Four of us went canoeing last weekend on the Red Deer River and had a great time, despite a couple of mishaps. We left early Saturday morning, stayed in a campground by the river on Saturday night, and finished Sunday afternoon. We had two in each canoe. Within an hour of casting off on Saturday morning, our canoe snagged on a beaver dam and capsized.
Thankfully, most of our stuff was in waterproof (and buoyant) dry packs and we managed to rescue just about everything. I was dumped out of the canoe and swam to shore, grabbing as much of our stuff as I could on the way, while Wendy managed to climb on to the beaver dam before the current wedged the canoe under the top of the dam. I lost my glasses when I swam back to help dislodge the canoe.
In retrospect, I should have just left them on the shore. As they say, hind sight is 20/20. My vision, however, is not. I've often thought that I should have a spare pair of glasses in case I ever lost my main pair. But, as with a lot of good "what if" ideas, I never got around to it. The next three days were interesting as I stumbled around trying not to look like an idiot when I couldn't read signs or tell people apart from a distance. I missed most of the scenery, Wendy had to drive my car back, and I missed work on Monday.
On the plus side, I'd been meaning to get new glasses for a while and my new ones are far more comfortable than my old ones. The people at my optometrist's office said I was the second person that day who had lost his glasses canoeing on the weekend. Must have been the first weekend out for a lot of people.
Posted by tim at June 19, 2003 10:52 AMwow did the river have rapids or something? maybe it's a beaver defense system.
Posted by: larvina on June 19, 2003 11:00 AMI somehow managed not to lose my glasses at the math conference.
Are there any new fancy eyeglass technologies? I'm getting another pair (covered under the student health plan, which expires soon for me), and was wondering if there is anything I should check out.
Posted by: warcode on June 19, 2003 11:23 AMA few rapids, but they were very small. The water around the upriver side of the dam was moving much faster than its surrounding and we didn't negotiate the turn around it properly. Also, if you're dragging beer behind your canoe to keep it cold, make sure you use a slip knot.
I like the anti-glare coating and the high index (of refraction!) lenses, but these are not new technologies. Noticeably cuts down on computer monitor glare and makes the lenses quite a bit thinner/lighter, respectively.
My new glasses have some rubbery material on the arms that grips my head instead of having the arms go over my ears. They claim that the grip increases when the material gets damp from sweat. So far so good; they don't move at all and they're very comfortable.
Posted by: tim on June 19, 2003 11:44 AMwatch out for the anti-glare coating -- it scratches *really* easily. my glasses got so bad i had the coating scraped off.
the rubbery stuff sounds like the grip on my sunglasses, and it works really well.
Posted by: grant on June 19, 2003 09:32 PMthe best lenses you can get at the moment are nikon's. however, just about everyone and their dog licenses the nikon anti-glare coating. so a so-called nikon coated lens is _not the same as a nikon lens, which will tend to be less distorted and lighter. as for the coating, it really shouldn't come off unless you're using your glasses to polish a sidewalk or something. I certainly have abused mine well in the past 3-4 years and the coating is still quite intact - much more so than the reflective crap on any of the sunglasses that I've worn lately.