I “met” SDJr in 1979 at a convenience store in Miami, FL. His limo pulled in, out he rolled decked out, gold chains, slicked hair tiny/skinny as ever. He bought cigs and a soda. Took one look at me in my tshirt and jeans, hair down my back and bought the sandwich I was holding. As I walked back to my car his driver handed me $40. Sammy rolled down the window, smiled and said, get a haircut.
I spent the money on music.
Rosh Hashanah coincides with the beginning of Fat Bear Week. The stars are aligned.
Isn’t that a tautology? Unless I am mistaking Fat Bear week for something entirely different 
Vote for your favorites every day!
Well, the stars have other stuff in mind too, but that’s for another venue.
(Meanwhile, Fat Bear Week was on the NEWS lol)
LOL. Back atcha!
All my high holy days at once!
I was mistaken! That’s cute!
Yuppers.
“So what?”
Wow 
Our plan allows us Lens Crafters, the only game in town. I have found their lenses and frames to be sub-standard. The exception is the ‘designer’ frames, like Ray Ban, which seem to be sturdy. I can only get lenses and frames every two years according to the plan. Before a year is up, I’ve had to move to ‘cheaters’. The insurance doesn’t pay well on lenses or frames, the exam is fairly priced, but the Rx is off. I’ve heard Costco does a good job, bur our insurance won’t work there. Lovely.
That Fat Bear Week story was so sad.
My Medicare vision plan has a very small list of participating optometrists. Unlike everything else in Medicare+Medigap, there’s a co-pay, which is about what the Costco optometrist charges. I’m allowed a $100 discount on frames every two years, but frames at those optometrists are in the $300-400 range, and don’t include lenses. Full glasses including lenses are around $100 at Costco, less when they have their regular sales. I’m wearing computer glasses from Zenni which cost about $60 including lenses. I forgot to cancel the vision plan last time around and will probably do so during open enrollment.
No vision coverage in my plan so I’m a Costco shopper when I need new glasses (for distance). I like their service, selection, and prices.
It is possible that I am the witch in the Hansel and Gretel story. Here is the view from my office. Note the arc of big mushrooms around the kid attractor, partially obscured by the trees in the upper left
I can’t handle 3-digit frames. I have never paid over $29 for frames and frequently get compliments on my glasses. Zenni has cool frames. I so love my current frames that I have used the same style for my last 3 prescriptions: black with wide cherry red temples: $9.95.
I bought all my eyeglasses in Japan from a chain there called Jins. Including an eye exam, frames and lenses, they start at ¥5,500 (currently USD $37.47) but when I first started buying them they were only ¥4,000 (currently $27.24 with the much too low Japanese yen.)
They do have 4 locations in the US, but unfortunately they’re all in California (1 in the greater San Francisco area and 3 in the LA area). More unfortunately prices for their eyeglasses in the US start at $90.00 (I’m sure there are multiple reasons for that, but it still irks me!)
I love their designs, but more importantly, I love their customer service including free adjustments and cleaning for life. They have stores all over Japan and whenever I was in a shopping mall or station building that had one of their stores, I’d pop in and have them clean and adjust my eyeglasses without cost and IMHO importantly without attitude.
Their would surely be quite the language barrier in a Japanese location because it would be hard to find a clerk who spoke English, otherwise I would recommend going to one of their stores in Japan if an HO member were visiting Japan because if you don’t have an unusual prescription, your eyeglasses could be handed to you on the spot (an unusual prescription could take a week to 10 days to be prepared and I don’t think having them sent to the US would be a good idea due to increased cost and numerous other possible issues.)
#truth
Seems simple, doesn’t it? But so easy to wrap oneself around the nearest axle
My PIC’s the worry wart in the fam. I can’t be bothered. Shit either happens… or it doesn’t. Ain’t no point wasting time anticipating something that may not happen 
PS: One more chance to visit the SEA market: 10/13 
