2005-08-16 00:00 ☼ post
My last pair of glasses were just over 6 and a half years old and though they served me quite well, finally gave up the ghost this past weekend. I was working on my kayak, and for reasons that escape me now, set them on the floor, forgot about them and promptly stepped on them a few moment laters. They’ve been bent up a few times in the past, but this time around I managed to sever the plastic on one of the earpieces and worse yet, break the center bridge piece that joins the two lenses. If they were still under warranty I’m sure I could have had the two halves welded back together, but with the lenses as scratched up as they are it’s just not worth repairing them.
I definitely need glasses though. While I have enough contact lenses to last for another year easily, I don’t prefer to wear them everyday any more and on days that I do wear them I like to take them out in the evenings around the time they start to dry out. I mainly passed on getting new glasses this spring when I had my eyes examined because of the expense (and the fact that my insurance doesn’t cover glasses or contact lense). I also thought that my old glasses were holding up well enough, but in retrospect they were already overdue for retirement.
With my glasses finally broken beyond repair I figured I was just going to have to bite the bullet and come up with the 200+ that a new pair of glasses from my eye doctor would require. Then it occurred to me that I should check around the internet and see if there were any sites that offered inexpensive online ordering. Sure enough 39dollarglasses.com popped right up on Google when I started searching. I hopped over for a quick look and was immediately impressed by their selection and pricing. Even better, ordering was simply a matter of choosing a frame, specifiying your glasses subscripton and then supplying your credit card.
Last night I showed Mary several different models and between the two of us we managed to narrow down the possibilities to a select few. Today after a short delay and further contemplation I finally placed my order for the Palermo in brown with the anti-reflective coating. The total cost came to $70 after shipping and is easily under a third what I would have paid to buy it locally.
Based on shipping times I expect to get my new glasses at the beginning of next week and I will post a further hands-on review at that time.