Someone once said that if you stick around long enough, you will see everything. You could argue with the premise that everything can be seen, you cannot deny that life's tapestry becomes more detailed the longer you are there to witness it. That is, if you have your eyes open.
In the interest of maintaining something resembling a clear vision, I got new glasses. Though I had my eyes examined just before losing the insurance shared with my ex-wife, I never got around to ordering spectacles based on that new prescription.
Someone once said that if you stick around long enough, you will see everything. You could argue with the premise that everything can be seen, you cannot deny that life's tapestry becomes more detailed the longer you are there to witness it. That is, if you have your eyes open.
In the interest of maintaining something resembling a clear vision, I got new glasses. Though I had my eyes examined just before losing the insurance shared with my ex-wife, I never got around to ordering spectacles based on that new prescription.
My current insurance situation includes a savings component; when informed that said savings would be lost if I did not spend the money before 2014, I decided another trip to the eye doctor was in order. Receiving the latest specifications for vision correction, I ordered and paid for new peepers.
Let the record show I have nothing but respect for the professionals working in the eyewear industry. Let the record also show that given the incredible sums they charge for their ministrations, I am most assuredly in the wrong business.
The enigmatic benefit statement for my insurance provider seems to indicate the total charges for my examination and eyewear came to a cool $871. Sweet peas in pumpkin sauce! That’s a lot for so simple a device. Happily, my coverage put a serious dent in that total, but I still spent a few hundred dollars.
But this should not have come as a surprise to me; the simple act of choosing new frames had me swooning with sticker shock and envying the designers whose labels commanded those prices. Likely I do not understand what goes into their manufacture, but it is hard to believe retail on my frames approached $400, a median price in the selection offered.
Being only my fourth prescription, this was the first without a spousal style consultant. The ladies at the eye-care office freely offered advice, finally pronouncing one set of frames the most attractive. I, of course, had to take their word; I could only vaguely assess those frames on my head without corrective lenses.
As such, I was surprised to put on the finished product, wondering if these really were the frames I chose. They did not look as blurry as I remembered.
I had forgotten how much fun a new prescription is. The mild nausea I suffered looking through the latest lenses abated after three or four days. What is more, the talented staff was able to adjust the frames to their limit, halting the headache caused by the squeeze on my cranium.
Thus, another milestone is passed—choosing new glasses by myself, enduring the discomfort, and enjoying a couple weeks of compliments on my new eyewear. Most amazingly, I did it without getting too bent out of shape over the puffed up prices.
Really never thought I'd see the day.
Pat Grimes, a former South Bay resident, writes from Ypsilanti, Mich. He can be reached at pgwriter@inbox.com.
