It has been a long time since I last had an eye exam, at least 3 years have passed since my last one I am sure.

And for many years since my lasik surgery for my monovision, I have been very happy to not need glasses in everyday situations.

But I had recently noticed it was a bit harder to see things at a distance, and even watching a movie on my VCR screen, I needed to wear my distance glasses to see clearer.

So I have been looking at coupons for eye exams and buying glasses these last few months.

When I called my normal place to get an exam, I was told I couldn’t have an appointment until early February, about 4 weeks from when I called, and it would cost me $180!

A coupon for a $49 exam and one for glasses either 2 for one price or the same percent off as my age intrigued me more.

I called this morning and they could see me in an hour, so I hopped in my car and went to check them out.

Really nice and helpful people.

I did add some expenses to the eye exam that were offered, but since I hadn’t had an exam in over 3 years, I really wanted a full picture of the health of my eyes. And it still cost about half of the other quote I had gotten.

It was really interesting seeing a picture of my eyes. The one dark spot I was shown turned out to be a floater, as it moved to a different area in the second picture of that eye.

Basically, for my age, my eyes are pretty healthy. A little bit more astigmatism is probably causing the lessening distance vision. But nothing else looked threatening, so that was a relief.

I bought two pairs of distance glasses. One will live in my car as my old pair has done these last few years. The other pair is a bit fancier and I can take them with me to movies or the theater or any where I might need to see something clearer that is farther away than my computer screen.

And I will probably keep my old pair in my hiking backpack, just in case I want to see something in the distance better. Though they told me switching back and forth might be a bit difficult, I will probably try it and see how that works.

And then, I still need to buy a pair of reading glasses, but wanted to wait until my next “payday” for my art work happens in early February. But I have had some good FantaFaces mask sales on ETSY, so might just take that money and treat myself to reading glasses next week. And a person who sporadically pays on a loan I made years ago, seems to be back on track to paying that off, so that gives me a little more financial wiggle room to update my eye-wear on all levels.

And of course there was a glitch in my world when paying. For some reason my debit card was refused for the full amount. I had over $500 more in the bank than the cost of the glasses and exam. Something had prompted me to bring my business debit card with me as I was getting ready to leave the house. I split the cost between the two cards, and it all went through fine.

When I called my bank to understand what had happened, it seems that the new cards for the new bank name have been issued, and they have a different expiration date. I hadn’t activated the new cards yet, but seems I had better, as this problem could happen again, and I might not be as prepared as I was today.

Just wasn’t ready to spend the time to update all my web payment places with new information, and was told my current cards were good until they expired, so didn’t feel rushed. But now I do. And that will be in my schedule to happen over the next few days.

While waiting for my glasses I had gone to a friend who I collect coupons for and had just gotten back into town after a 6 week visit with family in Texas. She fixed me a soup lunch and we got caught up with each others lives. Great way to spend a bit of time waiting for glasses to get made.

 My roommate fixed a nice dinner for me and her boyfriend, so that was a nice treat.

Now catching up with some of the computer work I didn’t get done today being on the other side of town . . .