Dear Tweets, My 16-year-old son recently returned from a 5-week
rafting trip down the Alatna River in Alaska, beginning at
the river's headwaters in the Brooks Range. He took my
binocs with him and managed to see numerous northern goshawks
(sigh), short-eared owls, white-tailed ptarmigan (with chicks),
arctic warblers and wagtails.

I'm very glad he saw all these birds, because I've always
assumed that most of them are mythical. Unfortunately,
the binocs came back much the worse for wear. The sandbars
where my son camped had extremely fine-grained sand, which
got into everything. (I can't even wash it out of his
clothing - it just kind of rolls around in the washer
and then adheres to the clothes again).

So I wonder if any of you out there know of a really
good, reliable company which might be able to restore
my binocs to their original condition? Thanks.