an optometrist exam. They are closed Wednesday’s. Actually most days it seems he’s only open 1/2 days. Not sure if it’s because of the coronavirus, or if he’s semi-retiring. Thursday I called in the afternoon and found them closed. They had voicemail so I left a message, not really expecting my call to be returned. Good thing I woke up uncharacteristically early Friday because I got a call saying there was a cancellation, could I be there at 9:15am. I took it. They are 5 minutes from my house, I just had to get ready really quickly. I was surprised to see plexiglass up around the entire large 1/2 circle that is the front desk.The doctor and his staff are all seniors. I get why there was that much plexiglass and only 1 slot to slide a clipboard through. When I was called in, the doctor waited until I was seated in the exam chair before he sanitized the piece of equipment you look through where they change the lenses, and the other equipment they have you rest your chin and forehead. It took a few extra minutes, but they were worth it to be reassured that they really do sanitize the equipment. I’ve already had an ophthalmologist exam at the beginning of the year which included dilating my eyes so I was happy to know he was skipping that part. My wife wasn’t up yet, so I drove over. Glad I didn’t have to drive home with my eyes dilated. I was impressed with one of the changes in equipment. The one that changes the lenses is connected to a computer to set the lenses close to what your eyes need. It made the exam go much more quickly. Afterward I selected frames. Similar to what I have now, Rayban brown, but these were more tortoise shell colored. The bows were metal. And surprise! Unbreakable! You can bend them and they won’t break. (Not as bendy as the pair I had when my kids were babies. You could fold those up small and put them in your pocket. It was great at the time cuz my kids were at the ‘grab Mommy’s glasses and mangle them stage.) But this will be good because I keep loosing my current eyeglasses and then I find that I’m sitting on them, or drop them on the floor and nearly step on them. I have vision insurance, so I saved a good chunk of change, even though I opted for name brand frames. ($150 off frames is awesome.) It still cost me slightly over $400. I have to get high index lenses, which is fancy for they make my lenses super thin because otherwise they would be thicker than the old Coke bottle bottoms. Without the discount from my insurance they would have been over $800.
I’d say my eye exam was a pleasant experience. I wore my face mask the entire time and had no issues. My wife saw a post her sister commented on about a friend of hers who went for an eye exam and was all bent out of shape over the entire experience. Poor, dear had to wear a face mask for the first time, since she was told she could not enter the office without one. Then she complained incessantly about doing an eye exam with a face mask on. I can honestly say that I barely noticed my face mask, and I didn’t find it was in the way at all. Some people are unbelievable.
That’s odd that the woman had never worn a face mask before. I’m sure she was exaggerating. I do find that although businesses have signs posted that face masks are required, they are getting more and more lax about enforcing it. Maybe the videos of the people pushing their way into stores has the employees wary. I did hear a couple of Walmart employees discussing a new protocol. Apparently Walmart will be having what they call “Safety Ambassadors” who will be wearing a different colored shirt with that title on it and they will be handling the entrances soon. That’s all well and good, but some people are gonna be asshats just because they can. And lately those customers caught on video have lost their jobs. Being an asshat is not free of consequences.
Picked up prescriptions and lunch and dropped it off to my daughter at the group home. We had a short visit, socially distancing with masks on at the patio table.
Speaking of the group home, there has been a coronavirus death of one of the clients that live “in the community“. That means they either live in an apartment complex run by the place that runs the group homes, or live at home and receive services from the place that runs the group homes. That place has been giving video updates to their Facebook page on Fridays. For next week’s video they promised to share who the woman was. Not her name, they will share what kind of person she was, what she liked to do, how she celebrated life. Very sad to have heard about her passing, but I think it may help other clients to know a bit about her. She had been hospitalized for several weeks from what I could tell from earlier videos.
Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2020
