So the optical place at the Fred Meyer called the other day — my sunglasses are in again.

First time, they tinted them gray, which was what I ordered. They also polarized the lenses, which I definitely did not order. I tried to wear them for a week, but unfortunately the polarization didn’t quite jibe with the polarization of the rear windows of many cars. Meaning I couldn’t see through those rear windows.

So, back the glasses went. No problem, they can redo them without polarization. Just plain gray. Check.

The call came, so last night we went down to the Fred Meyer to tackle some grocery shopping. Scott headed off to the electronics section to kill some time, and I went to the optical shop. Waited for a couple of people ahead of me, then gave the girl my name. She gets the glasses, looks at them and proclaims them “cool,” then hands them to me so I can make sure they fit right.

I take one look at them and say, “um, these are really strange. Is it me, or are they a lot darker on the tops than they are on the bottoms?”

She looks at me strangely, then looks at the paperwork that accompanied the glasses. “No, they’re right, gradient gray #3.”

Blink. Blink. “I didn’t order gradient. I wanted them to just be plain, solid gray.”

And for some reason, that really flustered her. I had the feeling she was filling in at this location, and it wasn’t her usual store. She looked around her, muttering something about “tint.” She then apologized profusely, and told me that she couldn’t do a tint at this location. Which puzzled the hell out of me again, because I already had figured they’d have to send the glasses back to the lab again. She swore she’d order them correctly this time. I confirmed with her that they should be plain gray lenses, no gradient and no polarization.

So in a week to 10 days, we’ll see how else they manage to screw these suckers up.