oakley sunglasses

Isn’t it funny what will set your mind off?  For me, today, it’s sunglasses.  For years I’ve lusted over the Oakley Juliet sunglasses (for so long that they’re long out of style), but could never justify the high cost.  I’ve lost and broken much cheaper pairs.  But over the years, as I’ve slowed down and started looking at my material possessions in terms of the hours I had to work to earn them, I’ve gotten a lot better of taking care of my things.  So when I saw the Infinite Hero version of these, at a significantly reduced price, I decided to splurge.  Part of the proceeds will help a good cause and I’d get my sunglasses. 

So my sunglasses show up, and I’ve been trying to wear them around the last week or two, but I haven’t been as thrilled with them as I’d like.  This morning I put them on and then was taking them off and putting them back on looking at the sky.  They’ve got polarized lenses and they give everything a brownish/yellow tint.  I was looking at the mountains this morning and for a split sec was reminded of being overseas.  That dusty haze to everything, kind of like LA.  But of course, it’s not LA that springs to mind, it’s Iraq and Afghanistan.  Which just made me wonder how long is that going to be my frame of reference for pretty much everything in my life? 

Inner dialogue example:

-Huh.  Life Sucks.

-Yeah, it does, but at least I’m not in Iraq

or all my stories that start with:

-This one time, in Iraq….

I don’t want to be one of those guys who is 70 years old, bellied up to a VFW bar, reliving the “glory days”, but right now, at 38 years old, my 17 year military career is pretty significant.  And the 3 years of it I was deployed in combat zones were pretty signficant as well.  It’s kind of hard to be inside myself and determine when to be worried.