Glasses....my old eyes need prescription reading glasses

Well, I've wasted away the morning clearing up lots of old emails and ordering new glasses. I managed to order 2 pair of prescription reading glasses, a pair of bifocals (progressive with anti-glare coating) for driving and when I want to read/watch TV, and a pair of bifocals for my flamework (higher magnification for close work).....total cost from Zenni Optical including postage (a flat 4.95 fee) was 127.95 for the four pair. Quite a savings from ordering regular bifocals from one of the Eye Glass stores at $344+ for one pair I know someone who now orders all her glasses from there and has set aside a "Glasses Drawer" in her dresser to hold them. I gave in a couple of months ago when the store reading glasses were just not working for me...one eye is slightly different from the other and ordered two pair from Sears for $100. If I wanted to upgrade to bifocals (for one of the other prescriptions), it was going to cost me about $179 for one pair on sale, if I remembered right. I'm not sure the last pair for the flamework will not be a waste of money, but the magnification is what me flamework teacher told me she got, so I had the doctor give me a prescription for that, just haven't taken the time or money to order.

Let me tell you about my quest to get the prescription reading glasses (only). Quotes for using my old frame and only getting the lenses ran from $130 to 304. If I wanted the progressive, it was $349 to 535. I went to four places including Pearle Vision, Vision Max, Walmart & Sears. Now my new prescription is way less than it was before my cataract surgery, so I didn't need to pay extra for the extra thin plastic lenses (to reduce the weight on my nose), didn't want the photo-chromatic lenses either. Why on earth, when they have most of the labs on site are the lenses so expensive? How is it that I can go to Sears when they have a sale and get two pair of glasses (single vision) for $100....why can't I get that kind of a deal anywhere for $50 or less for single vision. Do they have to have that much of a markup? Sure, if I can use them, I can pick up a pair of reading glasses for anywhere from $1 (Dollar Store only) to $15 at any store, but after surgery, one eye was a different prescription than the other...so they bothered me and kept me from reading.

Time to get to work. I need to fold some clothes, clean up my bedroom and then get downstairs to sew. I need to get ALL my Christmas presents that need to be made done in the next three weeks. I've made the decision to go to NE for Christmas again this year, but I need to be ready to go sooner if my Dad should get worse before then. I'd rather hand deliver them than pay the postage later on. I'm still going to have to mail seven of them, but that can't be helped.

Actually turned on the new 830 yesterday and got it threaded....sewed a few lines, but the screen is so confusing. As you can see, the footprint is Enormous compared to the D1, hence my name for it....The Monster.

I downloaded a bunch of instructions for getting to know the machine....my first lesson isn't for a month.....do they think I won't use it before then......I think not. I also downloaded the 830 Tote as a project to work on to get to know the machine. I'll probably not try it for a couple of days, I'm working on Christmas presents and I want to get the bulk of them done.....all but the towels I'm going to monogram....I'm going to buy the new Magna ? (? magnetic) hoop on Tues. at the Bernina event day. My friend uses it to do quilts and towels. I'll do a little each day until I get to know the machine....having the same problems with my Designer 1, that I only used for embroidery. I had to figure out how to adjust the tension on it yesterday, I'm now sewing on it as my main machine. Nothing like owning a machine for 10 years and not knowing how to use it for basic sewing....I'm determined I will not do that with the 830. Getting rid of the D1 is not an option....I have 35+ years of feet collected.

They are mailing me the Jumbo hoop that I got as a rebate from buying the machine, and they have to mail me the button control for the Quilting Frame. I won't be setting up the frame for a while, I need to decide where to put the stuff downstairs that is occupying the space I need for the Frame.

My Implosions are now turning out almost 100% of the times I try them. That means maybe I'm only unhappy with one out of 5 of them, but it's still a decent implosion. Almost time to start learning how to do something new. I tend to stick to trying something new until I "get it". I'll go to Deb for some lessons on maybe angels and snowmen ornaments, then I need to learn how to do beads (I've done a few, but need a lot of practice). I made the Incredible Coat for her, and she owes me studio time, lessons or glass in exchange. I have a nice big "bank" to collect from her...the coat took me 36.5 hours to make.

My friend Kim & I went to a quilt show past State College put on by the "Centre Pieces Quilt Guild". Great show, some very talented quilters, although we totally disagree with the "Best of Show" choice by the AQS judge. There were so many nicer quilts in the show. Took our time looking at the quilts, bought some chances (6 chances to win with only two tickets)....hope I'm lucky. We saw two quilt patterns we both liked to make future quilts. We got a few things from their Boutique and then had lunch on the way home. It poured rain all the way up there, but the sun was out part of the way home....by the time we got home, it was clouding up again.

Leaves are falling like rocks. I'd say that two thirds of my trees are leafless at this point. I'm afraid we are in for a long, nasty winter this year.

I seriously doubt that I will get anything more done today. Think I'll just curl up in the recliner and look through some quilt books then read. I think Corn Chowder soup for tonight...something easy to fix....it kind of suits the day.

Another day of running ahead of me, if I'm lucky, I'll finish by one or two and be able to spend some time on the torch or sewing machine.

I'm posting some of the glass I made in the past three days. One of the flower implosions will take me 45 min. to an hour to make. I have a small Cricket torch and a small oxygen unit, if I upgrade both (about $1500) then I could do them faster. The small torch works well for me and time isn't an issue since I'm not doing any production like a factory. I chose this path so that I would not have to lug Oxygen tanks around....that did not seem like a fun thing to do.

I like to take scraps of glass or failed implosions and make free form pendants. I tend to use every little scrap I can save, so my glass lasts longer. Borosilcate glass known as "hard glass" is very expensive. A quarter pound of colored glass costs $15-35 and that only gets you 3-4 sticks, depending on how thin they draw it out. It's also my preferred glass to use because it's more forgiving, takes longer to work so it doesn't get away from you. Soft glass on the other hand can become a puddle of soup, very quickly.

Okay, I know....I promised to keep this up and never did....couldn't even remember how to get to it. A lot has happened since I last posted.

-Took a vacation around Pennsylvania with my sister Connie. We also went to Corning Glass Museum and Niagara Falls.
-Took a New York City vacation with my SIL Sharon and did Times Square on New Year's Eve
-Started taking lampwork lessons and learned how to play with hot glass
-I put my house up for sale in May of 2008
-I retired from PennDOT June 27, 2008
-My son and grandson moved in June 28, 2008
-Sat up my own glass studio in Feb., 2009
-I injured my hand in June, 2009 and spent 6 weeks waiting for new skin to grow back....TIP: Always check things like leaf blowers to make sure the safety guard is still on. I took the skin off of a finger from tip to past the first knuckle down to flesh. Luckily, I did not damage nerves, lose a finger or go down to bone. You can be sure I always check now.
-Helped to set up and run a quilt show this last weekend. I did win two Viewer's Choice ribbons which made me very happy.......that makes 4 over a 22 year period of making quilts, all of them in the last 4 years. I must have gotten better over the years.
-Bought a new Bernina 830 sewing machine & frame (Oh my, this was a Biggie!)
-Still waiting to sell the house and move to Arizona.....I would have to list the house right at the peak of the foreclosures and down market. I may be stuck here dealing with winter for another year or two before I can sell. Takes a special person who wants to live this far out of town.

I'll use this blog now for posting photos of all my various hobbies, of which there are many. According to my children.....I have too much junk, which will hit home the day they have to move me into a Assisted Living or Nursing home....hopefully not for another 20 or more years. They can only hope that by then I'll have given up some of these hobbies on my own and will stick with only one or two. What can I say, I'm only a social drinker and do not smoke. I rarely go out to eat or the movies and my major vices are fabric, thread, paper and glass. I'd rather shop in a Craft or Fabric store than go to the Mall or shop for clothes.

Major project for this coming winter: Scrapbooks
I have 60+ years of photos that need to get into books. I'm going to concentrate on getting them into the books this winter, and adding embellishments later. At least that's the way I think I'm going to go. I certainly have most of the toys....ooopps, make that tools to do it. Most I should need is glue.