Happy Earth Day From Lake Geneva

I had to go in to work for a few hours today to perform a visual fields test on a patient and get some organizational stuff taken care of, but I wrapped it all up in about 3 hours because I wanted to stop at Big Foot Beach State Park on my way home.

Across the street from the park entrance was a gathering of Bonaparte's gulls (?) fishing in the rough water

I've posted about the park before, it's just minutes from my office but I don't go there very often because it's a small park without much to offer for serious hikers like me.  It's great for families though and has a small section of interconnecting trails I'll use in a pinch.

Things have changed a lot since I last visited.  Someone has been busy clearing all the junk out of the woods.  Maybe it will help keep ticks down, I got one each day I was out this past weekend.  One latched on right underneath my eye if you can believe that.  Looking in the mirror and seeing that thing on my face was quite the experience.

 I know clearing all that crap out will give the wildflowers more room to grow.  The trillium is up, but not blooming yet.  Too early for the Jack in the Pulpit, I didn't even find any shoots.  Not like when I visited on May 7, 2012 and both were in bloom as well as the Mayapples.

trillium will soon have cute little dark red blossoms

They've had a big garlic mustard problem here for years.  Whenever I drop in I spend at least half an hour pulling it and I've seen notices for volunteer days to work on it posted around.

garlic mustard

It's Earth Day and I wanted to do something so since I was protected from the frigid 20 mph wind in the woods I spent my half hour pulling and cleared a good sized patch.  The ground was moist so the roots came right out.

Me and my pile, cleared area behind me is where I was working

On a non-nature related topic, I have been selling eyeglass lenses for years now for patients who spend 2 hours or more per day on the computer, but only recently have I started to feel the need to own a pair myself.  Do you have to lean in closer or farther away to see your screen?  Are you tipping your head up to use your near vision portion of your lens to see the computer?  Do you have trouble refocusing after spending long periods on the computer or doing other arms-length activities such as sewing?  It was driving me crazy, forget 2 hours a day, after my latest reading prescription increase I couldn't see that "mid distance" at all anymore and anything more than 2 minutes was enough for me to want to order a pair for myself.

Well, I got them today and I loved them so much I'm ordering a separate pair for home and leaving a pair at the office.  The brand I went with is UNITY CVx and they offer three different options to customize for people with hobbies or jobs that have a high level of near and intermediate vision requirements. The pair I ordered provides clear vision up to 6 feet (feels more like 4 feet to me as I use them) and will be perfect for my computer/reading/laptop situations at home.  For the office I'm ordering the 12 foot range lens so I can still see patients past my computer because when I used them at work I felt that was going to be an issue for me.  No more eyestrain and no more neck strain!  Any Optician who tells you one no-line progressive lens can get you through every situation as your reading power increases needs some re-training.  Make sure to thoroughly discuss all your options with a knowledgeable Optician and don't forget to ask if blue-blocking Crizal Prevencia anti-glare coating is something you should consider adding as well to protect your eyes from certain harmful blue light emissions.

Maybe I'll get caught up reading everyone else's blogs now
that I'll see things well and my neck won't get tired!

You guys know I never talk about work on my blog, but this product is so great I want everyone to know about them, and if you have VSP insurance Unity is their preferred brand.  Other brands sell comparable quality lenses for the same purpose, Shamir has a great line of occupation lenses we also recommend and the video I linked in is fun to watch with all the information you need too.

Want to save a few dollars?  Re-use an old frame, the investment of getting the extra pair of lenses is worth it.  Think about how much you spent the last time you got a bunch of junk at Walmart and you'll see the cost of the lenses that you'll use everyday for a couple of years really is worth it.