I decided to go to the WalMart clinic as close and convenient, after my docs set up their own clinic.
Appt at 930 am. I arrive on time.
Fill out new paperwork.
Take the tests, etc, etc.
Talk to VERY young new person doing tests.
Sit in the exam room. sit. Sit. Sit. Sit.
I watch the elderly and gentlemanly doc potter back and forth from his 8:30 appointmentee, and finally finish up at 1030 AM. And go on pottering. Back and forth. The 1030 appt is now here. I haven’t even had a hello from the doc.
I wished the staff well and left.
Called my regular doc’s office and have a new appointment Monday.
I’ll probably end up with contacts AND reading glasses, and I don’t want that new prescription held hostage by this apparently nice but glacially slow fellow. I’ll drive the extra 3 miles to reach my old docs.
Had that happen once at the ophthalmologist, years ago. They apologized profusely for losing my appointment. (They were busy, I’ll grant that.)
I told my current optometrist that, since I would be paying out of pocket for my second set of glasses, I would be trying to be as inexpensive as possible. I would prefer to get them from her if she could beat Costco’s price. She did (gave me the frames at cost); win-win!
You work in a visual medium.
Walmart for your eyes.
When you get to (as we almost all do) eye surgery–Walmart?
Excuse me, but: Really?
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Chordrite: Nice! I’ll keep that in mind.
That’s what I thought, too, Walt. But I’ve been to the highest-powered (and priciest) optometrists and opthamologists in this half of WA. in my life I’ve had eye surgery, and a bout with iritis, a detachment (bubble) in a cornea, etc, etc. So I’ve been fussy and always gone to the best I could find. But…
One of the fancy guys here in Spokane apparently had lousy penmanship: their lab got the lenses wrong 3 times in succession, with a variety of mistakes—creative, to say the least. They had me reading with drugstore glasses for a month and a half on that series of goofs. And the prescription still wasn’t great when they got it right. The 3x goof just fried with that guy. I tried two others. No. Wouldn’t listen to what I want and gave me what they thought I should have. Gave me a headache, and one pair was really hopeless.
As optometrists, the two at Walmart topped the others for accuracy and speed of service. Now the 2 Walmart docs, who are young, have set up a new clinic on their own — which is where I’m going. I gave the new guy there his chance. Nope. But the two prior ones were gems.
Re: “We’ll give you what we think you need!”
I had that problem with the local eye clinic in town. They’re prepared to give one of three types of prescriptions: 18″ focal length “reading”, 30″ focal length “computer”, and infinity focal length “driving”.
Well as any photographer knows, the “depth of field” is huge for a “half-focal length” that brings infinity into sharp focus. But it’s not so close that one can fill out a form or read a receipt when out and about one drove to.
So I figured if I got a focal length of about 6′ it would do me just fine; consider it as “gardening”. They refused! So I said we couldn’t do business any longer. (They kept sending appointment reminders for three years.)
I found another guy in the next town who would “split the difference” between “computer” and “driving” and I’ve been happy with that ever since. It works for me. I can see well enough to drive, or fill out a form if not “read”. It seems to keep my eyes exercised and controls presbyopia.
p.s. It’s my birthday today (2 days before D-Day). So that’s why I chose that avatar for this month. 😉
Happy Birthday, Paul!
My optometrist is okay, but the outfit she farms out processing lenses to goofed a couple of times on my driving glasses. It may not be the eye doc’s fault, unless they are making lenses on site. There might be worse translation problems than ‘salad’!
I hear you about clueless optometrists! I kept trying to get the text she wanted me to read as far away from myself as I could, and she said some thing like, “Is that where you read? Put it where you read!” I explained that I generally read books without glasses; I asked for intermediate glasses, not reading glasses; and, yes, I have a 28″ monitor so, yes, I do read with the text even further away than I could hold her clipboard, ThankYouVeryMuch. She still gave me a reading glasses prescription, which I did not fill.
CJ: What really matters is the doc, himself. What you say is very true.
Happy birthday, Paul!!!!!
I’ve never understood celebrating ones own birthdays. Maybe it’s because I’m an Aspie, and it ain’t logical. I don’t remember it, nor much else before 6 or so. It was nothing I did!
Now having as a celebration for our Mothers, that makes sense to me! It was all her “doings”.
I remember to before I was a year old. I celebrate my birthday because I’ve beaten another year’s worth of trials. Yes, of course I call my Mama and thank her.
On the other hand, we should be happy on our birthdays and do something nice. I hope you have, Paul!
Happy birthday, Paul!
I’m not much on celebrating birthdays either, especially with songs in restaurants! (Shudder.)
But I find birthdays a good time for reflection on life and my accomplishments.
For example, scientist Heinrich Hertz proved Maxwell’s and Faraday’s theory of electromagnetic waves, pioneering radio; discovered the photoelectric effect (that Einstein explained winning the Nobel Prize); worked in Meteorology and Mechanics; and has the unit of frequency (like 60 Hertz power in US wall sockets) named for him. And when he was my age–actually, he died at 36. Bad example.
Well, how about Mozart? Court musician. Over 600 concertos, operas, sonatas, chamber music etc. When he was my age–um–he died at 35. Bad example.
Alexander the Great? Taught by Aristotle himself. A king at 20. Conquered one of the largest empires ever. Founded twenty cities, modestly named Alexandria (each of them). Never lost a battle. And at my age, he was lying in honey in a gold–bother: casket–he died at 32.
Right. About not celebrating birthdays….
Kinda easy for me to remember D-Day. Makes me wonder sometimes about the “sacrifices” Americans nowadays are willing to make/tolerate.