Are there any eclipse glasses left in the Bluffton area? One wife sends her husband to find out

OK, I know this is my fault. I waited until the last minute to find eclipse glasses despite the constant talk in the newsroom and the rest of the Lowcountry in recent weeks about this rare event.

Worse, I turned into that despicable wife everyone always moans about, and I sent my husband on a scavenger hunt for this coveted item instead of doing it myself.

This hasn’t been easy and as I write we still don’t have glasses in hand.

My husband, however, at 11:30 a.m. was waiting in a long line that snaked into the parking lot at the Herb Room Organic Apothecary on Hilton Head Island. He was assured he will get a pair, but many others at the end of the line were turned away when employees let them know there wouldn’t be enough glasses.

This journey started at about 7 a.m. Friday morning when I asked if my husband would take on this task. At about 9 a.m. I texted him “How is it going?” He hadn’t left the house. I can’t blame him; he isn’t required to keep an eye on social media like I am for work.

A search on Facebook for “eclipse glasses” will come up with a list of local posts on the subject. And if you make that search you will quickly see what I’m talking about — that eclipse glasses are the Tickle Me Elmo or Nintendo Wii of 2018.

About as quickly as a business or person posts that they have glasses, someone replies saying that the place is already out.

At 9:30 a.m. Friday I told my husband to get in the car and drive to Outside Hilton Head, a place some people were posting as a business that has the glasses. I called the business at about 10 a.m. and asked if they had any. They said yes. About 20 minutes later my husband arrived and the glasses were already sold out.

This started a rush to find a new location. Mingles, a shop in Coligny, posted on Facebook that they had about 50. They opened at 10 a.m. and we knew it was a longshot but he started on his way. When he arrived they didn’t have any. They said a shipment would arrive late morning or afternoon.

The Mingles staff was nice and offered to put him on a list. He took them up on the offer, but I continued to be a cruel wife. It is very likely Mingles will get the shipment today and I could have saved my husband an hour long wait in line. But I wanted him to keep checking.

At about 11 a.m. I found out that the Herb Room has glasses, so I sent him there. I also started private messaging individuals who said they have glasses.

Erin Greene is one of the people I contacted. She had 50 glasses and posted this on Facebook.

In about two hours Greene had received 35 messages asking for the glasses, she said. She said only 10 were left by 11:30 a.m.

Luckily, at about the moment that Greene responded to me saying she had some, my husband was purchasing some at the Herb Room.

So there is hope for procrastinators in the Hilton Head Island area.

If you haven’t found your glasses and this all sounds like a little too much trouble, don’t worry, there are several events that will be happening in Beaufort County on the day of the eclipse, where free glasses will be handed out.

Check out this story to learn more.

This story was originally published August 18, 2017 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Are there any eclipse glasses left in the Bluffton area? One wife sends her husband to find out."