One company bought all the retail outlets for glasses, used that to force sales...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

61. "I could finally see my feet in the shower"

That's perfect! I used to say that it was a very good thing my hands and feet were attached to my body because otherwise I'd never find them if I had to search for them in the morning.

I had known for years that I had the beginnings of cataracts and then they suddenly got worse, and my eye doctor said it was time. I was 63, and thought maybe I'd delay until Medicare would pay for part. But I had an 80 year old friend who told me I was nuts, to get the surgery right away. She was right.

At every single appointment I was invariably by as much as 20 years, the youngest person in the room. A lot of the older ones had put it off because they'd remembered when their own parents had had cataract surgery and it wasn't anywhere near as good or easy a procedure as it has become.

I also noticed that every single person that looked in my eyes or at the paperwork would say, "Wow!" or something like that. So I finally asked, how bad were they? I was told that there are four kinds of cataracts and I had three of them. And that they're rated from 1 to 4. I was a 3 in one eye, a 3+ in the other. One of my friends said, "It's amazing you weren't walking into walls."

The other great thing is that my eye doctor has made it clear that I got even better results than he'd expected. I feel as if I can read small signs on distant hills, which isn't exactly true, but the clarity of my vision is astonishing to me, as I started wearing glasses in second grade. And I can recall not being able to see the blackboard in first grade. I was put in the front row (luckily I was short) and still had some trouble.

Which is why I can get furious at people who need glasses and refuse to wear them.