I had been anticipating my journey for a month now. This year for my annual holiday I was planning to take the train from my home in New York City out to Los Angeles, Ca. After spending 2 weeks in Los Angeles I had a return ticket to take me back home. For years I had dreamed about making this trip, and finally tomorrow my dream was going to come to pass.
That evening I packed my bags, and went to bed early. Knowing sleep would not come easily I had poured myself a stiff shot of rum and coke, and the liquor helped me drift off to sleep. But I woke early the next morning in anticipation of my adventure. It was still dark when I got out of bed and had my shower. Then I took my contact lens case from the bathroom counter top and opened the side containing the left lens. I closed the drain plug, remembering the time that I lost a lens down the drain. I recovered the lens, but I had been forced to disassemble the drain at the trap to find it, and I didn’t have the time for that today – or any other day for that matter. I removed the left lens and washed it carefully with solution. Some people can put their lens on one finger and pop it into their eye, but I find the two fingered approach to work best for me. This time the lens went in the first time, and after I blinked a couple of times I was satisfied that it was going to be comfortable for the full day. Then I cracked the lid off the right lens case, and repeated the procedure. Once I was sure that the right lens was comfortable I opened my glasses case and took out my glasses. These glasses were a weaker pair than the ones I have been wearing recently, but I didn’t want to stand out as a visually impaired person, so for this month of vacation I was going to wear my OD -17.50D and OS -17.00D glasses. These glasses have progressive lenses and were done in a 1.9 hi index glass, so they look quite thin. They do look fairly strong if, like me, you know what to look for, but most people don’t even give them a second glance.
I called a cab, and I was given an approximate arrival time. At the anointed time I was at the curb, and the cabbie pulled up exactly on time. This was a good omen. The cab took me to the main station, and I walked in with my luggage. Since I already had my ticket I was able to go right onto the platform, and was boarded almost immediately. The seats were very comfortable, and I dozed until the train left the station.
Our first stop was Washington DC, and a lot of the passengers got off there. There were also a number of new passengers and I looked up as they walked down the aisle. All of a sudden I noticed the glint of a pair of glasses on the face of an older man as he walked down the aisle. As he drew closer I could see that there was more than a reasonable amount of cut in, so I knew he was quite nearsighted. I hoped that he would sit down in the empty seats across from me, and I was quite happy when he did. Certainly, it would have been nicer to have a pretty lady with a similar prescription sitting there, but I probably would have been a little too shy to speak to her. Hopefully I could manage to develop a good glasses conversation with this gentleman.
As he sat facing me I was able to get a decent look at him and his glasses. He was Caucasian, and appeared to be in his late 50’s or early 60’s. His hair had a reasonable amount of gray in it, but I suspected that he would have been completely gray if he hadn’t been combing some of that color that you see advertised through it. I hadn’t felt that it was necessary for me to attempt to look younger than my 63 years of age, so I didn’t waste my money on trying to regain my youthful appearance. But doing this helps some people feel better about themselves, so I could understand why he did it.
His glasses were similar in appearance to mine in that they were a gold wire frame. However the lenses in his frame were more of an oval shape, and I suspected that the lenses were plastic, although they were reasonably thin for the prescription. I could see the telltale line of a bifocal placed slightly lower than would be considered normal, but some people prefer it lower. There were a few traces of darkness around the lens near the nose pieces, so I knew he wore glasses full time. If the “cheese” as most opticians call it had not been there I would have thought from the age of his frames that he was mostly a wearer of contact lenses.
He looked up from his newspaper, and could see that I had been studying him.
“Going far?” He asked.
“All the way.” I replied.
“Me too. Names Mike.” Mike said.
“Hi Mike, pleased to meet you. My name is Dave.” I said.
“Looks like you are like me. Worn glasses all your life, haven’t you?” Mike asked.
“Pretty much. Wore contacts for a while, but had to give em up. Eyes are too dry now.” I said.
“That’s the same with me. Haven’t been able to wear contacts for about 10 years now. You have a pretty strong prescription as well from the looks of it.” Mike said.
“I do. My right eye is -17.50D and my left is -17D.” I answered.
“Hey, me too. Well, not quite the same prescription, but close. My eyes are both the same, and are -17D with -0.50D of astigmatism in each.” Mike said.
“That is weird. Two strangers meet on a train and have almost the same glasses prescription. Wonder what the odds of that happening are?” I said.
“Better than you would think I guess. We are here aren’t we?” Mike laughed.
I could tell that I was going to like this guy. I began to feel badly that I was going to be showing myself off as a real high myope for the next few days. I do love doing GOC, and I certainly like showing myself off wearing strong glasses, but in one way it seemed almost indecent to make a friend of someone who had to actually wear similar glasses in real life. After all I had a choice, while he had none.
But the die was cast now. I was going to have to continue with my charade until we separated in Los Angeles. I had to carry my subterfuge through for the next 5 days. I could do it, I was certain of that. But fortunately the first day was almost over, and soon it would be time for bed. I was looking forward to that, because my contacts were starting to make my eyes feel a little dry.
The following morning I found Mike already up and sitting in his seat. I asked, but he had already eaten, so I went to breakfast by myself. I made sure I lingered over breakfast and then I went back to my seat. I decided that I might as well make the best of it, so when lunchtime came we went to the dining car together, and had a leisurely lunch. After lunch we returned to our seats with a cup of coffee, and sat talking. Mike was the owner of a small construction company. He did not do any of the actual physical work, but he prepared the quotations for his private customers, and the bids for the few government projects he handled. From the sounds of it he was doing surprisingly well considering the present day state of the economy.
“But I have always had a fascination for train travel, and after my wife passed this spring I decided that I would take a couple of weeks and ride across country on the train” Mike said.
“My condolences on the death of your wife. I guess she would have loved to be here with you.” I replied.
“Actually she wasn’t much for traveling. She got carsick in a car unless she was driving, and about the only way I could get her to go anywhere was if the plane trip was under 5 hours. She much preferred being at home with our grand kids.” Mike replied.
“That’s too bad. I know a few people who have the same problem with motion sickness. I suppose a cruise somewhere was also out of the question?” I asked.
“We were going to try a short cruise, but unfortunately she got sick, and the cancer took her within 6 months.” Mike replied.
“So now you are on your own. You look to be around my age – about 63 or so?” I asked.
“You are close. I am actually 64, and I was planning to retire next year. My boys are both involved in the company, and I was planning to turn it over to them.” Mike replied.
“You will still have to do that won’t you? Otherwise they may not want to stick around and still be under your thumb.” I said.
“I have worried about that, but I have attempted to give them both a lot of autonomy. They have a good education, and they have worked for the company for years, so they know how I like things done. And so far they seem to be willing to wait until I feel I want to retire. They know it has been hard on me since Caroline died, and they are being extremely supportive.” Mike said.
I had gotten a much better idea of the type of person Mike was, and by now I was really feeling terrible. I liked the guy, but there was no way I could get any closer to him. We had 4 more days until we departed company in Los Angeles, and I was going to have to make sure that we never saw each other again after that. This hobby of mine is something I love, but sometimes it places me into a situation where I can’t get out of it gracefully.
I made it through the rest of that day, and the two following days went fairly easily. It was almost uncomfortable being in such close quarters. I would have given anything to be actually as myopic as Mike, and I would have admitted my subterfuge in a heartbeat if I thought he would have possibly understood. But I don’t even understand my passion for myopia, so how could someone else, especially someone who likely had gone his whole life cursing his strong glasses.
The following day we pulled into Los Angeles. Mike had suggested that we get together and do some of our sightseeing together, but I had to concoct some lies as to why I was not going to be able to do that. By now I was feeling terrible about my deception. If I had chosen to go on this trip without wearing my GOC combination, and I had met Mike we could have become very good friends. I had looked forward to this trip for a long time, but in this case my addiction to myopia and my wearing of GOC had spoiled my trip. Hopefully the rest of my vacation would be an improvement over this first part.
Specs4ever Oct 2012