Seeing double

I'm a bad person. I'm supporting the destruction of the earth by Chinese manufacturers. But damn, they make cheap spectacles!

Recently I got hold of a deal that included an eye exam and a free pair of glasses at an Optometrist just down the road from my house. Obviously the free glasses available were from a limited selection, but when I say deal, I do mean deal, and it would have been ridiculous to not take advantage of it. $69 for the exam and the glasses, all in! Consider that I also get $60 of the exam covered by my health plan at the university, and it turns out the exam and glasses only cost me $9. Hells ya! Plus I did find some glasses with a slight fun factor, so it was all good.

So here are pics of my old glasses, which I still like and aren't that far off my new prescription:

And a picture of the glasses that were included in the deal. They are thin silver outlines around the eyes and have bright blue metallic arms. (Whoa, weird chin, Mego.)

Then I finally followed up on a tip that The Duchess gave me a year or more ago: China makes cheap glasses! I ordered from Zenni Optical, filled in my brand new prescription, and my PD which the optometrist measured for my new glasses and jotted down for me; I quickly had two more pairs of fun glasses winging through the post. Note, you can also measure your own PD (pupillary distance), as Marko did when he ordered from Clearly Contacts.

They arrived today! Super fast, barely over a week to arrive. One pair that are black outer with lime green interior, and a slight kind of horn rim.

And the most fun pair of all, slightly translucent (slightly unfortunately pink) and black checks in a more square frame. These babies will be pulled out for fun times and conference presentations, for sure. (Whoa, rabbit teeth, Mego.) I don't think they look this pink in person, more like light grey and black checks.

Apologies for the crappy photo quality, but photobooth is the simplest way to take and load pics quickly on my laptop. I've been wearing glasses part-time for many years now, and have had the luxury to take them off whenever I want without walking into open manhole covers. But lately I've been wondering if I shouldn't be wearing them all the time, because I can't read the number of the bus approaching, and because Rocco has to fill in the gaps for street signs and the like when we're out and about. So, moving into the world of constant glasses (and not prepared to try contacts yet), I wanted to have a supply of designs and colours that I can choose from day to day. Well, got 'em! And the out of pocket total for all three glasses (including the eye exam and shipping) came to $45! That's $9 for the local pair and $36 for two pairs plus shipping from Zenni Optical. Crazy. Now all I need is a nose tree to display them on at home when I'm choosing my specs each morning.