Yesterday, when we were on our way to a Christmas BBQ with friends and former colleagues, a screw on my glasses came loose. That caused one of the lenses to fall out and render my glasses useless. We were already halfway to our destination (which was a fair way from home), and I didn't have my contact lenses on me, or the small glasses repair kit that I used to carry around (I used to carry a *lot* of stuff in my handbag!). So I resigned myself to a fuzzy day ahead.

I'm shortsighted, with a prescription of approximately -5 in both eyes, as well as astigmatism in my left eye. My vision is perfect up to about a foot away from my face. Beyond that, everything is blurry.

Interestingly, Tim and I recently had a conversation about our poor sight (he's about -8). We speculated that without the invention of spectacles, evolution may very well have prevented us from ever coming into existence. Without our glasses, we're a liability - weak, disabled. And who would want to mate with a squinter ;)

So yesterday I spent the day as a squinter, rather than as a fully able-bodied person. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, mostly because I had Tim's help. Although sometimes he forgot (like letting me know about the baked potatoes, which I consequently missed out on - grrr!). But I couldn't see facial expressions properly, which left me at a social disadvantage. And I couldn't do normal guest-like things, like help with clearing up and the like.

Although I tried to keep my eyes relaxed, I had quite a headache at the end of the day - probably a combination of constant blurriness and the unconscious strain of trying to compensate for it. By the time we got home at the end of the day, I was feeling quite agitated about the need to quickly locate my old glasses so that I could get some control back.

I got my glasses repaired this morning, and everything's back to normal. But it was an interesting exercise in living without vision, even if only for 8 hours. And I feel so lucky that corrected vision is so easily obtainable in our society.