If you photograph the label so you can zoom in, there's an explanation.

I told myself it was faster. It is faster. It's also a tell if anyone's looking at the screen over your shoulder.

I have a face for small print and a different face for when someone walks in. I've been using both for a while. You're supposed to hide it. After a few years, somebody has already seen you holding the box at arm's length.

I've got a number of years left, and I've started doing the math on whether the job lasts that long. I want to finish on my own terms, not because I couldn't read a part number in front of people who notice.

The third pair of readers is a clue. It is not an explanation. Better light is a clue. The camera roll is a clue. I had a lot of clues and no picture that wasn't just 'you're getting older.'

This isn't the same as a private health worry. It's the job. It's whether you still look competent. It's the years you already counted.

I've done the math on the years left. I've also done the math on how many more times I can lift a phone to a label before someone asks if I'm all right. The second sum is the one that keeps me up. Not the eye chart. The doorway.

A man can hide a lot with better light and a joke about needing longer arms. He cannot hide a camera roll of packaging forever. I wanted an explanation that wasn't another pair I would also hide.

Here is what had already failed, in the order I tried them:

• Readers from the drugstore, then a stronger pair
• Cranking every font size I could find
• Better task lighting at the bench
• Photographing labels so I wouldn't have to squint where people could see

Those are the moves of someone trying not to be seen compensating. They buy time. They do not explain the replacements.

What if the workaround is the thing they notice first?

Figure · the barrier

The picture that finally sat under the workarounds was a wall around the back of the eye, and something from the gut that may not stay put. Aimed at the layer the glasses never reach.

What people attach to that question is one capsule a day, with food. I wanted it before I bought a fourth pair I would also hide.

If you have started doing the math on the years, try it for sixty days and see.