Ohhh, say, can you see?

With every passing year, it becomes clearer to me that I will not be able to make enough money to survive retirement. The point was driven home yesterday during a trip to the "vision-care center" to replace my scratched-up specs. Of course, I need "progressive" lenses -- what folks used to call trifocals but which no longer have the little lines that made old people look like old people. Progressives make us look kind of like old people, but without the squint. But I digress.

I love the new glasses that have magnets to attach sunglasses. Except most of the available styles made me look like Miss Richfield or Buddy Holly. So I found another pair that I really liked, although they didn't come with the nifty snap-on sunglasses. I thought I could just buy some clip-ons, but nooooo. These glasses wouldn't accommodate clip-ons. I had to buy separate prescription sunglasses. So I bit the bullet and bought those too. To the tune of nearly $800. This is after they gave me a $200 discount as a return customer. Whew.

About four years ago, I paid $500 for my last pair of glasses, which included clip-on sunglasses. That should mean that with the rate of inflation and rising prices, I should owe a cool million for a pair of glasses when I'm 80. This I cannot afford. If I wear the new glasses and sunglasses that I bought yesterday for four years, they'll cost me about 55 cents a day. My husband is right: I AM high-maintenance.