On the Bottom of Lake Poygan

On the bottom of Lake Poygan laying in mud are a pair of my eyeglasses lost forever in its murky water.  I am quite dependent upon eyeglasses, as without glasses, well let me say my eye doctor will not tell me what my vision is without glasses. The eyeglasses were lost while tubing, and when I made a, in hind sight, stupid decision to get the tube on edge. My wife said there better be a blog about this incident, and because I always obey her, here is the blog. (I can already hear her reaction and comments on the penultimate statement of this paragraph.)

Indian Paint Brush, Council Grounds State Park July 1

The incident of the lost glasses occurred on July 3, 2020 while at a small, socially distanced, gathering of family members to celebrate the 4th of July.  What is interesting is that I had my trusty glass strap on, which placed the glasses tight my face.  I know realize that perhaps past experiences have given me an over abundance of confidence in the effectiveness of the glass strap since I have jumped into water, swan, did water slides and many other activities years ago at a water park, and the glass strap held the glasses in place.  Heck, they even held when we were rafting the Menominee River and were getting swamped  in Piers Gorge in 2018.  They even held when a wave in the rapids after Piers Gorge knocked my wife from her seat next to me, right into me.

Wildflower, Council Grounds, July 1

I should not have gone out of my comfort zone on the tube, as they were lost when I was trying to get further out of the boat wake and getting the tube on edge.  The tube got the better of me.  It happened so quick, I am not really sure what happened.  I recall objects looking blurry and realizing my glasses were full of water, but when I felt for them, I could not find them. Not that with my eyesight I would be able to see them.  Lost with the glasses is my glass strap which has seen me through many adventures.

Laura Lake Campsite, July 6-8

The thing is I have a glass strap that I bought to use in the boundary waters, and that is supposed to make the glasses float.  Well, I took my standard black strap along with the new strap on that trip, but decided on the old one, as I thought the one that floats could more easily come off the glasses. I mean, what good does a strap that will make the glasses float if the strap comes off the temple and ear piece?  When I did the boundary waters, I had just gotten a new pair of eyeglasses, but used my older pair while on the trip.  I also used my older pair for tubing, so at least part of me had some sense.

Laura Lake 

Due to my prescription, I need special plastic lenses, which are not cheap.  The problem with plastic is that they gradually de-laminate, and combined with scratches, that by four or five years into a pair, which I stretch another one or two years,  I am in need of a new pair.  Next year may be the year for a new pair.

Gordon Lake beach

I still have my set of glasses that were replaced by the set I lost, so when swimming this past week while camping, I tended to wear those glasses.  They would work for swimming, but not good enough for driving.  That is why I need to be careful with my current pair of glasses.  If they break or get lost, I am up a creek without a paddle. While swimming, I wore the strap that floats that I bought for use at the boundary waters.  I tried it, with it connected to the glasses while at the beach and it did allow the glasses to float.  The question is, would it have stayed on the glasses during my tube mishap?

View of Laura Lake from campsite

While camping this past week I got up early and was hooking up our portable solar panel to the RV.  I happened to notice, out of the side of my eye something not quite right with the left screw that holds the lens in place. I went to the picnic table and carefully took the glasses off (with the table cloth my idea was if the screw fell it would fall on the table cloth and I could probably find it, bad eye sight and all) and noticed that the screw was in the bottom part, but not the top part, and luckily the lens was still in place.  This is the second screw I have had on this set on the left side, while the right retains its original screw.  I take my glass repair kit camping, and so I went on a search to find if it was in our car, or in the RV.  It was in the RV, which meant I had to disturb my still trying to sleep spouse.  I then went to the screen tent and screwed it in.  It seem to hold, but the screw was striped since it kept turning. Being extra cautious, I went to my small repair kit and found some black electrical tape from which I cut a long narrow strip and wound around the headpiece so as to (attempt)hold both screw and and the two parts of the headpiece assembly in place.  My spouse, who has fingers more adept, and better eye sight, placed a second strip on.

Sunset over Laura Lake

The day we returned home, I went to an optician who put in a slightly larger screw.  In the past they have put in screws with a small nut and that has done the trick, but they no longer carry nuts to place on the screw.

Sun has set behind the trees on Laura Lake

I had a series of unfortunate events with my eyeglasses in the span of about four days. While coming back to shore on July 3, people on the boat were talking about other large boats they saw, and when I looked out I saw nothing but white blobs. When I got to shore I was able to retrieve my main pair of glasses and could once again see. While my next to newest pair of eyeglasses, which were still fairly old, lay on the bottom of Lake Poygan, my hope is that my current pair will last until they are rendered to water tubing service.