August 3, 2008
A pair and a spare - of eyeglasses
Mrs. Stevenson was my second grade teacher. She had the most amazing silver hair, which she tinted pink or green or blue to help us celebrate holidays throughout the school year. She was also quite perceptive and had a genuine concern for each of the students entrusted to her care. She was the first to notice that I was not seeing well. She moved me to a front-row desk and sent a note home to my folks saying that I needed a vison check. Sure enough, I was nearsighted, and I’ve never been without glasses since then. Figuring a new pair every other year, that means I’ve been though about twenty-five pair of eyeglasses in my life, give or take a spare pair or two. You see my picture every Sunday. You know I’m never without them. The only time I don’t wear them is when I’m in the shower (Trust me - you don’t want to go there with me!) or when I’m swimming (I wear corrective lenses in my dive mask.) I don’t lose glasses like some folks, because they are either on my bedside table or on my face. The only pair I ever lost are probably still endlessly circling in a permanent eddy in the Brazos River. They got ripped from my face when my tube tipped over and I had a miserable, blind ride home with friends that afternoon. That was when I learned that it’s a good idea to always have a spare pair. It’s been my habit since then to keep my last pair each time I get new ones. I didn’t get to do that when I got my current pair, though, because my old ones had a badly scratched lens (darn termites - or maybe the tools I was using to look for them - jumped out and scraped my lens during an inspection.) I find myself, for the first time in years, with a spare pair that is two corrections old instead of one. That’s kind of scary when you’re as dependent on your glasses as I am. I paid over $300 for these glasses at my favorite warehouse/big box store optical center and they didn’t offer a significant discount for a second pair, so I had to pass on that. It’s always possible I could get attacked by termites again, so I need to have a spare pair of eyeglasses with my current prescription that I can carry around with me, just in case. That’s why I was so glad to find out about Zenni Optical and their very reasonable prices. Their glasses start as low as $8.00, and the progressive lenses I need start at only $37.00. They have a huge selection of frames which they sell direct to the consumer, so there’s no middle-man markup (which was probably the biggest part of the price I paid last time.) Zenni Optical has a pair which is almost identical to the ones I’m wearing. They’re $19.00, and that includes the Polarized Magnetic Snap-on Sunlens that I paid $30.00 extra for last time. Anti-Scratch coating, UV protection and Lens edge polishing and beveling? Always free with Zenni Optical, and Shipping and Handling is always just $4.95, no matter how many pair I order. Zenni Optical was recommended by Clark Howard on his nationally syndicated consumer advocate program, The Clark Howard Show, so maybe you already knew that you could get eyeglasses at a fraction of what I’ve been paying. It’s news to me though, and news that I’m glad to have heard. I need my glasses in order to see well enough to drive. I wouldn’t even attempt it without them. It would be disasterous if I broke my glasses while I was all the way across island and couldn’t get home. I’m feeling pretty good about knowing I can get a spare pair to keep handy, just in case. You should check them out, too. You never know when termites might attack!
Technorati Tags: eyeglasses, glasses, Zenni Optical
Posted by skeet @ 2:20 pm • Shopping, Health & wellbeing
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August 4th, 2008 at 7:21 am, Gina Says:
I’m such a dork. I keep coming back to check and see if you have the Tuesday Teaser up. I’ve been here countless times this morning. Only just now did I realize it’s only Monday and I have to wait!
Sheesh…talk about an addiction!
August 4th, 2008 at 11:53 am, skeet Says:
Patience, Grasshopper, patience! I almost posted it last night because I kept thinking it was Monday instead of Sunday. Missed the last two Four Foods on Friday because I never seem to know what day it is anymore.
I can say with reasonable conviction that today is Monday and that tomorrow will be Tuesday. I think. The Teaser was ready days ago, so just have to post around midnight Hawaii time.