1800specs

I came late to the game of blogging.  It was already done, and done well, by the time I decided to try my hand at it.  And I am such a piker, resolutely keeping things on this site low fi.  Pictures?  Nah.  Fantastic recipes?  Wonderful links?  Gorgeous artwork?  Cunning design? No, no, no and no.  It's just me and my words, and I stubbornly persist, thinking that perhaps this appeals to someone.

It does appeal to me.   Hypocritcial and oxymoronical as it is, having a low-tech blog gives me perverse pleasure.

So, it has been a surprise to have readers, and to have made contacts with some wonderful fellow-bloggers.  That too (the making of a community) was a well-established blogosphere cliche long before I started writing.  Yet here I am in Welcome to My World, alongside some very talented writers who do this kind of thing and make a living off it.

Also, I was given the chance to get a FREE new pair of prescription glasses.  As an academic, this is shocking.  What?  Goodies in exchange for work?  Unheard of!

So, I ordered new glasses, for free, from 1800specs.

I've known for years that it's cheaper to get one's eye doctor to hand over the prescription and then shop around for frames.  They have to give you your prescription, you know.  They can also tell you your prescription if you let them have a good look at your existing glasses with one of their machines.

I went online, chose frames, plugged in my prescription and voila, 14 working days later: new glasses in the mail.

Now, you should be better at this than I am, for I have delusions about my appearance, apparently, and chose a set of frames several yards too wide for my face.  That ought to be blamed on me, though.  I do the same thing if I buy clothes online.

Aside from the fact that the frames are too big for my face, the glasses are perfect, and 1800specs was easy peasy to deal with.  Their shtick is that they charge 1/3 the price of normal eyewear shops.  The glasses I got would have cost under USD $100 for frames, lenses and shipping if they hadn't been free in exchange for this review.  That's pretty damn good, no?

So. I feel better knowing that the next time Winton enthusiastically swipes my head, knocking my glasses into the gutter under our car, it's not a crisis in the category of "Oh crap, I totally can't afford to replace those right now . . . or possibly ever."  What a relief.