Entry 65: 7.30.80 "Optometry"
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I wear glasses.
It really doesn't come up much, with the sole exception of yesterday when I dozed off wearing them and snapped my frame in half. I suppose it was time for a new pair anyway, I haven't had an eye exam for almost five years at this point and even with my glasses it was still kinda blurry far away. We don't have a specific eye-doctor at the vault, just a few regular doctors and a few nurses. We also don't have a ton of spare glasses-apparently vision benefits was the one thing Vault-Tec didn't think of when they stocked the supply rooms.
After collecting my old glasses (they intend to reuse the frames) Dr. Freidman had me read a couple of lines on an eye-chart before I sat down in the phoropter. The photopter chair looks a lot like the chair at a dentist's office, except it doesn't fold back. The phoropter itself is this big piece of metal with glass lenses that can be adjusted to figure out your prescription. Apparently Vault-Tec, being the magnificent bastards that they are, thought that it would be a good idea to try and tinker around with eye care in order to attempt to pacify/spy on residents. Dr. Freidman had discovered, mostly to his horror, that the terminal in the doctor's office was capable of fiddling with the machine's programming. It was lucky he did-he said-because apparently it was set on subliminal messaging, which God knows what Vault-Tec would end up putting in that.
Anyway, after that somewhat disturbing conversation I ended up with a new pair of glasses. They're almost identical to my old ones, with the caveat that these are blue instead of black. Sometimes I wonder what the higher ups at Vault-Tec were thinking. I mean, I get that vaults can be considered okay for simple experiments, but some of this stuff has to be total fiction. Subliminal messaging? Come on.
