Farmers' Market Flowers

I especially liked this arrangement and it has lasted quite beautifully. 

John and I had back to back appointments at the opticians this morning. We have been going for years back to our Berkeley friend who teaches at the UC Berkeley school of optometry. The fact that she was a friend made the trip better for awhile but this year I was complaining to Dana that we were kind of dreading the trip down there. She said she had been thinking for awhile that were crazy and that she didn't think we should do it anymore. That's all it took for us to cancel and say our good-byes to a friend, a good optician, and the nice people in her office.

We found someone up here and made an appointment, but it was a four month wait. It was definitely worth the wait as it is a very modern office with a nice staff, modern equipment and a fabulous (and eye wateringly expensive) selection of frames. We had our first ever pictures taken of our retinas which had the benefit of not having our eyes dilated, but wasn't covered by our insurance. 

Either my vision has changed, or the doctor who did my cataract surgery (and who I didn't like very much) didn't give me the best correction, but he agreed that the best way to deal with that is with a daily wear contact lens in one eye which is what I have been doing for a couple of years.

We admitted on the drive over that neither of us was really looking forward to going there, but on the way home with three pairs of new glasses and a years' worth of contacts on order the story had changed considerably in spite of the staggering bill....

I think John has finally admitted defeat on trying to keep to a budget and now chooses not to know what the total is. The assistant and I pointed out that he would know soon enough, so he was excused to put his fingers in his ears and mumble naaaa,naaa,naaa whille the assistant explained the bill to me. Somebody ought to keep track, so this seems to be something of a total role reversal.

There was really no need for both of us to go at the same time, but I did want to have something to say about John's new glasses as his old ones were not even remotely fashionable even when he got them 10 or 15 years ago. He really doesn't care what he looks like, but I do...