It's Morton time again around these parts. We've had no rain to speak of for weeks, possibly months, then the heavens opened up and it hasn't quit raining since sometime Sunday. There are periods when the rains tapers off, but those are followed by torrential downpours.
I am sitting in my office, on a slightly extended lunch period, listening to the sound of rain pounding on the metal roof above, the metal walkway covering outside, and the patter on the window. These sounds are interrupted only every so often during a lull in which the sound of the server fans hums from the other side of my cubicle wall. There is, of course, the occasional phone ringing, but for the most part, the rain pounding on the structures around me dominates the airwaves.
This past weekend was the "last hurrah" - a yearly tradition in which we load up and head for a hotel for a last swim of the summer. And shopping, of course. We take the weekend and buy school supplies, new school clothes, and a few other things that hit our fancy. We like to stay at the Hampton Inns and Suites (we get a suite, of course) that happens to be located across the parking lot from a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop.
I am not a big fan of the KK variety of pastry, though I do like the cake donuts they have. Just about everyone else in the family, though, LOVES the KK donuts... So, we dropped by there twice over the weekend. Since my bad habit is baseball cards (hey, I'm not smoking or drinking, so there!), I snagged up a dozen or so "cheapie" packs at Target. In retrospect, I think I should have grabbed up some 2008 Allen&Ginter cards, but I'll just trade for the Indians cards I need/want with the folks on the card blogs. I digress.
Shan picked up several pants and some new shoes. I am not a browsing shopper. When I know what I'm looking for (say, shoes), I find a pair, and if I like them, I buy them. So, when Shan tried on a pair of shoes that felt good, looked good, and had a good price, I told her to buy them. She hesitated, but went along with my prodding to stop looking and buy them. Turns out, we got them cheaper than the sale price, AND she loves them AND we didn't have to walk all over 900 shoe stores only to return to buy these!
I think that is the crux of my shopping bane - the 'return.' Some people, in my experience it is only women but I'm sure some guys do this too, find what they like and then spend hours shopping other places to find 'a better deal' only to return to the FIRST place they looked and buy the first item they saw in the first place! UGH! If you find something you like, and you're happy with the price, BUY IT! As a matter of fact, YES, I do that with computer stuff. And, yes, I admit, sometimes I shop AFTER it's already bought to see if i really did get a good deal. But, for the most part, I just buy the item and I'm happy with it because it was what I wanted, at a price i wanted. Why make life more difficult?
Having said all that, I will say that if I have the mindset that I *KNOW* we'll be shopping for hours on end, then I am much more willing to go along with whatever happens. Seriously. If I know ahead of time that we are shopping all day, then going to 900 stores doen't bother me as much. Oh, I know, some of you will say, "Then just treat every shopping trip as if it were going to last all day..." Yeah, that ain't happenin... Thanks for playing... :-)
The kids got school supplies and some new clothes. Tyler bought himself a new light saber. He's addicted to those things - they are his habit of choice, I suppose.
Shan and My Mom also picked up items for their respective classrooms at the teacher store, and I bought some baseball display boxes at Hobby Lobby. I have two autographed balls and a Mickey baseball that I wanted to put in display boxes.
Re; spending the rest of the day shopping for a beter deal....sounds like the commercial on tv where they say to another couple after spending the whole day doing ust that..."Trust me, just buy it."
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