Clear!

 Allow me to complain for a moment. Well, actally, I don't really care if you allow me -- I'm going to complain. This is what the blog was originally designed for so I'm going back to my roots and complaining.

I wear glasses, and this is usually something I'm ok with. Sure, no one makes passes at me, but also, fewer people hit me and I can take them off or put them on for dramatic effect. So there's that. Over the years I have had a bunch of pairs of glasses so I have gotten a bit expert in dealing with them. My most recent pair was purchased about a year and a half ago. The prescription is (to my mind) a little stronger than I need but I'm dealing with it. Possibly by weakening my eyes. It's all good.

About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that there seemed to be (for lack of a better term) schmutz on the glasses that I couldn't clean. I looked the glasses and saw that both lenses have a whole lotta little marks. They don't feel like scratches (I ran my nail across and fely no nicks) and there are really so many of them all over the lenses. Now when I use the glasses, every light source has a halo and everything else is smudgy.

So I went to the store (well, first, I made plans to get new glasses but the plans fell through) to complain. Not that I'm expert at complaining in person but I thought that this would be good practice. When I showed the "Lab Technician" my glasses and explained that I treat them well, only wearing them, placing them down NOT on the lenses, or putting them in shirt or jacket pocket, he said, "well there's your problem. These are pocket scratches." He 'explained' that cloth like shirts can scratch glasses and one should always put them in a micro fiber bag before putting them one's pocket. I don't know if this is true but I'm skeptical.

Here's the thing -- I have been wearing glasses since before this "technician" was born. Really -- I'm that old and he is that young. I have been wearing glasses and putting them in my pocket for over 40 years and never have I ever seen this happen to a pair, even ones which I used for significantly more than 1.5 years. So it is a hard sell to tell me that putting glasses in a glasses shaped pocket causes spontaneous scratches.

I mentioned this to a co-worker and he said that he had the same problem and it had to do with a flaw in the lens, or the coating or something. I'm no scientist but I think that this is, indeed, more likely a lens problem and not a pocket cloth problem. So I still need to spend the money to get new glasses, and in the interim, I will be squinting, so stay off the roads. One thing is certain, though, and that's that I will be going to a different store next time. One with older lab technicians.