Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Best Laid Plans


by Specs4ever

School was a real drag, so at age 17 I escaped the drudgery of learning. Why bother, I reasoned with myself, I wouldn’t ever need any of this stuff anyway. What I didn’t realize that even menial jobs require more than a grade 12 education these days. In hindsight I probably should have become an optician, or a person who worked in an optical laboratory. Glasses, and the optical properties of different lenses was the one thing that had interested me since I was a child. But, since I had a mechanical mind I became a repairman for fuel pumps at gas stations.
Truck drivers must be really dumb. Almost every day I was called out to the truck stop at the Interstate cloverleaf into the city. Some dumb truck driver had either run into the diesel pump with his trailer when he was pulling out, or he had tried to pull away with one of the hose nozzles still sticking in his tank. Even with the breakaway hoses that they used it still took someone with knowledge to reconnect the hose.
I had been going to this truck stop for a couple of months now. One of the girls at the fuel counter was a pretty cute blond. She was a little chunky, but she was really friendly. I had been giving some consideration to asking her out for a date, but she had two things against her. The main thing was that she didn’t seem to wear glasses, or even contact lenses. The other thing was that she was a little heavy. However, she had made noises about not having a boyfriend, and of course I had let it slip that I was between girlfriends right now. The other girl; well, man she was way out of my league. She was also a blond – natural this time, and she had a trim little figure to die for. Her perky little breasts captivated my eyes every time I went in to get paid for my work. And cute, well let me tell you she was so cute I dreamed about her every night. Again, she didn’t wear glasses, but I had forgiven her for this flaw before I even thought about it for any length of time. This one was a dream illusion in the flesh. But, I knew she had a steady boyfriend, so all I could do was look at the merchandise with a longing ache in my heart.
The ringing of the phone woke me out of a sound sleep. I answered, a little peeved at being wakened. It was the truck stop, and another stupid rookie driver had clipped a pump. They had gotten the pumps turned off, but there was a line of trucks at the fuel islands waiting to fuel. So, I got out of bed and rushed my butt out there.
The kid who was looking after the pumps was someone I had never met before. He was of medium height, a slim build, and with a pair of glasses that I wished graced the face of a beautiful girl. He wore small rectangular shaped black plastic frames, with probably a –15D prescription in the right eye, and a little thinner in the left eye – maybe around –13D. It was a noticeable difference in prescription anyway. And of course the lenses were high index plastic, with a flat front to the lenses. I temporarily fixed the pumps by disconnecting the smashed one, and I got the fuel feed working on the other 9 islands. Rick was the nametag on the kid’s shirt.
“Hey Rick, like your glasses.” I remarked.
“Well, I don’t, but my eyesight is pretty crappy so I have no choice but to wear them.” Rick replied.
“Can’t you wear contacts?” I asked.
“Boy, I sure wish I could. My older sister has worn contacts since she was 12 years old, and has never had any problem. I tried them for a couple of years, but I get all sorts of eye infections.” Rick told me.
“How bad are her eyes?” I asked.
“Her eyes are really bad too. She got glasses when she was 3 years old. I didn’t get mine until I was 5 or 6.” Rick replied.
“Sure wish I could meet her.” I said.
He looked at me with a puzzled look. “You already know her.” He said.
“I do?” I queried.
“Yes, Tanya – the one who is going to pay your bill in a couple of minutes.” Rick told me.
I was spinning. Tanya, the absolutely gorgeous one who worked there wore strong glasses, or should I say wore contact lenses instead of wearing strong glasses. Oh, if she was only available.
“Tanya is a really cute lady. Too bad she has a boyfriend.” I said.
“Had.” Rick said. “They broke up a couple of days ago.”
Thoughts were swimming through my head. Could I possibly? Maybe if I said the right things. Would she go out with me? I was afraid to ask, but I had to. Could I even get the words out without being so tongue-tied that I would start to stutter?
Somehow or another luck was with me that morning. Either that or Tanya was so tired from her midnight shift that she really didn’t know what I was asking. But, she agreed to go to the movies with me Friday night.
When I went to pick Tanya up on Friday night I realized that I knew her dad. He had been my science teacher. Fortunately math and science were my good subjects, and he remembered me favorably. One of the things I had always done when I was in his class was stare at his glasses, and try to estimate how strong they were. That night I looked again. I was still pretty sure that he was no more than a –7D. And, when I met Tanya’s mom, I knew why both the children were very nearsighted. If both parents are high myopes, the chances are more than good that their offspring will be as well. After all Rick was evidence of that, so Tanya had to be at least as myopic as her brother, because girls tend to be higher myopes than boys. Mrs. Anderson’s glasses were right around –10D. I knew right then and there that I had to marry Tanya.
I courted Tanya with all my heart. She had very old fashioned values for someone in this day and age in that she was unwilling to even consider having sex with someone she was not married to. And, while one part of me wanted to get into her pants, the other part of me respected her decision. After all, we were going to be together for a long time, so why should there be any problem if we waited?
I was very careful not to mention anything about glasses. I knew from previous experiences with other girlfriends who wore glasses that they really didn’t want to talk about their eyesight. So I stayed away from the subject. After all, I knew that once we were married I would be able to see Tanya in her thick minus glasses all I wanted to.
Tanya and I had gone together for just under a year when I asked her to marry me. She accepted, and I was thrilled. Soon I would be able to see my wife wearing her high minus glasses.
The wedding was a fantastic event. The only thing that sort of spoiled it was when my boss, who was my master of ceremonies got paged by the truck stop just as he was finishing his speech. Another dumb truck driver had clipped a fuel pump, and since he was doing my job for a week, he had to leave. But, other than that, everything was great.
Tanya and I had a hotel room that evening near the airport. We were flying to Mexico for our honeymoon. It was a little after midnight when we checked in, and I quickly washed my face, brushed my teeth and got into bed, wearing only my shorts. I had been waiting too long. The anticipation grew.
Tanya came out of the washroom, and I could see that she was wearing her glasses. I could see the glint off the plano fronts of a pair of high minus lenses. Wait a second. Those were not minus. That is the look of a plus. As she came closer I could see that they were definitely plus, and a pretty strong plus at that. They had to be a +6 or a +7D. I couldn’t guess plus nearly as well as I could minus. My heart sank. How could I have messed this one up? And I had just told the preacher for better or worse. Here was the worst possible thing that could have happened, and now I was stuck. But, as she drew closer, I noticed that Tanya’s eyes, which were a little small to begin with, looked large and very attractive behind the plus lenses. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a disaster after all. She did wear contact lenses pretty well all the time, and when we were in bed with the lights out, she would have her glasses off. But, this blew my theory all to heck. How could someone with two high myopes as parents turn out to be a plus? I was intrigued.
Although I was disappointed that Tanya turned out to be a high plus, I began to enjoy seeing her wearing glasses. And, I discovered a few things about plus glasses. The most interesting thing was that when I looked from behind through a lens of Tanya’s glasses, I could see things at a certain distance very clearly, almost the same as minus. The only difference was that what I was looking at was upside down. It was really neat. I was beginning to think that plus might just be all right after all. I just hadn't had enough plus exposure.

the picture can be enlarged

The fact that Tanya had a plus prescription didn’t bother me enough so that she didn’t get pregnant. She was a very beautiful lady with or without glasses and was extremely attractive to me. We made a very good couple in bed. And when she did get pregnant, we were both floored when the doctor told us we were going to have twins. And we did have twins, a healthy baby girl, and a healthy baby boy. We named the twins Corey, and Shannon. And, while we didn’t plan it, within another 9 months Tanya was pregnant again. Fortunately this time we only had one child, another girl that we named Caitlin.
It was not an easy time for Tanya. She was looking after 3 kids still in diapers, although by the time they were 2 she had the twin’s pretty well potty trained. I was doing reasonably well financially, so Tanya was able to stay at home with the children. And, of course, since she was home looking after 3 babies, she wore her glasses a lot more. By now I really found that the right girl wearing plus lenses was just as attractive as a girl wearing strong minus lenses. And the nice thing about plus lenses was that her eyes didn’t really seem to deteriorate the same amount as those who wore high minus did. Her brother Rick was probably up to around –18 and –16D, and Tanya was still wearing her +7.50D; although she did have to get a bifocal add of +2D.
When the twins were of school age we decided that a trip to the eye doctor was in order. Corey and Shannon are fraternal twins, not identical twins, and while it was a bit of a surprise to us, Corey required a slight minus prescription and Shannon needed a mild plus. Then when it was time for Caitlin to start school, she was found to also be nearsighted. I could no longer figure this out. Tanya should have been a high myope based on her genetic makeup. And, all the children should have been myopic as well.
But, as I have been told so often – The best laid plans of mice and men so often go awry.
Specs4ever
April 2005

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