Complex Numbers

No Cornea Jokes Today

One of the immeasurable joys of getting older is we get to go visit doctors and other medical professionals more often. For instance, me, this morning, so this is going to be a fairly brief personal update rather than deep philosophical musings about whether Chicago pizza is actually pizza (it's not) or scorn at the sorry state of science reporting.

Some long-time readers might remember that back in the dark ages of 2021, I had cataract surgery in both eyes. Today's visit to the eye doctor served as a general check-up and 2.5-year follow-up to that.

Now, I know I like to kvetch, whinge, moan, and complain in here. But this time, I have nothing to complain about. Everything, according to the eye doctor (don't make me spell optha-whatever), is fine. Sure, my vision is slightly worse than it was 30 years ago, but it's a lot better than it was 5 years ago.

What I mostly wanted to share, though, was that the doc, who I go to both because she's very thorough and because she's married to a former colleague of mine, is a massive nerd. I mean, you expect that from science-oriented professions, but she keeps up with the latest ocular-testing gadgets, and this time, she had a new toy: a virtual reality headset programmed to do part of the eye exam.

You put on the headset, and a little blue floating cartoon lady (you can tell the gender from the voice and the ponytail; I have a ponytail sometimes, too, but my voice and goatee give away the game) walks you through an exercise where they measure your visual focus distance. This involves staring at a target while a light show goes on all around you like you're moving through space in a game.

Turns out my focus isn't quite right, but not off enough to cause serious eye problems or require glasses. Which is still weird to me, not needing glasses for anything at my age. Well, sunglasses for protection from the harsh glare of the accursed daystar, sure, but not prescription ones, and I've always needed shades.

And the only reason why?

Science.

I'd be effectively blind right now without science. Well, not really; without science, I'd have died before I could go blind.

So if you ever wonder why I bang on about nerd stuff in here a lot... well, that's one reason why.