I know I wear glasses, but since yesterday I seem to be living in a blue world and have a permanent blue screen when I visit WordPress. The symptoms began suddenly. My orange focus during my blogging phases had been changed. Even my iPad is now showing blue icons. I know I have blue eyes, be it somewhat watery with age, but I did not realise that the eye colour affected the sight colour.

I had an orange grid, with an orange background – yes the human being is a creature of habit. We are used to certain sights in our life and as soon as something is changed, we are confused. I do not want to complain, I find the WordPress new style is very good. We are now observing the WordPress pages through blue tinted glasses. The psychological effect is much better, soothing to the eyes and temprement, I am almost falling asleep at my computer. The orange effect was an immediate shock daily. As soon as the grid appeared it iluminated the surroundings, but you were awake and ready to go.

I discovered many styles of glasses, spectacles, in my collection. I never needed anything for my vision at school. Mum always had glasses, but she said the doctor told her she had a lazy eye, although I am not sure what this definition describes, but mum was not a doctor and we only spoke cockney english at home.  She told the story of the eye tests at school where she would learn the letters on the poster by memory before it was her turn. She was foiled, someone must have been watching, because when she was called the optician changed the card and the letters were different. At the age of 10 she had her first glasses. I cannot blame her, national health glasses supplied in 1923 were not exactly the last cry in fashion.

Coming up to modern times, I was a victim, a computer casualty. My sight was perfect until the arrival of Bill Gates and his machines. He wore glasses and decided he did not want to be the odd one out, so we had to follow. I remember the computer invasion in the office. Up to that point you had a telex machine with the printed words on a roll of paper. There were typewriters and even handwriting was accepted. Slowly but surely the computers wormed their way in the daily routine.

I even enjoyed them, welcomed them with open unspectacled eyes. It was a modern adventure and filled my office life with fun until the day when I discovered the center of my vision had a sort of spot that was just a little cloudy. No big deal, but annoying when I wanted to thread a needle. Unfortuantely the “threadneedle” programme had not yet been developed: even today you have to do it yourself. The Kindle had not yet been invented so I had to accept the letter sizes in the books and they also seemed to be shrinking.

It was time for a visit to the opticians. He discovered my sight was perfect if I did not have to read, write or work with the computer. I had my first glasses, reading glasses. I decided on the half shaped glasses, it looked good and I could perch them on the end of my nose. Luckily my nose was big enough and strong enough to carry them. I could see again perfectly.

At the beginning it was the computer, later it was reading the timetable at the bus stop or the railway station, and seaching for the right flavours of jam in the supermarket. The time had arrived for the next opticians visit. This time it was the whole thing, the bifocals. Look down if you read, look straight ahead for normal.

I have had many types of spectacles as you can see from the display above. My favourites were those on the left. They were shop bought, not from the opticians. I had to have new glasses, and whilst waiting I bought these to tie me over. I just loved the colours, really my thing. The lens were standard, nothing special to suit my vision. I kept them as a souvenir. I think they only cost fifty Swiss francs at the time.

However, many developents were happening on the vision front and one day I had my first vario lens glasses. That is what we call them in german and I think it is the same in english. I love them, I had my normal sight again: no more looking down and straight ahead, just do your thing and the glasses folow.

As I approach the final stages of my golden oldie life, I have discovered that my vision has neither worsened or improved, it remains quite stable. Last Monday I had to visit the hospital and my sight nerve was tested. Alternatively one eye was covered and I had a sort of computer game with a screen filled with black and white sqares and a red dot in the middle. Unfortunately I did not receive a mouse to catch the red dot and score points, but there were a few spreadsheets printed afterwards. I do not know what they discovered. Perhaps I have a third eye hidden somewhere: the evil eye – beware. And as I write this I am wearing my glasses, I always wear my glasses, thanks to Bill Gates and his merry men I am sure that today the opticians are making profits.

Daily Prompt: Vision