shades

so, my plan was, once i got my new contact lenses, to amass for myself a library of, oh i don't know, maybe a half dozen pairs of cheap dollar store sunglasses [of course we all know there isn't much at the dollar store that's actually a dollar these days] - the kind you used to be able to get at the gas station or drug store. i had found in the past - i guess now i realize the too long past - you could find a pair of nice retro polarized shades for under ten bucks, maybe even five.

oh how wrong i was.

here i saw cheap chinese mass-produced shades - many of them with such a thin polarized layer on the lens that it had already scratched in shipment - for twelve, fifteen, eighteen, TWENTY BUCKS. thus it was at walgreen's; thus it was at bartell's; thus it was even at the most sad, run-down gas stations i could find - those that still carried them anymore. some have ceased to, due to relentless shoplifting by crackheads and meth maniacs.

what to do?

having some spare time to myself this weekend, i ambled down the southern end of the street, the "don't leave valuables in your car" area. next to a carniceria and a produce market and a bubble tea place, there was a "sportswear" shop - in other words, a shop that sells dickeys, plaid shirts, puma sneakers, black ball caps, and....sunglasses. and - not the kind of sunglasses you pay fifteen dollars for in a drug store. the kind of sunglasses that cost half as much, that make people cross the street.

you get the picture.

i almost got the ones that said "Loco" in gothic script on the temples.

almost.