Legally, I need glasses to operate a car. Barely. In Nevada, you need to be 20-40 in both eyes (if you have two eyes) to drive without corrective lenses. My eyes are 20-40 in one eye and 20-60 in the other. I see better in the daytime than I do when it’s dark. I’m confident I can drive safely — but if I get pulled over for something, I might have an additional problem if I’m not wearing glasses.
I usually wear my glasses all of the time. Except, when I’m wearing a mask and looking downward at a computer keyboard or video poker screen, then my glasses fog up quickly and repeatedly. I’ve tried wearing the mask under the edge of my glasses. I’ve tried tape at the top of my glasses. Nothing works well for me. So at these times, I remove my glasses and lay them to the side. I can see a computer screen or video poker screen well enough that the glasses are superfluous.
Unfortunately, one time recently I removed my glasses at a casino, laid them next to me, and went off somewhere else without remembering to take them with me. Fortunately, I thought, I noticed this less than 15 minutes later and went back to collect them. It was about 2:45 in the afternoon.
I knew at which machine I had been sitting and they weren’t there. I looked high and low — on the side, top, and on the floor. I used my cell phone spotlight to look more thoroughly. Nothing.
I went to the security desk and told them I had lost glasses and where I was when I lost them. None had been turned in. Shit!
I spoke to a slot floorperson and asked him if there was an intermediate area where they sometimes held things before they took them to security. Nope. Found items are transported to the Lost and Found immediately.
I found a porter who works in the area. Same question. Same answer… once she decided I wasn’t accusing her of stealing my glasses.
Checked again six hours later. And the next day. And the next day. Still nothing. I called other places I had been to the same day, just in case. These were real long shots. I was at least 99.9% certain I knew where I left them. But before buying a new pair of glasses, I wanted to exhaust all possibilities.
Bonnie and I decided together that if we didn’t find the glasses within another two days, we’d bite the bullet and buy a new pair. This wouldn’t be a disaster, but we’d rather not do it unless it was necessary.
When I called three days after the loss, I was told by a security guard named Joe that a pair of reading glasses had been turned in at 2:38 p.m. on the day in question. I asked if the glasses were nearby — so I could describe them in terms of color and shape. No. They were downstairs. I needed to come in and then they would go check. This wasn’t a problem. The casino is only 15 miles from our house, and we do have food comps there.
I’m figuring that the security guards were looking for “glasses” and since that didn’t match up exactly with “reading glasses,” they hadn’t mentioned them. It is plausible for one security guard to make this mistake. But I had called on several different shifts. One incompetent security guard was possible. But several of them? All incompetent in the same way?
When Bonnie and I got there, Joe was at the security desk. He asked me if I had a hotel room on the day I lost my glasses and I said no. He told me that he didn’t think the glasses were mine because they were found in the hotel and the housekeeping department had turned them in. He didn’t even want to send somebody to go to the place where items were stored because it would very likely be a false alarm.
I told him that however they were designated in his logbook, I wanted to see them. I said I had driven a long way. I described the glasses. If he didn’t want to let me see them, I told him I would like to speak to his supervisor. As it happened, said supervisor had been sitting next to him and had heard the entire conversation. The supervisor went to pick up the glasses.
I was willing to escalate it higher than the supervisor if necessary, but I didn’t want to make a Federal case about it if things could be handled calmly.
When the supervisor returned, the glasses were in some clear packaging. I said they looked like my glasses and mentioned the color and shape I had previously described. So, he opened up the package, let me try them on, and I confirmed that these were indeed mine. They wanted my Driver License for the logbook, and then it was time for dinner.
On the way home, Bonnie asked if we could stop by Walmart because there was something she needed. She went in and returned five minutes later with a lanyard that allows eyeglasses to hang around your neck if you’re not actively wearing them. She demanded my glasses, put the lanyard on the glasses, and returned them to me.
I’m not crazy about the look, but it’s better than going though losing them again. And at age 74, I’ve long ago given up trying to look like Mr. GQ.
I’d like to believe that karma will inconvenience the person who picked up your glasses and carted them to his/her room instead of turning them in (in a manner akin to your frustration).
Bob, your story telling skills shine with this riotous story! Thanks for sharing, we 75 yr old’s all can relate! 🙂
Bob, I drive for a living and during the pandemic have found a thicker neck gaiter to be most effective against glasses fogging. I also find them more comfortable to wear!
I’m not surprised that the guards messed up with respect to “glasses” vs. “reading glasses”. Some people are simply as sharp as a medicine ball. So when we’re talking to someone who isn’t “all that”, we often have to give details not needed by an intelligent person. I needed to buy a card table. There’s a Target store 1/2 mile from my residence and I thought it should have them and that it would be a good buy. I called and was transferred to a person working in that area of the store, a young guy probably under 25. I asked him if they carry card tables, and he said “No”. OK. But the next time I was there to shop for other things, I found card tables! But they were not labeled as such by Target; they were labeled “folding tables”. Now, an intelligent person, or simply one who tries hard, will understand the shape/size/construct of a card table and know whether it’s carried, regardless of what name it’s labeled with. Too many young workers nowadays merely go through the motions to collect their paycheck but never really get into their job; they have no sense of “going the extra mile” to ensure that the customer is satisfied. But if this behavior is displayed by workers who are older, that’s pathetic.
P.S.: I am truly surprised that the glasses turned up after all. That’s good luck. The odds were that the glasses were either stolen and wouldn’t be returned, or were thrown out in the trash and unable to be found.
I leave my casino slot club card in the machine at a near 100% clip, my wife finally insisted I wear them around my neck, it’s a terrible look, like tattooing TOURIST on your forehead. But at age 61 I just don’t care how I look anymore outside of normal grooming. Age is your friend if vanity is the subject, let the young people obsess about looks, wear your glasses proudly…
When I am not wearing my glasses, they are always in my top shirt pocket. I learned this lesson after repeatedly losing my cell phone.
I too have borderline def at distance. My eye doc said I could use the cheap 1. Dollar glasses for distance. Yes I have lost. You just buy 4-5 and keep in car. I have the restriction on my drivers license I have been stopped for various reasons. I used to cover 5 VA clinics and drove a lot. The officer has never ask me for my glasses. This is Ms. I keep prescription glasses in car but never take them with me. Take the cheap ones. I have found it is not a big thing
I too have that CRS disease (can’t remember shit). Back when my Dad was alive he came to visit. When he left to accompany Mom on a shopping trip, I was missing my glasses. I called Dad on his cell phone asking if he had picked them up. He said “no, last I saw them they were hanging off your shirt collar”. Guess where I found them.
Bob, apparently you have found a solution. However there is another option. Get your glasses at your regular place of business. Take your new prescription to Americas Best and get two pair for apx $70.00 ( and tax). Put one pair in the glove box of your car and hang the other from your shirt. Glasses on the inside of your shirt so the don’t inadvertently fall off ( this is from many years of experience). You will never be without glasses.
Glasses, keys, and billfold. If I had a dollar each time husband couldn’t find one (or more) of those three AT HOME before leaving for work… Years of begging him: “Every night put all three in the same place before going to bed” has done little good. I can hear it…Oh, God, there he goes again…one or more ‘lost’ somewhere in the house (or possibly in the last car driven). I jump up to help look, which increases his frustration/irritation/anger all the more. I dart for the usual suspected places (as he yells “I’ve already looked there” but often I find them there): glasses hanging on a lamp (before he dozed off in his chair); a little drawer under our microwave which is the perfect (and agreed upon) place for all three and sometimes one or more is there, he just forgets to look; or most often pants pocket, especially shorts worn in the summer. Pants pockets can be deep and an item missed with just a cursory dip into them. Sorry to digress here, but it is one of our facts of holy crap life.
We’ve misplaced at least two pair glasses and three cell phones in casinos between us. Always quickly located by Security (some nice person having turned them in before we even realized they were lost), already in Lost and Found (often a secret room toward the back of the casino, like being ushered just outside of (but not into), Fort Knox. We have to describe them sufficiently before being handed over, but that’s OK. I’ve always been amazed (and grateful) that they take such things seriously. The rest of the story is that they often get set down on a slot machine or in a restroom, occasionally in a restaurant which is less trouble to locate.
You know those giant cardboard boxes at the supermarket full of watermelons? The Disney parks have those full of lost cell phones.
I do not exactly get it. Who moved your glasses to a hotel? or housekeeping had some mix up.
bob, i own an eyeglass store and people lose their glasses all the time
its not a terrible event
thanks for your help throughout the years
your are a go to guy for video poker information