Temporary eyeglass repair....very temporary.

Temporary eyeglass repair....very temporary.

Although yesterday was a beautiful day at Killington to ski, before heading out to the mountain one of life's little tragedies struck...my eye glass frame self destructed. My supposedly indestructible Flexon frames broke at the nose bridge, resulting in my pair of eyeglasses becoming left and right monocles....so it goes.

After skiing, I contacted my eye doctor. They could get me new frames in 7 to 10 days...the typical retort for a frugal Vermonter. Having gone through this game before on other purchases, I told the nice lady that 10 days was not acceptable, since I needed to be able to see. For a small $10 fee, I was told, I could get the frames overnight. What a miracle! Who knew you could get anything anywhere in the world in 24 hours, particularly Rutland Vermont! I mock, of course, because this game is played out daily in small towns all over the country. If I were in a city, I could have probably picked up new frames in an hour...but living in Vermont has other benefits, not the least of which is being able to ski frequently. So I opted for the $10 extra shipping charge and the prospect of having instant gratification delayed by only 24 hours.

Yesterday afternoon, needing to see, I did a temporary repair of the eyeglass frames using some shrink tube and a couple of cable ties. 25 years ago, this repair might have lasted for weeks as I was running around the world for Motorola. Of course, 25 years ago I did not need glasses, so I was not faced with this problem. But I saw many engineers working in labs with eyeglasses fixed in this fashion, so I knew I was in good company. Mary, being an engineer herself, was impressed at my handiwork with some reservations. For some reason the bright blue shrink tube and vanilla colored cable ties just drew a little too much attention away from my square English face causing one to focus squarely on the bridge of my nose. I needed to get new eyeglass frames pronto if I were to be seen in public. And as an innkeeper, being seen in public is a daily occurrence... so it goes.

Duitifully at 10:05 AM this morning the eye doctors office called to say that the frames had arrived (I wonder was if it was Fedex or UPS?) and when could I get there to pick them up. Knowing that this would happen, I had already arranged with Mary to do the errands in Rutland today, so just after noon off I went.

As I write this, I can see clearly out of both eyes. I have not needed to twist one lens one way, and the other in the opposite direction. The new frames work, just as they should, with a next day $10 shipping charge added on........Let it snow.