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I work too much. I work in the morning. I work in the afternoon. I work at night. Much of this daylight time is spent at the local coffee shop, or at Panera drinking gallons of black coffee in my bottomless cup using the free Wi-Fi.

When I'm in public, I need to think of the ladies (I think my wife would even agree with me). No one, not even the least stylish of the dudes should have to see this.

Just after midnight -- almost any night.


But when the lights come on and the kids are safely tucked away in their beds, I bring out the big guns -- and I'm amazed at how much more comfortably I can take in the dual monitor setup and the various post-it notes and piles of paper on the desk. The narrow, wide frames are great for the width of the setup but these big suckers (nearly 40mm high!) allow my eyes to do the work that my neck has been doing all day.

I don't think I'll ever be able to get myself in something like the ones below again. The United Nations ban of eyeglasses such as these was tucked away in U.N Resolution 645 or 646...

Spring 1989.


...but man, I'd have nearly 180 degrees of majestic vision.

Anyway, if you're at all like me, you might want to consider "going BIG" next time you click one of those nifty links over there to the left.

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Sorry for the gap in posts. I've been really busy with clients and am trying to find more for the "day job" (as well as gathering information on a place that rhymes with "Lens Shafters"). I love working for myself, but I find myself working all the time. It's nice to be able to do that from home, however.

First off, I want to thank each of you who have helped enlighten people to the reasonably-priced optical options that abound online. I've gotten a ton of traffic to the "Get the Word Out" emailer (which can be found by clicking on the such-labeled button located at top of the page) which leads me to thinking of other ways of alerting people to the cause.

I dropped an order for some business cards with the pertinent info and they came back looking really great. I've been handing them out at coffee shops and to people in need for the past few weeks and I just put in a second, bigger order (it's amazing what $50 will buy you online).

My thought was, maybe some of you might want to help. I'd be more than happy to drop a few in an envelope to those of you who have been, or would like to start, spreading the word.

If you're interested, send me a message at glassyeyes@gmail.com with the subject, "SEND ME SOME CARDS!". Make sure to include your address (which will be deleted after the cards are sent -- I promise there will be no shenanigans).

Thanks!

[Ed. Note: I've not been in the habit of pulling too much content verbatim out of the forums for publication on the blog, but this one, by Chuck, struck me last evening as important -- and potentially interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing the responses. This may become a regular feature.]

---


I'm going to pose a potentially troublesome question...just for the sake of discussion. I'm curious how others have handled this.

QUESTION:

Is it wrong to use the local stores as a fitting room? Especially if you have no intention of buying from them?

ONE SIDE:
The local stores provide a valuable service, pay rent, must make sales to stay around, etc. If I use them and do not compensate them for their time, then I am taking advantage of their hospitality and good will. If no one buys glasses from them, they will go out of business and will no longer be available to those who need them, locally. They will not be around, so that I can try on glasses similar to those online, and see what looks good! It's the same basic argument for supporting local business over national conglomerates.

OTHER SIDE:
My prescription (very weak, but bifocal) would cost around $400 at WalMart Optical, or at my local optician's boutique. $300 and $350 per pair, for single vision options, at the same
places. I can get 2 pairs of single vision glasses at Zenni, in frames nearly identical to those I'm looking at, for $8 a pair...a total of $16. $400 vs $16. That's 1/25 the price... FOUR PERCENT!!! I'd be lying if I said this wasn't tempting. 96% less?! That's impossible to ignore. I wholeheartedly try to support local businesses...but come on!

MY SOLUTION:
I went into the optician's boutique, told them I was looking at different places, and that I was there to try on frames. She asked me what styles interested me, whether I had worn glasses
before, and where else I was considering. Her reaction was priceless. The stores were OK, but the online option brought a look of horror to her face.

So, I told her the complete truth -- I teach a computer class to a lot of little old women on fixed incomes, and we're going to order me a pair of glasses, online, as one of our lessons. One time I bought a pair of shoes. I focus on the "you can buy ANYTHING online" aspect of ecommerce, in this portion of the class. So, basically, I volunteered to be the guinea pig. If the glasses are good...fantastic! If not, I'll order them the regular way.

On the spot she offered to adjust them for free, and even to fit me for progressive bifocals if I'd just come in and let her see what is available, online. A very generous offer, I'd say. Did the same thing at a WalMart Optical center, and a similar offer was made... While you may get the "evil online" speech, they seem to be quite accommodating...especially if you don't string them along, thinking that they're going to get a sale out of you.

Chuck's told you how he handled the situation...now we'd like to hear how you handled it.


I had a question from "K" in the forums today about the, ahem, "situation" in Pakistan and if it has any sort of effect on the Goggles4U production facility. I had a similar question myself in October, upon the unrest and eventual martial law imposed when Bhutto first returned to Pakistan.

I asked my contact at Goggles4U for an update and had one within an hour.

Today, without any prompting, I received the following from Steve at Goggles4U:

Production is going on 24 x 7. No problem at all. We have already started another production facility in UAE.

Good to know and cool that they're checking the forums (bad to see what's going on in Pakistan).