Glasses may not have survived contact with mulching mower

My eye doctor tells me my cataract surgeries are holding up well 3-4 years later and my prescription is still fine.

I wanted to argue with him but didn’t think I would win. I think my reading problems have more to do with sinus issues than they do correction. He did tell me I could use artificial tears to keep things lubricated.

He was more interested in how closely I was following diabetes issues. Something he has in common with my primary care doctor.

I was due back to see him probably a year ago but I used the pandemic as an excuse.

My first eye appointment ever was in seventh grade after I flunked the shooting test on my hunter safety course. Apparently it was pretty bad because I wound up in pretty thick Coke bottle lenses about the time kids begin to worry about how they looked.

I figured out quickly I either had to wear one of those black elastic glasses straps or my glasses would forever be taped up with electrical tape. The real wake up call was the day I lost them on the basketball court at the old junior high gym and a dribbled basketball launched them up over the rail and walkway and into the stands.

It was pretty bad just in pickup ball games around the neighborhood. Sliding into home someone would put the face tag on me and I had to carefully bend them back straight. Night basketball and football was even worse without that glasses strap. They’re sometimes hard to find in the dark.

Finally getting cataract surgery itself was both a dream come true and a curse. On the one hand, I didn’t need glasses except to read and could wear sunglasses for the first time ever. On the other my reading was so bad that without them I couldn’t see to answer the phone or a text.

I got to carrying them hanging from the neckline of my shirt and that’s where I had them recently while mowing the lawn. I have to take a long break between mowing the front and back yard these days so I had sat down in my chair after mowing the front inside when I noticed the glasses were gone.

I looked all over the yard and in the shrubbery around it for days and never found them or even a sign of them.

I do have a mulching mower but it’s hard to believe a pair of eyeglasses wouldn’t leave a sign of their demise.

I finally told myself they were scratched anyway and I likely needed a prescription change. Using that logic I guess it’s about time to lose my cell phone as well.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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