Ashley's New Glasses

During Ashley's annual physical last fall, her pediatrician recommended that we have Ashley see an optometrist as Ashley's left eye seemed a bit weaker than her right one. We waited a few months since she had not complained about eye problems, headaches, or trouble seeing the board in school. We had never seen her having to squint while looking at things or frankly had any indications (other than the doctor) that there was a real problem with Ashley's eyesight.

So forward to April and the long awaited trip to the optometrist. Cathy and Ryan went mall walking while Ashley and I waited to see the doctor. Up until the we were in the exam, our prediction was that the eyes were a little different, but glasses would not be needed. Once Ashley began the exam and could not read the letters with the right eye closed, I began to get worried. When she couldn't read the second set, I knew glasses would be needed. Oddly enough, Ashley has 20/20 vision in the right eye, but 20/80 in the left. This explains why she had not complained about seeing since her dominant eye was compensating for the weaker one. 

So as we are waiting for the eye to dilate for a retina check, we call Cathy to come back to LensCrafters and begin to look at frames. As I had just had to get new glasses a year ago, the sticker shock was not so great, but the shock of a totally surprising expense was starting to sink in. Long gone are the days of getting glasses complete for $25 as I did as a kid. 

Ashely was apprehensive as to what her school friends would think and say, so we let her pick the frames she wanted and thankfully there was a 50% off kids discount. and with Flex Spend reimbursement, the damage is not as bad as originally feared. Luckily for Ashley, her classmates loved the new specs.

Ashley's New Glasses

Apple Taking Over Our Households?

USAToday (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-28/cnbc-survey-apple-products-us-homes/53827254/1) is reporting that at least half of the homes in the U.S. have one or more Apple products. This news, while being pretty impressive, made me think about my family's place in this growing Apple universe. It is no secret that I am an Apple fanboy. This love of apple products began in the late 1980s as an undergraduate at the University of Southern Mississippi who found a couple of small screen, monochrome, all-in-one Macs in a computer lab and began writing Chemistry lab reports with MacWrite and drawing data graphs on McDraw.

I admit that is was nearly 20 years later before I was able to actually own a Mac of my own, but that did not quell my growing obsession with all things Macintosh. I even remember being the only undergraduate student to attend a presentation in which Apple reps were showing off the new family of PowerMacs with the new PowerPC processors running circles around the windows machines setup next to the Macs. 

Fast forward to 2005 when the need for a faster computer at work to run a DNA sequence database prompted me to gather grant funds and convince the IT department to allow me to buy a PowerMac G5. The obsession soon became a lifestyle, but as with so many others, the lifestyle and the budget didn't quite match up. But since then, I have purchased quite a few Apple products with institutional money as well as personal funds. 

So how does the Jones family of Northern Alabama compare with other households in terms of Apple devices. With this week's migration to iPhones, the list includes a PowerMac G5 (that's right, it is still kicking 7 years later), a first generation white Macbook and a Mac Mini for actual computers. As for mobile devices, an iPod shuffle, an iPod nano, an 80gb iPod classic, a 3rd generation iPod Touch (64gb), a 4th Generation iPod touch (8gb) and 2 iPhone 4s's (32gb and 16gb). We also are using an airport extreme router. If my math is correct, that equals 11 Apple devices. while not nearly as many as some people we know, it is a little higher than the average of 1.6 devices per household reported in the USAToday.

Now I am in no way using this post to try and brag about the number of Apple devices we use or show that I have a superior attitude as an Apple fanboy. I am just impressed by how this company has continuously been successful in the marketing of its products and created such buzz. It is true that the products for the most part sell themselves with a high level of innovation and quality design, but the ecosystem Apple has created has been clearly superior to competitors in my opinion. For this reason, when we have "needed" new devices and had the money available, we have and will most likely continue to choose Apple products. I have no malice against those that choose other platforms, but as many evangelist do, I will continue to sing the praises of the products that "just work" so that I can focus on my tasks (and, of course, the Apple news and rumor sites).

How many Apple devices do you own and/or use in your life?