Trina went ahead and made appointments for myself and Karin at the eye doctor that she had gone to for years. It surprised me a little to find that she also made one for herself as well but I suspected that the reason for that was to see if she could get herself new contacts that she could wear. Lana was back to wearing contacts a hundred percent of the time she was out in public. Every once in a while she would take her contacts out after the restaurant had closed for the evening and she would wear her glasses while we were cleaning up. Libby had gone back to wearing her contacts in public about seventy five percent of the time and I figured that Trina was hoping to be able to find a new type of lens that she could wear that would be comfortable on her eyes. I felt that she had likely damaged her cornea from over wearing her old contacts and depending on the damage she had done it would not be easy for her to find contacts that would work for her. The appointments that Trina had arranged for the three of us were about two weeks away.
By the time our appointments arrived I had been wearing the stronger and much thicker looking glasses all of the time for around 5 or 6 weeks. Karin had been wearing her glasses from Pete’s discards for about 3 months now, and had not complained even once that she could not see properly wearing them. And Trina had not worn contacts for the same period of time that Karin had been wearing glasses.
Karin had the first appointment, and then I was called in before I was able to find out what Karin’s prescription was going to be. When I came out with my new prescription Trina was in one of the other rooms having her exam, and Karin was looking at and trying on new frames with one of the girls that worked there. I managed to find out what Karin’s prescription was and I was really surprised to find that the doctor had tested her to find that she needed a prescription of right around -9.00D for both eyes. I still had no idea what the prescription had been in the old glasses Karin had been wearing and while I knew it was a strong prescription I didn’t think it was anywhere near -9.00D. I had been a little surprised myself when the eye doctor had pronounced the prescription in the glasses I was wearing as a little too weak for me. My original old broken glasses had been a bit above -10D, but now I was going to require a prescription of -15.00D with a small correction for astigmatism in both eyes. I had hesitated to ask the doctor what the prescription was in the glasses I had come in wearing, but I figured I didn’t want to have to explain why I didn’t know it.
Finally Trina joined us, and she wasn’t very happy. Apparently her wearing of her contacts when she shouldn’t have had caused some damage to her eyes. She had some small ulcers on the sclera of both her eyes which would not be a problem as long as she didn’t wear contacts. Her doctor had told her that she could wait a little longer to see if they would go away by themselves, but he was not very optimistic that they would. They could be surgically removed, but then it might lead to a problem with the scar tissue. The only thing that he could suggest for Trina was that she should go another few months without wearing contacts, and if the ulcers had mostly gone away then he could possibly fit her with a contact lens that had a much larger diameter than the 8.7 x 14.2 lenses that she had been wearing. This way the contact lens would sit on top of the ulcers and they would no longer be irritated by the edges of the lens. Another option was going to be for Trina to try what is called a piggyback lens which has a rigid plastic center section that is surrounded by a carrier of soft plastic. The center section has the prescription she would need, and the outer section would be much larger than the size that any of the regular soft contacts were made in. For now though Trina was going to have to wear glasses, and this had upset her even more because apparently her prescription was now very close to that of her mother’s. She really didn’t want to get the same type of myodisc lenses that her mom needed.
Trina really didn’t have much choice and she was smart enough to realize that. I helped her pick out a much nicer frame than she would have chosen on her own – mostly because she didn’t want to spend any money on glasses because she didn’t want to wear them. But finally the optician, and Karin as well as I managed to convince her that she needed to spend the money so she could look as attractive as she possibly could. This girl had a real aversion to wearing glasses and I blamed her mother for this. Of course it had not helped that her late husband had forced her to wear contact lenses when she should have switched to glasses, but this really was her own fault and I made sure I impressed my thoughts on this matter on her so that she would not make the same mistake with Karina.
We left quite a few dollars on the table before departing the optical store. They had not been able to immediately supply any of the lenses we required, and while I was not displeased that Trina and my lenses would need to be ordered I was a little surprised that Karin’s lenses were not in stock. Apparently they do stock a fairly good selection of high index lenses up to a maximum of -6D but since lenses of higher powers were readily available within 2 or 3 days they did not keep them in stock. It had also given me a bit of a shock when I found out that all 3 of us required pretty decent increases over the prescriptions we were wearing in the glasses we came in with. I felt I could see quite well with the prescription that was in the glasses I had been wearing but apparently I had needed a sizeable increase. I had not known what the prescription that was in the lenses that Karin had on was, but even if it was as high as -7.50D that meant that Karin also had been given a prescription that was around -1.50D stronger. I did find out that Trina had an increase of -1.00D and her new myodiscs were going to be right at -19.50D.
When we did pick out new glasses up almost a week later I did notice that it took a bit of effort on my part to focus through them, but after a few minutes they felt pretty good. Trina looked surprisingly attractive wearing her new myodiscs. Her whole appearance seemed to have changed in the few months that had passed since the night she left Harry. And Harry’s death a couple of weeks later had taken a lot of worries from her shoulders. It was rather funny that I had taken a long hard look at Trina during the time before she left Harry and had discarded the idea that I could ever be interested in her. But I had really enjoyed her company a few weeks earlier when she had asked me to accompany her to the movies. Although we had not had another chance to go out on a date we had spent time together most evenings just sitting on the couch talking and I could feel more than a little bit of sexual arousal in her company. I was wondering if she was beginning to feel the same way about me, but was too afraid to ask her directly.
The restaurant was a busy place. The breakfast rush lasted from the time we opened at 7 am until about 9:30. Then we had a 30 minute reprieve until the coffee time rush started. By 11:30 the lunch crunch began and by the time this ended at somewhere around 1:30 we were all frazzled. Afternoon coffee break wasn’t too bad and the dinner hour was easily handled as we had a steady, but manageable stream of customers. We did have to kick out a few stragglers at 9:00 pm in order for us to clean up. But we had such a steady regular clientele that there was no possibility that we would be out of work.
One of our regulars was a man in his mid to late 60’s. He came in for breakfast once in a while and I knew him as ham over easy with home fries and dry wheat, but his friends all called him Radar. I knew that his nickname came from that old TV show back in the 60’s that was about army medics in Korea. There was a radio operator nicknamed Radar who supposedly wore very thick glasses, but actually wore glasses that just had plain glass lenses. This Radar had the correct very thick glasses and the nickname, while it might not have really been derogatory, did seem to be just that. Radar also came in for coffee with a group of 3 other older gents 3 days a week but since he was with friends I never got a chance to speak with him. On the occasional morning that Radar did come in for breakfast I was so busy in the kitchen all I ever had time to do was to nod at him in recognition and I was a little surprised one morning when he came in around 11 am and sat at the counter. By this time I was at the counter filling cups with coffee and I had a little more time to chat.
“I have wanted to ask you for a while where you got those safety glasses you used to wear but you always seemed to be too busy to talk when I am here first thing.” Radar said to me.
“Why do you want to know?” I said, a little taken aback but not wanting to reveal things.
“They sure looked like an old pair I used to wear about 30 years ago.” He replied.
“They might have been them. I got them from the Lions Club a few months back.” I answered.
“I am surprised they would still have had them around. I donated them about 5 years ago.” Radar said.
“From the appearance of your present glasses I suspect that those glasses would have been useless to you for quite a few years.” I replied.
“You are correct. I passed the prescription that was in those glasses about 30 years ago. They were the first pair of safety glasses that I got when I worked at Schmaltz and Company. I also had 2 other pairs as well that had the same prescription and I donated them at the same time.” Radar told me.
“What a coincidence. I probably had all three pairs, but now they are too weak for me. Do you remember what the prescription in them was?” I asked.
“They had a prescription of -13.50D. Where did you get your new glasses?” Radar asked.
“I just had Dr. Blaine test my eyes, and I bought my new glasses at his optical store.” I answered.
“Did you feel quite a tug on your eyes when you put your new glasses on?” Radar asked.
“I did, and it took a while before I could easily focus on things.” I responded.
“You might want to consider finding another eye doctor. It seemed that every time I went for my annual eye exam I needed new, stronger glasses. Two of my daughters also needed glasses for their myopia, and they always needed stronger glasses every year. I can’t prove anything, but I think the good doctor always tried to give his clients as strong a prescription that he possibly could.” Radar told me.
‘Thanks for telling me this. It appears as if your prescription has gotten very strong. Do you know what it is?” I asked.
“I am right around -32D in both eyes. My oldest daughter is at -30D and her youngest sister is right at -28D. They both are very myopic like I am, but my middle daughter has perfect vision and has never needed glasses, just like my wife.” Radar said.
“What would the purpose be of the eye doctor giving you stronger and stronger lenses each year?” I asked.
“My feeling is that he does not make the most money he possibly can out of each patient unless they also purchase glasses from his optical store. There might be nothing at all behind my suspicions. I stopped going to him 3 years ago and so did my daughters. We had been having increases of up to about -1D per year before that but our new doctor has not increased our prescriptions at all since we changed to him.” Radar replied.
Radar went on his way, but he had given me something to think about. Trina, myself and Karin all were wearing prescriptions that were sufficiently strong and we did not need to have any further unnecessary increases. I made my mind up that I would find us another eye doctor for the future, but I didn’t know what I would tell Trina as a good reason for doing this. If I told her the truth, that perhaps some of her high myopia had been because her eye doctor had always given her the strongest possible prescription that she could tolerate, she would have been extremely upset. And since there was no way to prove this, other than mine and Radar’s suspicions I didn’t want to make any accusations that I could not prove.
It had been interesting to meet the person who had first worn the glasses that had pretty much saved my life though. And it was also nice to find out that the prescription they had in them was -13.50D. I knew that the pair I had worn when I had my eyes tested were a bit stronger than the -13.50D glasses had been, but now I figured that maybe they had only been -14D and I only had been able to accept another -1.00D. Both Trina and I were past the age where we should need any increases in our prescriptions and that in itself was a good reason to believe what Radar had told me. But Karin had barely turned 9 and she already had a prescription of -9D. I read somewhere that if a child has a prescription that is higher than their age they will likely have a lot of increases before they reach the age where they are a very high myope and their myopia stops increasing. I suspected that Karin would likely reach that point over the next year if we continued using Dr. Blaine.
I am a watcher more than a talker. I had watched Trina since the first day that I met her. At first, while she was still married to Harry, I really had no interest in her other than her being a coworker. I had noticed a pinched, rather drawn, expression on her face much of the time, and she blinked constantly. She was thin – possibly a bit too thin, and she stood about 5’9” in her flat soled shoes. I am close to 6’and I felt that if she was wearing heels she might have been as tall as I was in shoes. But then after Harry died and she became more relaxed she changed. Her appearance softened, and she gained a bit of weight, but in all the right places. She had nice blue eyes that when she had her glasses off looked to be pretty big and bulged out slightly, but when she had her glasses on the minification shrunk her eyes in size so they looked quite nice. After she started wearing her glasses she no longer blinked constantly and I had realized that this had been because her contacts were irritating her eyes. She had shoulder length medium brown hair when I first met her, but over the past 8 or 9 months she had let it grow to the point where she could now tie it back in a ponytail. She was a much happier person and it showed in her smile. I was just starting to feel as if there might be a possibility for me to fit into her life.
It was hard for me to tell if Trina would accept a romantic advance from me, but over the past month I had noticed that she brushed against me from time to time in a manner that could be considered accidentally on purpose. And recently in the evening after work while we sat watching the news she would sit close to me and would sometimes let her heard fall on my shoulder as if she were dozing off to sleep. I wondered if she was waiting for me to make a pass at her, but my fear of rejection as well as being worried about my job was preventing this from happening. Finally one night I talked it over with her, and I told her that I liked her a lot, and would love it if she would like to be my girlfriend. Her only comment was that she had been wondering why it was taking me so long.
After that the pace of our romance ramped up. The restaurant was closed on Sunday and now Trina and Karin and I would go places together that we knew would interest Karin such as the zoo, and a music concert in the park. Harry had never taken them anywhere on Trina’s day off, and I was enjoying showing these 2 ladies around the city. I knew all the places to go, but I had never been inside the museum, or the center for science and industry. I had begged for money on the front steps of many of these places, but now I actually had the money to go inside and look around. And sometimes Lana would invite everyone over for a family dinner and it felt pretty good to be included, as I had never had any family. Daniel, Libby’s husband was a really decent guy, and their little boy P.D. was just beginning to walk. Dan was pressing Libby to quit working at the restaurant and stay home to look after P.D., and maybe have another child. And it was true. The hours that Libby were now able to work had been severely diminished what with P.D. being able to crawl around. Now someone had to be with P.D. and he could not be left on his own with just the baby monitor showing his every move. Pete had arranged things so that Libby could come in for the lunch rush, because P.D. had an hour or better nap then, and then Libby would watch P.D. until Karin came in from school. Karin would then watch P.D. until we closed up and then Libby would leave to take P.D. home if Daniel had not already stopped by to pick him up.
Over a year had passed since I had first come to see Pete, and my life had completely changed for the better. I was now feeling as if I was in love with Trina, and I had the feeling this was mutual. We were not sleeping together yet, but we had discussed this a couple of times. Trina didn’t want to share a bed with me unless we were married, and because we were living under a roof that her parents owned as well as working with her mom and dad almost every day I sort of felt the same way. One night as we were cleaning up after the restaurant closed I asked Pete if he had any objections to me asking his daughter to marry me. He didn’t, so my next step was to buy an engagement ring and ask Trina if she would marry me. She accepted, but told me she didn’t want a big wedding.
While a big wedding was not planned, Pete and Lana insisted we should get married at the restaurant. You have never seen a crazier thing in your life. A friend of Pete’s was a minister and he was tapped to perform the ceremony. The restaurant didn’t close that Saturday afternoon, but we did not serve off the menu. Everyone came by for the ceremony and then got to eat from a huge buffet meal that the girls had prepared and set out. It was a day I will never forget, but also a day that I wouldn’t want to ever repeat.
That night Karina slept in my old double bed, and Trina and I began our married life.
The next 5 years have brought a lot more changes. Libby had to quit working every day, although she still comes in to fill in once in a while. She and Daniel have had 2 more children, a girl and another boy. Trina and I wasted no time in starting a family together and Trina has produced 2 more grandchildren for Pete and Lana. We now have a son and a daughter, and it is only because Karin is such a great kid in helping look after her half siblings that Trina has been able to keep on working in the restaurant. Pete has just announced that he wants to retire, as he is closing in on 66 and he can draw a pension soon. He and Lana have offered to sell the restaurant to Trina and me and we are very seriously considering his offer.
Trina and I did have to move from the apartment over the restaurant after Dylan was born. We rented a house that we could walk to the restaurant from. With Trina and Libby both heavily involved in raising children they were unable to work much so Pete had to hire some waitresses and that has not worked out too badly. Karin is now 13, and she is a wonderful help to both her mother and I as Trina does try to work as much, and as often as she possibly can. Karin has had a couple of increases in her glasses prescription and she is now wearing her new glasses with their -12.50D prescription. I wanted to try to keep her prescription from climbing too rapidly so I suggested that she should wear her weaker glasses whenever she was reading or doing a lot of school work, and that seems to have helped a little as her prescription is slightly less than her age now. I knew that Libby and Trina had spent a lot of time in the apartment by themselves when they were young and they didn’t have much of a chance to be outside, so I have tried to get Karin involved in outdoor activities and she quite enjoys playing ball as well as tennis so maybe this has helped slow her prescription increases down a little.
Six or so years ago, when I first came to see Pete, I had pretty well hit the lowest point in my life. I have to thank Pete, and his wife Lana for helping me to raise myself up from rock bottom.
Specs4ever March 2016
https://vision-and-spex.com/from-rock-bottom-the-end-t870.html