having trouble seeing fine detail.

[susieq]

Forty...hmmm, yep, that would be about the same age I had to start buying those off the rack glasses at the drug store to see small details in my work. I also found a good website that has cheap reading magnifiers for as little as 3 pairs for $15.00. And you can by bi focals....the kind that are plain glass in the main lens but the little bi focal part is magnified. I wear those to work so I don't have to keep taking my glasses off and putting them back on again over and over. I don't need help except when reading or carving.....yet.
www.americanreadingglasses.com

I have a set of the heavy duty magnifiers on the head band too. I love/hate them. They work really well, have a second flip up set that can be flipped down to use together with the fixed set of lenses. I use them for very fine details and even for painting really small stuff. When I work, I am alone anyhow so they don't isolate me from anything.

It is just the natural progression of aging....the alternative ain't pretty.....
susieq