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captainsblogSorry, guys, don't get your hopes up (as if). That latter abbreviation refers to my new windows on the world:
Last night, Ray got his first pair of bifocals.
It's been long overdue. Though I've been blessed with a full head of hair (despite it now showing up in a variety of designer colors), I've been running serious risk of causing Male Pattern Baldness from the outside, in the form of two squarish-oval spots on the top of my forehead from where my prescription lenses reside several hours a day. It was either get a new pair that would allow me to read with my glasses on, or install a series of levers and pulleys to move the things up and down automatically.
----
Leave it to me, the Anti-Shopaholic, for this to take five trips.
As mentioned here recently, Eleanor and Em have been getting their glasses from Wal Mart. Our HMO's vision plan isn't good there, but their prices for the wymyns' needs have been low enough for them to go there anyway. Me, though? When I took the kid to pick up her new set a few weeks back, I did some pricing and found that my big-kid progressive lenses would've been almost double the cost of hers- between $300 and $350 depending on bells and whistles.
Trip Two, therefore, was to the Approved Vision Benefit Dispensary at the Mawl, just to price-shop for starters. They looked me up in their computer- I'd gotten sunglasses there a few years back- and their package did offer a meaningful saving over Wally World: the whole shebang, with various copays, coming in a bit under $200 for the most basic of frames, the cost escalating as the designer names got fancier.
I looked at dozens of mens' frames. To my addled eyes, they all seemed to fall into three groups: What I Have Now (think basic thinly-wire-framed aviators), Your Basic John Lennon, and Your Basic Clark Kent. Since I'm the one person who doesn't have to look at them, I figured I would call for help, and thus Eleanor joined me on Trip The Third, two nights ago.
The first set she saw (kinda in-between groups 1 and 2, so what John Lennon would wear if he was flying a C-130), she liked. I tried on close to a dozen others. She liked the first ones best. This never happens when I go shopping, mind you. I'm not complaining about it, either, mind you even more.
That left last night for the actual exam and fitting. Not much news there; the distance prescription's maybe a notch above what I have now, and the bottom portion may as well be clear glass because I read just fine without 'em. Still, it was a significant trip, because the optician, not knowing I'd been in before, looked me up through the HMO rather than their own computer. Good thing, since "the computer" still had me as being under a long-departed Independent Health plan from my old firm, with very limited vision benefits. Our actual plan? No exam co-pay, much lower cost for the lenses, about the same deal on the frames, and the whole cost? Less than a third of what I went in expecting to pay.
Win.
I will take the Fifth (trip, that is), Monday most likely, to pick up the new beasties. Maybe with some of the savings I'll buy some Rogaine for the patches where the current ones have been wearing holes into my head.
Last night, Ray got his first pair of bifocals.
It's been long overdue. Though I've been blessed with a full head of hair (despite it now showing up in a variety of designer colors), I've been running serious risk of causing Male Pattern Baldness from the outside, in the form of two squarish-oval spots on the top of my forehead from where my prescription lenses reside several hours a day. It was either get a new pair that would allow me to read with my glasses on, or install a series of levers and pulleys to move the things up and down automatically.
----
Leave it to me, the Anti-Shopaholic, for this to take five trips.
As mentioned here recently, Eleanor and Em have been getting their glasses from Wal Mart. Our HMO's vision plan isn't good there, but their prices for the wymyns' needs have been low enough for them to go there anyway. Me, though? When I took the kid to pick up her new set a few weeks back, I did some pricing and found that my big-kid progressive lenses would've been almost double the cost of hers- between $300 and $350 depending on bells and whistles.
Trip Two, therefore, was to the Approved Vision Benefit Dispensary at the Mawl, just to price-shop for starters. They looked me up in their computer- I'd gotten sunglasses there a few years back- and their package did offer a meaningful saving over Wally World: the whole shebang, with various copays, coming in a bit under $200 for the most basic of frames, the cost escalating as the designer names got fancier.
I looked at dozens of mens' frames. To my addled eyes, they all seemed to fall into three groups: What I Have Now (think basic thinly-wire-framed aviators), Your Basic John Lennon, and Your Basic Clark Kent. Since I'm the one person who doesn't have to look at them, I figured I would call for help, and thus Eleanor joined me on Trip The Third, two nights ago.
The first set she saw (kinda in-between groups 1 and 2, so what John Lennon would wear if he was flying a C-130), she liked. I tried on close to a dozen others. She liked the first ones best. This never happens when I go shopping, mind you. I'm not complaining about it, either, mind you even more.
That left last night for the actual exam and fitting. Not much news there; the distance prescription's maybe a notch above what I have now, and the bottom portion may as well be clear glass because I read just fine without 'em. Still, it was a significant trip, because the optician, not knowing I'd been in before, looked me up through the HMO rather than their own computer. Good thing, since "the computer" still had me as being under a long-departed Independent Health plan from my old firm, with very limited vision benefits. Our actual plan? No exam co-pay, much lower cost for the lenses, about the same deal on the frames, and the whole cost? Less than a third of what I went in expecting to pay.
Win.
I will take the Fifth (trip, that is), Monday most likely, to pick up the new beasties. Maybe with some of the savings I'll buy some Rogaine for the patches where the current ones have been wearing holes into my head.