Cheaters
Yrs Trly is 68 years old.
I’m the last of my high-school class (1962 — 50 years ago) to not need eye-magnification, bifocals and/or cheater-lenses.
Not exactly.
I don’t have bifocals or cheaters, but I sometimes have to use a magnifying-glass to read small print.
This laptop-screen is about two feet away from me, yet I use the smallest font without computer-glasses.
It’s vanity somewhat, but it’s also the fact I’ve been able to get by without magnification.
Until a few weeks ago when I visited an old friend far east of where I live.
Out in a very rural area.
My friend is a model-railroader, so since I’m a railfan, he and I occasionally attend model-railroad shows.
I’m not a model-railroader myself, but he is. He has a model-railroad in his basement, yet I don’t.
His is under construction.
What I’m more interested in is the real thing.
Model-railroads are great fun, but they collect dust.
They also aren’t very realistic, although much more realistic than my old Lionel trains.
Out-of-scale clunkers on three-rail tinplate rail over track-curvature much sharper than reality.
To model Horseshoe Curve in HO-gauge correctly would probably take an entire basement.
And even then you wouldn’t have the equivalent of a real railroad.
It would be back-and-forth over the Mighty Curve, not continuous train operation.
The typical model-railroad has way more trackage than reality. It has to. If it didn’t you couldn’t have continuous train-operation. Highways and scenery and buildings are subservient to trackage. It ain’t the real world.
I have a few model-railroad locomotives myself, but just for display.
One is a GG1 (“Jee-Jee-ONE;” I only say that because a friend was mispronouncing it “Jee-Jee-Eye”), to me the best railroad-locomotive ever.
It’s just an HO model, but very well done.
There’s no overhead catenary (“kat-in-AIR-eee”) -wire like the real thing. The pantograph (“pant-uh-GRAFF”) just reaches for the sky.
I have other models. One is a TWA Lockheed Constellation, to me the greatest airplane ever.
Another is a McLaren M8d Can-Am car, to me the greatest racecar of all time.
But only because it seemed the ultimate hotrod.
A Big-Block Chevy motor in a light-weight sporting chassis.
Supposedly within range of a backyard hot-rodder.
Not some megabuck Ferrari racecar with a V12 motor you could never get.
No matter that Big-Block was aluminum, a motor which would be near impossible to get.
It was the Big-Block, a motor available from Chevrolet.
My friend dragged out a model-railroad magazine.
There was a model-railroad show we wanted to attend, and I wanted to crank it into my SmartPhone calendar.
The show was announced in the magazine, but I couldn’t read it.
I held the magazine back, but held back the type was too small.
Brought forward to offset that, I couldn’t focus on the announcement.
I’d need magnification, which I didn’t have, a magnifying glass or cheaters.
Months ago my ophthalmologist prescribed cheaters, and I’ve wanted to look into them since then.
Although I wasn’t desperate — seemed I could get by without ‘em.
I had to do an errand in nearby Canandaigua the other day (Thursday, February 9, 2012), and I decided I’d check on them if it wasn’t too late.
It wasn’t, so I went to Eye Care Center of Canandaigua, the place that had my ophthalmologist and cheater-prescription.
I checked in at the reception-desk, and was directed to their optical-department, pointing to their waiting-area.
I went to the waiting-area and took a seat, expecting to get called.
Minutes passed, and after about an hour of waiting I noticed that people who arrived after me were getting called first.
Exasperated, I went back to the receptionist.
“I’ve been waiting over an hour, and haven’t been called yet,” I said.
“I can’t wait any longer.”
I was directed back to the waiting-area.
“Already over an hour has passed,” I repeated. “I can’t wait any longer.”
“Have you checked in at optometry?” another asked.
“Oh,” I said.
Optometry was off to the side of the waiting area. (Silly me!)
I checked in at Optometry and was almost immediately called from the waiting-area.
The clerk looked up my prescription, and I was advised I could probably use over-the-counter cheaters, $20 per set.
My optical insurance was for $100, I guess per glasses purchase.
Okay, I’d get one set of cheaters, $20 of the $100.
The staff went ballistic!
Silly me! I had the awful temerity and unmitigated gall and horrific audacity to dispute their all-knowing wisdom.
—That I thought five pair of cheaters was ridiculous.
All so I could get my full $100 insurance benefit.
Or perhaps so they could get the $100.
If I only were to get one pair of cheaters, they’d lose $80.
“It’s only 20 bucks,” I said.
The clerk was exasperated.
How could I question the obvious wisdom of the staff; how could I think five pair of cheaters for nothing was ridiculous? (Gasp!)
So I walked out with two pair, and three more on order.
“What if you misplace a pair?” the clerk asked.
I unholstered my hyper-expensive prescription sunglasses.
“I’ve had these things years, and have never lost ‘em,” I said.
• “HO-gauge” (half-O gauge) is 16.5 millimeters (0.64961 inches) between the rails. It is now the most common model-railroad gauge. (Lionel was O-gauge.)
• “TWA” is Trans-World Airlines.
• The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “Small-Block” was revolutionary in its time.
• “Canandaigua” (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles away. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester, NY.
• My cellphone is a Droid-X® SmartPhone. It has the calendar application.
I’m the last of my high-school class (1962 — 50 years ago) to not need eye-magnification, bifocals and/or cheater-lenses.
Not exactly.
I don’t have bifocals or cheaters, but I sometimes have to use a magnifying-glass to read small print.
This laptop-screen is about two feet away from me, yet I use the smallest font without computer-glasses.
It’s vanity somewhat, but it’s also the fact I’ve been able to get by without magnification.
Until a few weeks ago when I visited an old friend far east of where I live.
Out in a very rural area.
My friend is a model-railroader, so since I’m a railfan, he and I occasionally attend model-railroad shows.
I’m not a model-railroader myself, but he is. He has a model-railroad in his basement, yet I don’t.
His is under construction.
What I’m more interested in is the real thing.
Model-railroads are great fun, but they collect dust.
They also aren’t very realistic, although much more realistic than my old Lionel trains.
Out-of-scale clunkers on three-rail tinplate rail over track-curvature much sharper than reality.
To model Horseshoe Curve in HO-gauge correctly would probably take an entire basement.
And even then you wouldn’t have the equivalent of a real railroad.
It would be back-and-forth over the Mighty Curve, not continuous train operation.
The typical model-railroad has way more trackage than reality. It has to. If it didn’t you couldn’t have continuous train-operation. Highways and scenery and buildings are subservient to trackage. It ain’t the real world.
I have a few model-railroad locomotives myself, but just for display.
One is a GG1 (“Jee-Jee-ONE;” I only say that because a friend was mispronouncing it “Jee-Jee-Eye”), to me the best railroad-locomotive ever.
It’s just an HO model, but very well done.
There’s no overhead catenary (“kat-in-AIR-eee”) -wire like the real thing. The pantograph (“pant-uh-GRAFF”) just reaches for the sky.
I have other models. One is a TWA Lockheed Constellation, to me the greatest airplane ever.
Another is a McLaren M8d Can-Am car, to me the greatest racecar of all time.
But only because it seemed the ultimate hotrod.
A Big-Block Chevy motor in a light-weight sporting chassis.
Supposedly within range of a backyard hot-rodder.
Not some megabuck Ferrari racecar with a V12 motor you could never get.
No matter that Big-Block was aluminum, a motor which would be near impossible to get.
It was the Big-Block, a motor available from Chevrolet.
My friend dragged out a model-railroad magazine.
There was a model-railroad show we wanted to attend, and I wanted to crank it into my SmartPhone calendar.
The show was announced in the magazine, but I couldn’t read it.
I held the magazine back, but held back the type was too small.
Brought forward to offset that, I couldn’t focus on the announcement.
I’d need magnification, which I didn’t have, a magnifying glass or cheaters.
Months ago my ophthalmologist prescribed cheaters, and I’ve wanted to look into them since then.
Although I wasn’t desperate — seemed I could get by without ‘em.
I had to do an errand in nearby Canandaigua the other day (Thursday, February 9, 2012), and I decided I’d check on them if it wasn’t too late.
It wasn’t, so I went to Eye Care Center of Canandaigua, the place that had my ophthalmologist and cheater-prescription.
I checked in at the reception-desk, and was directed to their optical-department, pointing to their waiting-area.
I went to the waiting-area and took a seat, expecting to get called.
Minutes passed, and after about an hour of waiting I noticed that people who arrived after me were getting called first.
Exasperated, I went back to the receptionist.
“I’ve been waiting over an hour, and haven’t been called yet,” I said.
“I can’t wait any longer.”
I was directed back to the waiting-area.
“Already over an hour has passed,” I repeated. “I can’t wait any longer.”
“Have you checked in at optometry?” another asked.
“Oh,” I said.
Optometry was off to the side of the waiting area. (Silly me!)
I checked in at Optometry and was almost immediately called from the waiting-area.
The clerk looked up my prescription, and I was advised I could probably use over-the-counter cheaters, $20 per set.
My optical insurance was for $100, I guess per glasses purchase.
Okay, I’d get one set of cheaters, $20 of the $100.
The staff went ballistic!
Silly me! I had the awful temerity and unmitigated gall and horrific audacity to dispute their all-knowing wisdom.
—That I thought five pair of cheaters was ridiculous.
All so I could get my full $100 insurance benefit.
Or perhaps so they could get the $100.
If I only were to get one pair of cheaters, they’d lose $80.
“It’s only 20 bucks,” I said.
The clerk was exasperated.
How could I question the obvious wisdom of the staff; how could I think five pair of cheaters for nothing was ridiculous? (Gasp!)
So I walked out with two pair, and three more on order.
“What if you misplace a pair?” the clerk asked.
I unholstered my hyper-expensive prescription sunglasses.
“I’ve had these things years, and have never lost ‘em,” I said.
• “HO-gauge” (half-O gauge) is 16.5 millimeters (0.64961 inches) between the rails. It is now the most common model-railroad gauge. (Lionel was O-gauge.)
• “TWA” is Trans-World Airlines.
• The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “Small-Block” was revolutionary in its time.
• “Canandaigua” (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles away. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester, NY.
• My cellphone is a Droid-X® SmartPhone. It has the calendar application.
posted by BobbaLew at 2:10 PM
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