OFF TOPIC: Second Try at this - flat tire, broken glasses

Michelle, I have noted that flat tires always come at a bad time; innate sense of ability to make a bad situation worse. Think how gorgeous the bias skirt will be when you can get back to it!

Sympathy from freezing Georgia, Jean M.

We are supposed to be freezing too, usually by now we are knee deep or higher in snow. So far barely any snow and no blizzards. The grass is still green, can you believe it? Hopefully it snows or we will have another drought.

Michelle in sunny but chilly Saskatchewan

If the hinge is intact on the frame (part with the lenses) you might be able to just replace the ear piece. Usually there is a tiny screw right at where the ear piece folds. Try the shop where you originally got the glassses since there are so many different models and not everyone has the same styles. Or try contacting the manufacturer is the shop does have still carry the frames. Or a helpful shop will look to see what frame would be compatible. In college for a semester or so I wore gray glasses with one gold ear piece. Same style just different color when I had a similar mishap when I couldn't afford to replace them. Started wearing my hair swept to one side that year.

Joy

LOL I can imagine! Did you start a trend? The hinge is busted, half of it is still embedded in the plastic, so oh well, but its not like the end of the world, we can afford new ones, but we weren't planning on it and we hate spending unexpectedly.

Thanks! That image kind of cheered me up!

Michelle Giordano

Are you a costco member? Eye exams there ( locally) are only $50. Plus, the optometry staff is really excellent. I have had nothing but top notch experinces with them, maybe they could be fixed.

That happened to my glasses, and a liberal dose of superglue solved the problem.

And their prices are eyeglasses are decent, too -- $100 less than any other discount eyeglass place around here except for For Eyes, who closed their local branch here this past year.

The Costco here isn't like that, I live in a small city in Canada. Eye Exams are $80 at the cheapest and glasses start at $200 unless you buy from walmart which start at about $70 (I don't think walmart here is so bad, people I know who worked there made more than minimum wage and loved the company, but I am not about to let the whole walmart thing start again so no walmart comments ok?.

What is Costco in the states? Here they sell bulk groceries and a bit of furniture, electronics and sometimes jewellery.

Thanks!

Michelle Giordano

Michelle,

If you have half the hinge embedded in the plastic and the metal of the half a hinge left in the frame is not broken, then you should be able to get your glasses fixed by getting a new arm for your glasses - which should be a lot cheaper than a new pair! Although the new arm may not match......

My DB was a champion destroyer of his glasses when he was small - to the extent the optician put him in titanium frames to see if that would stop the damage - oh no - he still wrecked them!!! ;-) At one point my DF and DB had the same glasses (in different sizes), and my brother trashed the arm of his glasses, DF took the arm off his glasses, put it on DB's glasses as a temporary fix until we could get to the optician - the arm was too long for DF but it meant he could wear his glasses which he needed to! Luckily DF doesn't need wear his glasses all the time so he could loan the part to my DB.

Sarah

Can they set your old lenses in new frames? It has to be the same style of frame, but they can usually rummage around the back and find one.

(And that half of the hinge *might* be all you need, since the other half of the hinge is embedded in the temple piece, or the optician might be able to glue one in.)

Joy Beeson

Dear Michelle...I wouldn't give up on the eyeglasses just yet.

Take them to your optician and ask if they can replace the earpiece for you. I have had this done for free by kindly folk...they might not have amatching earpiece, but may be able to fix you up with 'close match.' WalMart did it for my daughter recently...so even big companies can be very helpful in these 'emergencies.'

Before I did that, though, I would look around the house for some of my old ones and see if there is a compatible earpiece you can use. In that case you would have two matchng ones.

I don't think any optician would refuse to repair a frame because you don't have a recent prescription.

Hope that helps. Good luck Mary Frances in NYC

I was procrastinating for a long long time, I do need new ones, things are getting blurry again and the lenses are scratched, so I decided to quite complaining and just get some, especially since I do alot of night driving!

Thanks for the suggestions!

Michelle Giordano

Sometimes one just needs a push like this to do what one really needs to do! I finally gave up the battle of the Many Spectacled Thing, and went for varifocals, after weeks of losing first my distance specs then my sewing specs... £437 quid later, I feel it was money well spent! :)

You are not a teacher, obviously... teachers grow an extra 20/20 vision set of eyes in the back of their heads! ;)

I have a wider field of vision than most folk, which would have suited a fighter pilot and served me well in my teaching career. I'm also astigmatic and short sighted, and in the last few years my near sight has altered also, to the point where I focus about six inches from my nose! My varifocals are great, and I can still *just* read in bed without specs! The old sewing/reading specs are better for lots of reading than the varifocals because the usable area is bigger, but the varifocals are the best for varied tasks such as teaching, general sewing, bumbling about the house, and failing to see the dust... :D

Kate, believe it or not..........LOL I am laughing at myself........

At the optometrists office they had offered a periferal vision test and I thought mine was just awful, so I got the test. turns out I have perfect periferal vision. What I thought it was (and don't ask why, blonde moment) was that you were supposed to be able to see to the sides and slightly behind you! No need to say my DH got a good laugh out of that. And DH had awful periferal vision, and has astigmatism so had to get some drops put in which practically blinded him. I had to drive home, with him in the car.........arghhhh, thats the last time I drive him anywhere.

LOL, hope you get a laugh from my not understanding that NOBODY can see behind them!

Michelle Giordano

, but the

OOH!! OOH! Can I get some glasses that make me not see the dust??? CanIcanIhuh????? Pleaseohpleaseohplease!

I mean that would just make my day complete! There's a broken water main around the corner. I have almost no water pressure in the house. I can't do laundry. (Taking a shower was a really interesting proposition.....but I did get that done.) The glasses would just round things out for me and give me a valid excuse not to do ANY housework today. LOL Ok...so I made the beds and picked up. I thought about vacuuming....that counts right??? ;)

Sharon

At the Driver License bureau, they test that. When I took my driver license test, I was baffled as to why I couldn't see the lights flashing for that test. The examiner said, "Take your hands down." I was holding them up to the sides of my eyes - duh! Then, I leaned forward to put my face in the thing properly, and still couldn't see. The examiner said "Pull your hair back...."

Gosh, did I feel dumb. My hair was cupped around my face the second time.

ANY specs will do that, given sufficient provocation! :)

I once (back in the '80's) had some specs with oink lenses. I told the boys I was teaching at the time that it was so that, no matter how bad things got, I'd always see them through rose tinted specs!

A broken water main is a good reason for not getting dressed at all, never mind showering and doing laundry! I mean, we can all sew in our jammis, can't we?

You are supposed to *make* beds these days? Oh... I just toss the duvet off and leave it to air until it's time to put the electric blanket on and crawl back in!

I'm a thorough minimalist where housework is concerned. I do as little as possible, but what I do gets done really thoroughly!

I saw one I liked that said: You may write in the dust, but please do not date it!

I have a much better one for sewists: Save the planet! It's the only one with chocolate.