SNAP!

365 Days of Thanksliving — Day 230

SNAP! Uh… what was that? I said to myself.

I reached into my left front pocket and pulled them out. There they were: my prescription sunglasses, broken in half.

“Oh, f…udge,” I blurted out loud—well, something like that. (I’m trying to keep it clean for innocent ears and all.) I cursed at myself loud enough for my wife to ask what I’d done. All I could do was sigh and share.

There they were: two halves of a once-perfect pair of prescription shades. In my brain, I was hoping, praying, and begging that I could super-glue them back together. Maybe do a Revenge of the Nerds-type thing and tape them together with some electrical tape down the middle. I know it’d look bad, but hey, I could see.

“Honestly, I don’t know what I’ll do,” I lamented. My wife knows this: my eyes don’t do well with intense brightness; even a somewhat cloudy day can be torturous for my Scandinavian eyes. Danielle suggested getting some of those—and I quote her—“old-person wrap-around lenses.” Yeah, not gonna happen.

I lamented some more, trying to figure out how long I’d had this particular pair. Three to four years, we surmised. I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth out of them. Still, prescription sunglasses aren’t inexpensive. In fact, quite the opposite.

“Umm… honey, do you have enough in your HSA?” She assured me we do. But good golly, knowing what we just shelled out for regular glasses, I dread seeing the bill for a new pair of hip, cool, smashingly awesome sunglasses. Maybe I could get a pair of those Ray-Bans like us kids wore in the ’80s? Hmm……?

Oddly enough, while my prescription has changed a couple of times in the last few years, my sunglasses have treated me well. I shared with my OD that, for some reason, I’ve been seeing more clearly through the sunglasses than my regular specs. She guessed it had something to do with the curvature of the glass. I don’t know. All I know is that they were hipster-cool Oakleys. And in my fantasy world, I thought they made me look cool. Probably not.

Here’s the oddity: I’m grateful for those sunglasses, and I’m thankful I’ve had them for as long as I have.

In the past, with those “cheap sunglasses,” I’d go through them like water. I’d sit on them, step on them, lose them, you name it. They were almost always gas-station specials, and without any real financial skin in the game, I guess I didn’t care.

But these now-broken Oakleys? Until this afternoon, I cared for them with kid gloves—almost always, that is.

I don't know. Perhaps this was heaven’s way of saying it was time for a new pair so that I can see the world a bit better. Until then, my wife tells me to wear a hat when I’m driving. Yup! Thank the good Lord I have plenty of those, too.

But for now… do any of you have any white or black electrical tape? I could use some!

What are you thankful for today?