I hiked out to Asterix Eyewear (though the sign says All American Eyewear) in NE Portland to see if my glasses could be repaired… my ocular vision a little strained from seeing the world through a sagging bandaid repair and a little bit afraid to move my head. Every time I tilted my head down my glasses would fall off and I ended up tucking the arms of my glasses into my hair for greater security.

Once at Asterix Eyewear (there may be buses everywhere in Portland, but oh my they can take a long time to get anywhere) I was told it would be $50 and an overnight job to weld my glasses back together. I looked very sad indeed and said I was willing to wait, wait a long time, but I needed my eyes to get home. The nice guy took pity on this poor Australian with no spare glasses and set to work.

I was told where convenient cafes were, but all felt a bit too far to go without my eyes on, so I waited, listened to The ComicsSpot, watched TED talks, read and tried to get some work done.

And hurrah hooray, an hour and a half later I had whole glasses. Normally he would take longer to test the weld, do a proper paintjob etc, but normally he would have a whole lot more time. The repair comes with a 3 month warranty, so if the weld does not hold I’ll be right. It was a very fiddly job to get all the things to align and I’m very glad to have my eyes back.

It feels mighty nice to have glasses that stay on my face.

Thanks for all the glasses tips everyone – it looks like it will all come in handy. I have some gorgeous french frames from a friend that I plan to put new lenses into and am seriously tempted by some online cheapo shopping.