The most important thing in everyone's little world

A few months ago, I had to use some insurance money that was set aside for glasses or contacts and made an appointment at random when my usual eye doctor couldn't get me in before the deadline.

The plan was simple, get in, get a basic eye exam and a set of glasses. Contacts would have to wait for the money to reset.

Midway through the exam, the doctor was going over my chart and tried to put together the dates provided.

It had been roughly two years since I'd had my eyes checked, but I was still using contacts. Anyone who has ever done business with an online contact lens seller knows that regardless of the date on your prescription, they'll ship those suckers out the next day.

I'd heard stories of someone who used to "fix" her prescription as she saw fit by tweaking the numbers when she placed the orders. Something tells me that they aren't really checking those too stringently.

This was all news to the eye doctor. And he was pissed.

It just goes to show that whatever your little corner of the world entails in terms of work or hobbies, becomes a major point of contention for the strangest reasons. I'd bet that the same eye doctor who is so upset about out of date contact lens prescriptions lets his oil light go a few days before seeing a mechanic or forgets to properly manage the cables in his home entertainment center.

It's amazing to think that there was a time in human history when someone could theoretically know all there was to know in their society. Now it's impossible to know a fraction of that today, which isn't such a bad thing.

I guess I'll try and be a bit more forgiving of the sloppy speaker installs in shops at the mall and at crummy family restaurants in the future, but I'm not making any promises. It is a very important facet of modern life that is often overlooked and could lead to utter disaster.

(Image from: Wikipedia.org)