Mullfotos of the Day

Ok. Here's what happened.

Last Saturday the weather was clear, the temps were going to be in the 60s and I hadn't ridden the Skippy Scooter (so named because anyone who would ride a 150cc motor scooter must be named "Skippy" in a while so I pulled the battery, charged it up, put it back in, and hit the starter.

After a few tries it started up so I pulled on my helmet, put on a reflective belt and took off to do my Saturday morning chores which include the cleaners, the post office, the bank, and like that.

I generally wear my glasses when I'm riding, although not always because I can see pretty well for distance without them, and if I keep them in my pocket I don't have to keep taking them on and off to get my helmet � on and off.

After I went to the bank I took off my glasses (which I DO need to wear to fill out the deposit slip) tucked them into the front of my shirt - you know, hooking them on one of the buttons the way we cool guys named "Skippy" like to do - pulled on my helmet, and zoomed away down King Street toward Mullings Central.

When I got back to my 'hood - about a half-mile - I flipped up my helmet visor because it was fogging up while I waited for a couple of cars to turn in front of me. I attempted to adjust my glasses only to find they were not on my face. I tapped my chest where I thought I had put them; no glasses. I checked around my waist to see if somehow they had fallen inside my shirt, but, alas, they had not.

I turned the SS around and slowly retraced my route to the bank looking back and forth across the street like a boy scout with a flashlight looking for a roll of toilet paper in the woods next to the slit trench, but couldn't find them. I went into the bank to see if someone had seen an expensive pair of spectacles lying on the ground and brought them into the bank in case the moron who dropped them showed up looking for them. Nope.

I drove home, got in my car, and parked in front of the bank. I started walking home bending down to look under parked cars in case they might have skidded under one. This activity got the attention of the two mothers standing with the four young ladies on the corner of King and Lee who were selling Girl Scout Cookies, and my oh-so-friendly smile and wave didn't stop them from protectively moving to the front of the card table to protect the little sales mavens. When they asked me if I wanted to buy some cookies, the moms "shushed" them.

This was not helpful on any level.

A walk to my house and back (taking care to walk on the opposite side of the street from the Thin Mint Girls) produced no glasses.

Ok. I have a pair of sunglasses which are made to the same prescription and are in the exact same frames as my clear lenses, so I put them on and thought about what to do next.

Obviously, I needed a new pair of glasses, but the store at which I buy them - Apex Optical at 20th & L Northwest - (a) is closed on Saturdays and (b) sends my prescription to a lab somewhere to get the lenses ground, so that wouldn't work. I could go to Lenscrafters and get new glasses that very day but Apex (still closed) has my prescription which I forgot to keep in my wallet.

As luck would have it, another Apex location up Wisconsin Avenue is open on Saturdays, so I set my GPS for 4200 Wisconsin Avenue and off I went.

I explained my dilemma to one of the staff members, he went in the back and printed out my prescription, told me the manufacturer no longer made those frames, ordered replacement lenses which I could put into the frames currently holding my sunglass lenses, and told me that there was Lenscrafters at White Flint Mall (which is in the wrong direction from Mullings Central).

I entered the address for the Lenscrafters in Northern Virginia and headed down there. What I was looking for was a pair of glasses that would serve my vision until about Thursday when my real glasses would be ready. I'm thinking, like, $75 bucks.

Where have I been?

I bought the cheapest frames ($169) and the non-bifocal lenses (about $13,357,512) which I could get within a couple of hours.

While I was waiting for the distance-only lenses, I went to CVS to buy a pair of cheap reading glasses ($9.99). By the way I went to the movie theater to see what was playing, but the only film that was about to start was the Justin Bieber movie and I would have rather run into traffic on I-66 before I sat through that, so I went for lunch at one of Ted Turner's Bison-burger places.

After about 90 minutes my new, albeit temporary, glasses were ready and I cheerfully drove home ready to face the week ahead.

The Mullfoto above is how I've walked around the office all week - with the CVS reading glasses over the top of the Lenscrafters' distance specs.

I have not had many requests for dates.

Catchy Caption of the Day

Actual Caption:

A rail line buckled by the shifting earth is pictured in Christchurch. Hundreds of rescuers swarmed over twisted and smoking buildings in a frantic search for survivors after New Zealand's catastrophic earthquake left nearly 400 dead or missing.

I don't think even my old Lionel Train engine would have made it around that.

(AFP/Marty Melville)