Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Seeing Reality
I had a checkup at the doctor's today. I brought my racing medical form for my competition license renewal. As part of being declared medically acceptable to operate a high speed competition automobile, and in generally fine shape, I was given a vision test. It's pretty fundamental that you need to be able to see to drive. Vision tests have always been pretty easy for me. I usualy have to ask the person to cut to the chase and let me read the bottom line. ("Are you seriously asking me to read that big 'E' on the top line?" I asked myself today.)
But now that I'm older and my vision is clearly failing miserably, I was concerned. What if I were required to wear glasses while racing? I don't think they fit under my helmet. I don't like wearing them driving except at night. My left eye turned out to be no problem. That's the one where I asked if I could just read the last line. She would have none of it. Perhaps I had that chart memorized. After all, it's the one with the big "E" on top which she had started with. My right eye was a different matter. Astigmatic and near-sighted, it's the one that still enables me to (barely) read without reading glasses. All the letters skew around in several directions from the astigmatism, and are blurry to boot. I only ventured the middle line, where I turned a "P" into an "F" and a few other similar blunders. She gave me several guesses on missed letters, so I got it. I got the next line, too, though the "either C, Q, or O - I'll go with O" gave me a little difficulty. Guessing the most common letter was a good strategy, though I had already wiggled my eye around until I had momentarily caused the right edge of the "C" to be filled in, in what I'll call a "stigmatic patch." Choosing between O and Q was easy, especially with a second guess coming.
A lady nearby gasped in amazement. "That's your bad eye? That's much better than I can do." It seems my disgusting, barely useful right eye has 20/20 vision. That's pretty darn scary to me. My left eye is still 20/13, which is what I was told I had as a child. Now that I remember it, I was pretty pissed at that tester because he didn't let me read the two lines below it. I bet I had 20/8 when I was a kid.
So here I am, facing the reality that what passes for me as barely able to see a thing is better than some people have ever seen in their entire life, and better than many people can see with their glasses!
And they're out there driving cars.
I had a checkup at the doctor's today. I brought my racing medical form for my competition license renewal. As part of being declared medically acceptable to operate a high speed competition automobile, and in generally fine shape, I was given a vision test. It's pretty fundamental that you need to be able to see to drive. Vision tests have always been pretty easy for me. I usualy have to ask the person to cut to the chase and let me read the bottom line. ("Are you seriously asking me to read that big 'E' on the top line?" I asked myself today.)
But now that I'm older and my vision is clearly failing miserably, I was concerned. What if I were required to wear glasses while racing? I don't think they fit under my helmet. I don't like wearing them driving except at night. My left eye turned out to be no problem. That's the one where I asked if I could just read the last line. She would have none of it. Perhaps I had that chart memorized. After all, it's the one with the big "E" on top which she had started with. My right eye was a different matter. Astigmatic and near-sighted, it's the one that still enables me to (barely) read without reading glasses. All the letters skew around in several directions from the astigmatism, and are blurry to boot. I only ventured the middle line, where I turned a "P" into an "F" and a few other similar blunders. She gave me several guesses on missed letters, so I got it. I got the next line, too, though the "either C, Q, or O - I'll go with O" gave me a little difficulty. Guessing the most common letter was a good strategy, though I had already wiggled my eye around until I had momentarily caused the right edge of the "C" to be filled in, in what I'll call a "stigmatic patch." Choosing between O and Q was easy, especially with a second guess coming.
A lady nearby gasped in amazement. "That's your bad eye? That's much better than I can do." It seems my disgusting, barely useful right eye has 20/20 vision. That's pretty darn scary to me. My left eye is still 20/13, which is what I was told I had as a child. Now that I remember it, I was pretty pissed at that tester because he didn't let me read the two lines below it. I bet I had 20/8 when I was a kid.
So here I am, facing the reality that what passes for me as barely able to see a thing is better than some people have ever seen in their entire life, and better than many people can see with their glasses!
And they're out there driving cars.
# posted by Jack @ 4:38 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
Oh, you're just so superior, you MIT nerd...
we all do just fine, driving around just barely being able to see the numbers on our cell phones, thank you.
we all do just fine, driving around just barely being able to see the numbers on our cell phones, thank you.
I'm your brother, and it's genetic. I had incredibly better vision than all my friends and it helped when playing sports.
When I was very young, maybe five, my Dad and my Uncle Charles were talking and one of them said, "See that hill over yonder?"
"Yeah, and do you see the water tower on top of it?"
I started looking, and sure enough, there was a water tower.
"Yeah, and do you see the bird on top of the water tower?"
Yeah, and do you see the twig in its mouth?"
By this time I was amazed!!
"Yeah, and do you see the ladybug on the twig?"
I was astounded!!
"Yeah, and do you see the germ on the ladybug?"
I was five, but I didn't just fall off a turnip truck. It had been several weeks since that had happened, but I'll always remember that conversation they had just to pull my leg about their great vision.
They laughed harder than me, but it was funny.
Post a Comment
When I was very young, maybe five, my Dad and my Uncle Charles were talking and one of them said, "See that hill over yonder?"
"Yeah, and do you see the water tower on top of it?"
I started looking, and sure enough, there was a water tower.
"Yeah, and do you see the bird on top of the water tower?"
Yeah, and do you see the twig in its mouth?"
By this time I was amazed!!
"Yeah, and do you see the ladybug on the twig?"
I was astounded!!
"Yeah, and do you see the germ on the ladybug?"
I was five, but I didn't just fall off a turnip truck. It had been several weeks since that had happened, but I'll always remember that conversation they had just to pull my leg about their great vision.
They laughed harder than me, but it was funny.
<< Home
