Anyone can use sunglasses for their intended purpose. You wear them at the beach on those sunny days. You wear them when you are skiing, fishing, cycling, playing baseball, etc. Yet it takes a special kind of person to grab those sunglasses at the spur of the moment and use them for something that most other people wouldn’t even think of.
Below are three examples of spur of the moment sunglasses deployments. This writer has done all three. Needless to say that sunglasses can do more than just protect your eyes and make you look good in front of your friends. They can actually be quite functional in a whole host of scenarios that have nothing to do with ultraviolet rays.
1. Watching a Hockey Game
This first example applies to people who are sitting down to watch a professional hockey game for the very first time. Imagine being in the arena surrounded by thousands of other people. Warm-ups are over, introductions have concluded, and the national anthem has just wrapped up. Everyone is ready to play.
The puck is dropped and off they go. You are having a great time for the first 10 or 15 minutes before it finally hits you: you realize the glare from the ice is causing eye strain. You know that if you don’t do something quick, you’re going to have a headache. Out come the sunglasses.
Spotlights shining on a sheet of ice can create just as much glare as sun on the water. For some hockey fans, this can be uncomfortable. Yet sunglasses are the perfect solution. A good pair of sunglasses not only reduces the glare, they make it easier to follow the puck.
2. Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
People who travel a lot cannot avoid having to stay in a cheap, roadside motel every now and again. Imagine yourself spending a night in one such motel. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have blackout curtains. Making matters worse is that there is enough light coming in your window to keep you from settling down and sleeping. What do you do? You grab your sunglasses.
Between your designer-like Olympic Eyewear aviators and a couple of bath towels hung from the curtain rod, you manage to make the room dark enough to get to sleep. Hopefully you will not even notice that you are wearing your sunglasses. But be careful when you wake up. Don’t be too quick to roll over or you might discover that your sunglasses fell off and wedged on your shoulder.
3. Escaping an Old Flame
Finally, imagine yourself in a crowded space at some public event. Maybe you are attending an outdoor music festival with your buddies. Suddenly and without warning, you see an old flame in the crowd. Even worse, she is headed in your direction. The last thing you want is to have a conversation that will make you both uncomfortable.
You pull out your sunglasses, put them on, and pull the front of your baseball cap down as low as you can. Then you turn in the opposite direction and put your head down. Hopefully your old flame walks right by. If so, crisis averted. Give her enough time to make tracks and you can go back to enjoying the concert.
Who knew that designer sunglasses were so versatile? A good pair of sunglasses definitely protects the eyes against UV rays and direct sunlight. But they can also make hockey more pleasant to watch, help you get a good night’s sleep in a cheap motel, and conceal your identity from an old flame.