I got a new pair of glasses last week, a week after Ian passed through. I need glasses because my eyesight is so bad at 20/700+, meaning I can clearly see at 20 feet what people with normal eyesight see at 700 feet. Yes, I’m blind. This is my second pair this year. The first pair, purchased at Costco, broke in two at the bridge when they fell off my face and into my hands. I don’t know why, but it was a single clean break. That forced me to go back to the pair before those so I could see well enough to legally drive. I tried to get Costco to sell me a new pair of frames for $50, but after two months of waiting I gave up and went to my insurance company and asked them if I could order another pair from a different optometrist. I became eligable in late August, and that’s when I went to a local Visionworks (Visionworks at Millenia) to get an eye exam and order a new pair. Visionworks had a deal with my vision insurance, so I went there to keep my costs as low as possible.

These Penguin brand frames (“The Princeton”) are big, bulky, kind of homely, built like a brick outhouse. Stylish they ain’t. Style be damned, I want a Brutalist kind of practicality. There’re more heavy screws holding everything together than I’ve ever seen before with glasses frames. The plastic top is a lot thicker all around than the last pair that didn’t last worth a damn. Where there isn’t plastic, there’s thick metal everywhere, including a heavy band across the bottom of each lens. These frames stay attached to my head a lot better than the pair I purchased at Costco. Even when I’m outside working and the sweat is pouring off my head because I’m looking down while working, the glasses stay put. Out and about and wearing a mask (because COVID is still out there) I don’t have any problems keeping everything firmly planted on my face. Total cost of these new glasses, including examination and lenses, was less than the cost of the frames by themselves.

I call them dad glasses because my wife calls them that, and she calls them that because she says my new glasses look almost identical to what her dad wore. That’s fine by me.

I had my teeth cleaned today. I’m not a fan of dentistry, not since I was old enough to be taken to see a dentist as a child. Those were bad sessions, especially when the dentist drilled and filled cavities. There was a period starting in my early 20s where for nearly 10 years I refused to go see a dentist. I didn’t go back until I started dating my future wife and she convinced me to see her’s. That turned out to be fortunate for me, as her dentist was highly competent. The only downside to going to a dentist was when I had seven (yes, seven) wisdom teeth removed in my mid-30s. Why seven? Four were through, three were still buds.

Since retirement I’ve been paying better attention to personal health and hygiene. It started with the simple things, like greater activity rather than commuting and sitting behind a desk for hours at a time five or six days a week. Diet was another target for cleanup. Proper dentil hygiene was another.

Since last year’s checkup I’ve included the use of GUM Soft Picks and an H2ofloss Portable Dental Water Flosser when I brush every morning. When I went back in today my gum “numbers” were 1’s and 2’s and some 3’s, instead of mostly 3’s and 4’s and a few 5’s sprinkled in. What’s more my gums didn’t bleed this time, which surprised the dental technician who was cleaning my teeth. I had no bleeding at all compared to the last time where there were spots sprinkled all over my gum line. Even the cleaning was shorter and faster than before.

Diet changes and exercise are showing results; for example my blood work from the prior week showed my A1C level was back down to 6, the top of the “green zone.” Even my blood sugar level is back down to the 110’s, although it should be below 100. All the numbers are moving back into healthy territories.

None of us will live forever, but while we’re here we can all live as healthily as possible. That means breaking bad habits with regards to personal living. Too much of contemporary living is self-destructive. It’s never too late to wind that back enough so that the quality of your life improves. While I’m still here I want to be as productive and contributory as reasonably possible, to help others rather than having to depend on someone else because I was too lazy to do the right things. You can’t help others, and the world at large, if you’re too busy living a thoughtlessly destructive life.