I Accidentally my Sunglasses

Northwest Return Travelog #8
Back at the hotel in Clarkston, WA - Fri, 30 Jul 2021. 8pm.

In my rush to write about eating dinner in Moscow... Idaho I forgot to write about how I accidentally my sunglasses. Actually, I don't know how I accidentally my sunglasses. I just know that I did.



Even weirder, I don't know when I accidentally these sunglasses. It just occurred to me while I was driving and blinked one eye, "Huh, one eye sees brighter than the other." The lens that popped out wasn't anywhere in my lap or on the floor at my feet so it must have dropped out at least 30 minutes earlier. So I wore these busted sunglasses for at least 30 minutes before realizing something was wrong with them. Yeah, I was tired. Our hike to Elk Creek Falls took more out of us than we thought initially.

Driving without sunglasses on a glaring day like today means squinting and discomfort for me. At our next rest stop I asked Hawk to take over the driving, and she did until we got back to town this evening.

Back in town we stopped at the Walgreens drugstore a few blocks from the hotel to look for new sunglasses. In a display up front they had cheapo shades starting at $9.99. I hunted around and found a rack elsewhere with an inexpensive name-brand that fits my face and is polarized for $20.

Yeah, I generally buy cheap sunglasses. You might think as much as I depend on sunglasses and as much as I care about them having the right shape and tint, I'd invest in a high quality pair. But I don't because I'm too hard on them. I can't seem to make a pair last more than about 6 months... why the heck would I want to spend $300 each time? Yeah, I can tell my $20 pair will fall apart in a few months, but here's the thing: the expensive shades that cost 10x, 15x, 20x as much (these are non-prescription glasses, BTW!) wouldn't last more than 2-3x longer. I'm all for spending more to buy quality. I won't spend vastly more for merely a slight improvement.

Masks are Back in the Bay Area (and Elsewhere)

I'm taking a quick hiatus from my Inland Empire travelog (last I left off I was in Moscow... Idaho!) to write about current events. A week ago I wrote about how the pandemic is coming back around, with elevated "hot spots" encompassing more than 2/3 of the US population. Well, now lockdowns are coming back around. Nothing's closing down yet, but mask requirements are coming back in an attempt to stave off having to close or limit occupancy at places of business. Seven counties in the SF Bay Area jointly announced today that masks will be required for everyone indoors at businesses, entertainment, etc.

It's not just the Bay Area. Elsewhere in California, Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people, mandated wearing masks indoors two weeks ago. And today the State of Louisiana moved to require masks, too.

It's not just states and counties, either. Numerous major companies announced today they will require all staff to wear masks in offices and stores. McDonald's went a step further, announcing that staff and customers must wear in all of its stores in areas of "high" or "substantial" transmission per CDC reports— which, again, is already 2/3 of the US population and is likely to grow in the coming weeks.

These significant changes are both heartening and disheartening at the same time. As a practical matter, though, they really don't change my habits. I've continued wearing my mask indoors at businesses over the past ~10 weeks even as mask mandates disappeared and guidelines loosened. How about you?