My husband ordered some glasses from Zennioptical.com and they are pretty neat! What’s even better is that he saved a TON of money. At the optometrist, a pair of glasses costs about $150. And we are usually forced to choose only the glasses our insurance company will allow… and those choices loook like something from Austin Powers, ya know? But these glasses cost my hubs $15. YES, $15!!!!! They are very nice frames, too. Frames come as low as $8 and the collection is limitless! My husband went with the “more expensive” (lol!) frames because he is so fussy and requires bifocals. I love the frames he chose.

Zenni Optical saves us money because there’s no middleman. You can buy the glasses directly from them. You have to know your prescription to order, which you can get from your optometrist. And if your glasses need adjusting to fit your face, you have to do it yourself (or get a helpful friend). My husband was able to adjust his glasses just fine using a little screwdriver set.

I love Zenni Optical! When it’s my turn to get new glasses, I’m going to get some, too. What do you think of these funky frames, eh? ;)

The kids went out to the mailbox the other day, and ran back to me, flapping a little padded package. It was something from Italy! I’d never gotten anything from Italy before! We ripped the package open to discover the pinhole glasses I’d read about on the Internet.

Hmmm. They look a little funky.

Now this is not a paid review, so you’re going to get my pure and unbiased opinion (not an unusual thing around here, anyway, lol).

So there’s a website all about these pinhole glasses. Check it out, because there’s a ton of information there that I can’t pack into this one little bitty blog post. But the basic gist is: the pinhole eyeglasses use the idea of pinpoints to see better. I have very, very poor vision, something like 20/1000. So that means what most people can see at 1,000 feet, I can only see at 20 feet. Truly, I don’t see anything, not at 1,000 feet or 20 feet, or 2 inches. Nothing is ever clear. I’ve checked out everything for improving my vision: lasik, implants, etc. Nothing will really work for me. So I wear thick glasses– BUT I am still able to drive! :D

OK, back to these pinhole eyeglasses. You know how you squint to see better? And have you ever cupped your hand around your eye in order to see clearer (kind of like a camera aperture or binoculars)? I have. I do see a little clearer when I have done that. So I was interested in these pinhole glasses. But unfortunately, they do not work for me. When I wear them without my regular glasses, I can actually see things a little clearer– yippee! But things were still not clear enough for me to be able to toss out my glasses. And I’m not interested in exchanging one set of glasses for another.

So I asked my guinea pigs kids to try the glasses, too. Here’s Beetle Bailey modeling the lovely off-white/clear frames with the stylish black lenses. He wears glasses, too, so he tried them on over his own glasses.

After modeling them, he started to walk around but I noticed he was staggering. I asked him if he was OK, and he replied, “I feel like a fly.” LOL! He then added, “These things should come with a pair of plastic wings.” I read later that these glasses are not really suitable for moving around in them, because they make you feel off-balance.

So after trying these pinhole glasses out, here’s the breakdown:

PROS:

• They are lightweight
• A pinhole is a good idea, in theory
• They don’t use concave lenses for correcting vision (I have concave on my regular glasses, and over the years this has made my vision worse)
• Free shipping

CONS:

• They don’t noticeably improve my vision
• They didn’t improve anyone else’s vision in the house (two out of six people do not wear glasses in the house)
• You can’t move around with them on (driving, walking, etc)
• The frames are flimsy and old-fashioned (thick, clear plastic)
• They are pricey ($15)

Now, I will add that on the website, these glasses say they will actually improve your vision if you wear them consistently. I haven’t tried that yet. These things may help strengthen the eyes so, over time, you can see better. I couldn’t use them this way, because I would not be able to do anything else while wearing these things without my regular glasses. But there is that possibility for some folks that wearing these things while, say, watching TV or reading a book, may help your vision over time. Maybe I can get one of the kids to wear the pinhole glasses consistently, just to see if this is true. If I do this, I’ll be sure to write another post about it.

So would I go out of my way to buy these? I might the first time, just to see if they worked. My vision is so bad that I’ll really try anything for improvement. The thought behind the pinhole is very compelling. To be honest, when I’d read about them on the Internet, I thought they would have ONE pinhole per lens, not “like a fly,” as Beetle Bailey put it. Would I recommend that you purchase these pinhole glasses? No, not unless you have some kids who like flukey thing like this, or you are really into experimentation. My kids love playing around with gags, so they have them now. I really liked the theory behind the pinhole glasses, and I think the company has their heart in the right place, but they didn’t work for me. :( So my quest continues.

I’ve bought eyeglasses online. Yes I have! They’ve worked out very well. But I’m sick of wearing glasses. I’m dabbling– for the first time in my life after wearing glasses for 35 years!– into the liberating world of contact lenses! I’ve been shopping around and came across Acuvue Oasys at 1-800-GET-LENS. What a difference! Why pay full retail price when I could get them from a direct-to-consumer marketer for up to 70% less than my doctor’s office? I’ve been very displeased with the so-called “service” I’ve been getting from the eyeglass store in my optometrist’s office. :-p Time to shop around. The eyeglass store has told me they would charge me about $200 per contact per eye. Not including tax! Holy cow! I could buy a car with that money! Most of the cost comes from expensive middle-men and handling. No way.

I know I couldn’t just get any old contact lenses; plus, I’m more comfortable with a “name brand” familiar company who has been in the business for a while. I found out that the Acuvue Oasys are made by Johnson & Johnson, a long established company. And the lenses are slightly tinted so that they can detected when sitting in the solution. This makes it easy for blind-bats like me to find the lenses! And the contact lenses have something called “Hydraclear Plus technology” to keep eyes from drying out. So they seem very high-quality.

These lenses are tinted for ease of handling and will not change the color of your eye. The tint is simply designed to facilitate locating the contact lenses in solution. And I saw lenses as low as $17 a box! I’ve been seriously thinking about contact lenses, but it has always been the extremely high retail price that made me skittish. The lenses at 1-800-GET-LENS look spectacular.

Has anyone ever ordered contact lenses online? I’d love to know how it went!