Monday, December 14, 2020

All Three Monkeys At Once

      Me, last Friday:

     This is actually "See less evil, hear less evil, exhale less evil," and every bit of it is there for a reason.
     The big, round "glacier glasses" are prescription sunglasses, the best I have owned.  Being blue-eyed and nearsighted meaning being very sensitive to bright light and UV, so I wore fairly dark sunglasses with side shields for years, back when I wore contact lenses.  I had a pair of this style, purchased on closeout (the maker, Julbo, were changing distributors or exiting the U. S. market at the time) and after returning to eyeglasses once I needed bifocals, I kept an eye open for anything similar and planned to have prescription lenses made for them with the tint matched to the originals.  The exact model showed up online and I did just that.  (Mine are from one of those "group buy" sites.  Amazon sells them now.)

     Friday was a sunny day, and I was in and out of the building, so sunglasses were required.

     Next layer, the building at what I call "North Campus" is very noisy.  Both big rooms have high-power, air-cooled equipment in them, with closed-loop air-conditioning.  I've lost hearing to that noise and suffer tinnitus, so hearing protection is a must.  I often "double up," with foam earplugs and the over-ear protectors.

     The reason I was in and out of the building was because we had a tower crew doing some work.  State orders and company policy -- as well as my own opinion -- calls for a two-layer mask covering nose and mouth.  Once you've got sunglasses and earmuffs on over the mask, there's no point in taking it off when not working with the crew.

     The first time the manager of the tower crew encountered this look, he asked me, "How do I even know that's you?"

     I didn't have an answer for that.  Maybe I should have my ID photo updated.

     Oh, "How bad is my eyesight?"
     I managed to get my phone to focus through one of these lenses -- notice how fuzzy the view outside it is, and how much the road seen through the lens diverges from the uncorrected view.  That's how bad.

3 comments:

RandyGC said...

I think the only to improve on what you had in the first picture would be an aircrew helmet with nuclear blast goggles and a full O2 mask ;-).

Just slightly more comfortable than a chem warfare mask ensemble.

And both ensembles (aircrew and chem warfare) brought up the issue of being cleared by "personal recognition" and picture IDs when entering a restricted area. I'm not sure they've solved that one even today.

rickn8or said...

"Put the money in the bag and nobody gets hurt."

Perhaps this is why in-person banking is strictly limited to the drive-thru these days.

Rick T said...

I'm with you on server room noise and hearing loss. 4 years in a nuclear submarine engine room plus 25 years in IT in server rooms and datacenters means my tinnitus can be really annoying. Foamies and Mouse Ears are a must. Have you tried active noise cancelling protection?

I shared your eyesight before I did LASIK. If I looked at you straight on you could see the outer edges of my eyes thru my lens, and I could focus on the bridge of my nose. Anything beyond 9 inches was a fuzzy lump. I don't miss those days.