Thing 1, Thing 2 ...

I need new glasses.

My prescription hasn’t changed. And the lenses on my current pair aren’t scratched. In fact, my glasses are in perfectly fine shape. Well, almost …

Every once in a while, the right temple (that’s the proper term for the arm that extends from the frame and goes around your ear) gets loose, and I have to tighten it. But I can’t because, you guessed it (or maybe not), I need my glasses to see the tiny little screws that require tightening. (Quite a conundrum, isn’t it?)

Luckily, Joanie is always willing to step up when my specs need a little tune-up. But what if something happens when she’s not around? What if I’m driving on some long, lonesome road, or in the frozen foods section of the grocery store and she’s not there, with her trusty, elfin screwdriver and surgeon’s touch to fix things? What then?

In general, I’m not persnickety about things. I sometimes wear two different (though usually similar) socks.  I don’t keep my car spotless inside and out (though I try to keep the “main cabin” free of food wrappers and foreign objects).  And my hair? Well, there isn’t enough of it to require attention, so why bother?

But one thing I WILL NOT tolerate is a life spent wearing glasses that are taped up because 1) I had a problem and couldn’t solve it (i.e., a screw fell out) or worse or 2) it was my only choice because Joanie wasn’t available and I don’t have a backup pair.

However, that’s the situation in which I find myself at the moment. I’m not going to lie; it’s distressing and frankly, downright irresponsible of me. (I’m nothing if not self-aware.)

Let it be known that I’m not completely out of options if something goes haywire with my only pair of glasses. I do have a couple older pairs that could offer a stopgap solution. But they’re backups for a reason. First, both pairs have scratched lenses. Also, they’re from a previous prescription, and that’s not ideal.

So why haven’t I done it? Why haven’t I simply ordered a new pair? Well, it’s the same reason, I suppose, that I’m lax about matching socks when they come out of the dryer. Or why “wash the car” isn’t on my weekly to-do list. Also, it’s probably why I have trouble finding the right wrench when I need it, or a battery for a lawn tool that I use only once a year. (By now, you’ve diagnosed me, so let’s not beat a dead horse.)

To be clear, it’s not that I don’t WANT matching socks, a clean car or the peace of mind of having a second pair of glasses. I guess it’s just one of those things that comes and goes from my brain often enough that it loses its priority … until the next time I have to call on

Joanie to “tighten the screws” (as it were). Then it bubbles back up, and I kick myself and wonder why I didn’t pull the trigger on that new pair “the last time this happened.”

Is this a REAL problem? Of course not. Is it easy to fix? Certainly. So why am I telling you? I guess because that’s what I was thinking about five minutes before I sat down to write today. I had removed my glasses to clean them (another thing I do way too infrequently), and that made me think, “I need to get another pair, just in case.”

Then, I sat down to do something else; something that wasn’t “ordering a new pair of glasses.”

Am I alone? I’d highly doubt it. Because unless you’re one of the six people on earth that is completely self-actualized, organized and “put-together,” you have something like this too; an issue, a situation or a “problem” that’s easy to address, and yet, it keeps slipping through the cracks for whatever reason … or maybe no reason at all.

It’s OK to admit it. We all have them (except for those six folks). And if you think you don’t have any, you’re either lying to yourself or you should ask me for one of mine. (I have plenty; more than I can handle, really, and some of them you might find quite amusing.)

Because as humans, we’re built to have “things” that we can control but don’t. A thing (or two) that nags at you; the task that always seems to get buried on the priority list under all the more pressing or immediate items of the day, only to occasionally raise its hand and say, “What about me?” And when it does, it creates anxiety, tension and frustration (it does for me, anyway), and leads us to say things like, “I HAVE to get [insert thing] done THIS WEEK,” or “Why do I keep putting [insert thing] off?”

Maybe you have a family member or friend that innocently brings up the problem in general conversation, simply because you mentioned it to them the last time you were together. “Hey, last time we had tea, you said you were going to [insert thing]. How did that go?”

And again, it brings your “thing” to the surface, only to be pushed down again until the next reminder from inside your head (usually around 2:30 a.m. for me) or from the external world.

Maybe this is all foreign to you (again, I’ll say it probably isn’t, and since this is my essay, I’ll be as presumptuous as I want), and if it is, I applaud you.

But if you’re more like me, if you have something that nags you (and it’s probably more than one thing, AND it’s probably easy to remedy), know that you’re not alone, and we may be easier to find than you think. Just look for the folks with the mismatched socks, the dirty cars, the messy hair and the tape on our glasses.

And when you see us, say hello. We need to stick together.

Joanie, this is the week I order new glasses.

© 2026 David R. Haznaw