Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

We had a great holiday weekend and got some real bargains, too, guys. I mean - only the finest for us. As in cheap.

So, what did we do and what did we get? We spent Friday night and Saturday on the coast with our friends in their FEMA trailer, which was an experience in togetherness. Good thing we all like each other.

We spent most of the day Saturday shopping (them) and browsing (us) for furniture and all came away happy. Well - two of us came away happy. Debra and Tom. Debra bought a huge buffet to go in their house they’ve about finished renovating after 4 ½ feet of Katrina water.

So what did Tom get?

Tom found the perfect furniture item for our house we’re building. A TIVO for $60 bucks at a big discount store dealing only in goods from stores going out of business, reclaimed goods from insured fire losses, damaged goods from storms, etc.

He was happy.

You know how guys are with their electronics, right? And after all it was a must have item since it was so cheap. Besides, it had a clicker to add to his Clicker Collection, which now numbers about 231, I think. Including several “universal” clickers that supposedly are the ultimate “all-in-one” kind. All in one piece for the time being, maybe, but sometimes I feel like throwing them at the nearest wall, along with the rest of the clickers.

I hate clickers!

I would have complained about the TIVO, but I’ve never yet in all these years figured out how to video tape a show to save my life. Or else I missed it in school, which seems to be a males only course. So I’m hoping this newer electronic invention will be easier to use. If I can figure out which clicker(s) to use for it.

I’m thinking we need to build in some kind of compartmentalized clicker shelving in our new living room, you think? You know. Little wooden dividers we can put clickers in with some kind of neat label on the front of each one for reference. Then, maybe a diagram or schematic on how to use each one and which ones to use for each situation in their correct order of use and buttons to push.

I get so aggravated in trying to learn all this stuff.

I mean, Tom begins to try to “show” me how to calibrate and coordinate about 4 clickers at a time just to turn the TV on and have sound. He grabs a group of clickers of assorted shapes, sizes and configurations and begins rapidly pushing buttons as he says, “See - it’s easy. You just hit TV power on this clicker, Audio on this clicker, scroll down to Input/Output, take this 3rd clicker and hit Instant Replay Advance (replay advance? - how do you replay and advance at the same time?), then Enter. Voila!”

“I’ll ‘viola’ you,” I tell him. “But it won’t be with any clickers except maybe as they ‘audio’ past your body on the way as ‘input’ into the trash can and ‘output’ to the dumpster.”

I settled down yesterday about the whole thing, though, when I ended up with a bargain purchase of my own. Here’s how it went down.

We spent the morning at appliance stores looking for a refrigerator for our new house and Sears had a big selection with most on sale. But we wanted to check out at least one other store, so drove to Slidell.

We gave the salesman our specifications (we’ve been looking, so know what we want) and he began showing us some. Well - the selections with what we wanted was extremely slim and quite expensive, as in $1,500 and up!! I don’t believe! So I quickly told him, “Look - these are way out of our price range, but thanks anyway.”

Then I turned around to look for Tom who had wandered over to guess where - the electronics department. You know - with the necessities for every home such as 52" flat screen high definition TVs and the like. I pulled him reluctantly away and started to the front of the store.

About that time he spotted the bargain he thought I had to have. For years he’s been trying to talk me into buying a little bedside fridge to put canned Cokes, orange juice and candy in for when my blood sugar drops drastically at night, as it sometimes does. We especially need one now because our bedroom in this place is upstairs and as Tom pointed out, I’m liable to kill myself falling down the stairs to get to the kitchen for a cold drink in the middle of the night if he’s gone and my sugar is real low.

Besides, he’s looking out for himself since he’s usually the one who goes to get what I need to get my blood sugar back up.

There it was. The perfect fridge. A small white floor model with a few scrapes and dents in it for $78. I was convinced. I sought out the salesman and told him it was his lucky day, we were making a purchase. He followed me over to the fridge and with a shocked look on his face said, “You told me those others were out of your price range, but I didn’t know by this much!”

When we picked him up off the floor where he’d fainted, we got the fridge, he got his commission and Tom and I had a fun bargain weekend all the way around.

Cheers! Dee

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