ONE OF THE FINAL PIECES of the preparation puzzle fell unexpectedly into place last week.  I've needed prescription eyewear since about age 12, making non-prescription sunglasses a non-starter.  (Experience has shown that, for me, contact lenses are not a good match for extended cycle outings.)

After trying several brands and styles for use when cycling, I selected a type by Rudy Project a number of years ago.  They have a prescription insert with a separate flip-up tinted shield in front of them, enabling me to update the prescription without junking the entire unit.  My prescription has changed considerably since I got them, so they've been languishing in a drawer for several years rather than accompanying me on rides.

Anticipating that I might want to be wearing the Rudys this summer, rather than my regular glasses with clip-on shades over the top (the clip-ons tend to pull my glasses down my nose, and it's worse when I sweat), several days ago I sent the following email to my current retail eyewear outlet:

I have a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses (the type that have a flip-up tinted shield and a separate removeable / replaceable prescription insert) with a badly out-of-date prescription.  Are you able to order the updated prescription insert from Rudy Project?

I got no reply or acknowledgement that the message had been received for several days.  Then I got a phone message.  "This is Mike at .  I have a set of replacement lenses for you but can't seem to find any order.  Could you please call me back at your earliest convenience so we can unravel the mystery?"

Since I had not ordered any new lenses for my daily wear glasses, I delayed a few days but finally got around to returning his call last Thursday.  During our conversation I said that no, I hadn't exactly ordered new lenses for those glasses, but I had sent an email inquiry about updates for my sunglasses.

"Ah", he said, "someone at the lab must have misunderstood."

Uhhhhh, yeah, ya think?  I'm not sure how you get from "Is it possible to get updates for my sunglasses, which you didn't sell me?" to "I want new lenses for the everyday glasses you did sell me." but that seems to have been what happened.

We agreed that I'd come by the store the next day to see about the shades.

So on Friday morning I trundled over and met Mike, a very congenial and personable fellow.  We chatted a bit and he ultimately opined that yes, new lenses could be fabricated and installed in the sunglasses.  Great!

We went through the technical formalities, and finally arrived at the key moment.  "Will this be on your insurance?" he asked.  "If they cover it, you bet." I replied.  

He looked up my information.  "You have a great plan!", he opined.  "They cover most of it, so you'll get a significant discount."  Next to "free" my favorite price is "significant discount", so this was music to my ears.

We finished up that piece of business then I broached the subject of the mystery lenses that started the whole chain of events.  "Do you still have that other set of lenses?  And if so, can they be fitted to my previous pair of glasses?"  After some checking he confirmed that yes, the lenses were still lying around and yes, they could easily be fit to my existing frames.  

(Last August I bought new frames when updating my prescription, because I couldn't go three weeks without glasses while waiting for the new lenses to come in.  So, I had the older pair lying around gathering dust.  They were expensive, so any chance to put them back in service would be welcome.)

Somehow the paperwork on that transaction was made out to provide the new lenses at no charge, as scratch replacement or some such.  

So, for a price about 1/10th of what I had been expecting to pay for just the sunglasses update I have ended up with both that and a fresh set of glasses to have as a backup, in case anything should happen to my regular daily wearers during the tour.

Sweet!