New Eyeglasses

Did you know that one company, Luxottica Group S.p.A., makes eyeglasses under at least 36 brands? Brands such as Oakley, Ray-Ban, Revo, Vogue, Ann Klein, Brooks Brothers, Chaps, DKNY, Prada, Polo, Ralph Lauren, and Versace? Did you know that this same company has over 6400 retail outlets in the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom? Retail names such as Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical and K-Mart Optical. They also own EyeMed Vision Care, one of the leading managed vision care organizations in the U.S. They are the world’s largest eyewear company. Wordnet.princeton.edu defines monopoly as “a market where there are many buyers but only one seller”. Doesn’t that fit here? That’s not all. The founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, is one of the top 50 richest men in the world. Think of that the next time you spend $400 for a pair of eyeglasses.
Why am I telling you all of this? I bought a new pair of glasses. I tried to do this online, in fact there is one particularly good site for advice if you are interested in doing it this way called GlassyEyes. It is harder to do this if you have a bifocal prescription like I do but not impossible. In the end, I decided to purchase a pair from Costco. Why? Simple. I found a frame that I liked there and the total price for the frame, progressive (no line bifocal) photochromic (automatically dims in bright light) lens, and coatings is $225. Not the cheapest but also not going to Luxottica either!

New Video

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to pick up a new 13″ Macbook Pro the day they arrived in the stores. I’ve always been a PC guy so this is my first Mac. So far I’m not looking back. One of the reasons for making the switch was iLife, Apple’s software that comes with new Macs and includes iMovie, iPhoto, and Garage Band. iMovie is the easiest to use video editor I’ve had. This is important as I have young ones and am taking video everywhere we go. It allows me to put some of the footage out on YouTube closer to the date it is shot so the relatives can follow along with our lives (let’s be real, Grace’s life). I have a lot of fun doing these videos and the latest one has been posted on YouTube, it is called “Father’s Day“. You can see it in the upper right of the home page or you can click the link.

Pardon the Sawdust

If you come to the site and some things aren’t working quite right it’s because I am trying out some new things. You can already see the new theme with room for our latest video in the upper right, there’s other stuff going on too. Drop a comment if there’s anything you’d like to know.

Back Yard Flyers