The Day I Glued Myself Into Temporary Blindness

                                                   

No place to set my glasses while I got dressed, I set them in the safest place possible: My seat. Then I forgot, and sat on my wire framed glasses. The plastic line snapped, the lens fell out, and I realized I only needed them to… see. A minor detail.   

Being in a truck pulling a 53-foot trailer, we can’t just pull into the local Optometrist and say, "Hey, I need help." So I bought super glue. Because nothing says “responsible adult” like fixing your own eyewear with a substance that can permanently attach you to your seat.   

I put a tiny dot of glue on the frame. We hit a bump. That tiny dot turned into a glob the size of a toddler’s tear and ran straight down the lens like it was sliding down an icy mountain. I tried to wipe it off—which only smeared bits of paper towel and a thick layer of glue across the glass.   

My lens now looked like a bathroom window with privacy film on it. I tried to scrub it off, only to realize I had successfully bonded my fingers together. I was now a crab with two claws and zero coordination. I peeled them apart—painfully—and started over. Because I am an optimist.   

I dropped more glue into the frame and quickly pressed the lens in place, pulling the wire tight like threading a needle on a rollercoaster. Once it dried, I put them on… It was like looking through a thick shower curtain.   

At our next stop, I bought acetone to remove the glue from the lens. The lens fell out immediately. The paper towel and glue stayed firmly attached to the lens, like they had bonded for a lifetime. So I poured acetone straight onto the lens and let it soak.   

Twenty four hours later—and one bad headache from the fumes—it had eaten through one small spot in the center of the lens. A peephole that was like looking through the vent hatch in the sleeper. A single dot of clarity in a sea of chaos. Good enough.   

At this point, I wasn’t wearing glasses. I was wearing consequences. And honestly, I thought that would be the dumbest thing I did all week… but then I walked into the driver’s lounge the next morning