Window Shopper

Welcome back!

We do live in a really rural area in the Ozarks. It is amazing that we have anything here at all. Some of the things we do not have are specialty clothes stores. None of them really feel we are worth the effort, I suspect. Major malls. Obviously the buyers of such places do not think it would generate enough business in our area. Big name companies. Same thing. The truth is that we live in a small community that has one great big store and not a whole lot more than that.

And I am certain that you know what store that is. The crazy part is that before I moved here, it was a sure thing that I didn’t see my friends until and unless I looked them up or they looked me up. I saw them at church, of course. But other than that, we simply did not go to the same places at least at the same time.

Then we moved here. And it is a strange phenomenon more or less peculiar to here, I do believe. I can go to the local grocery store and shop all day. No one knows me other than the cashiers that are used to seeing me. I can go to the local discount store other than Wally and it would be the same. In fact, I could probably go just about anywhere in the area and I would be able to shop or eat or whatever else without anyone recognizing me at all. But let me get within a few feet of the largest retail sales company in the world and what happens??? Recognition, that’s what. It’s almost like they have a GPS on me. I cannot believe that I can go there and, usually without fail, a member of the family or some friend will see me there and we start to talk.

Do not get me wrong here. I love my family and friends are hard to find….well, unless you go to Wally. They are pretty easy to find there, that’s for sure. Does this mean that everyone ends up at Wally? Yep. That is the one place where most things can be obtained, even in backwater Arkansas. You can count on it and you can count on seeing everyone you ever knew there at one time or another or at least it seems that way. So, don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your folks to see and have fun!!!

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I read about an electric sports car that Tesla has put out there for all to see. The tag on the thing is over $100,000 meaning the average Joe isn’t going to riding in one anytime soon. But electric cars have been around, one way or another, for years. It’s just that up to now, the battery was a problem. It would only be good for so many miles and then needed a plug-in which would be okay if you happen to see an electric station much like a gas station. Now there’s a cool picture. The new electric cars seeking plug-ins at a station near you! There would be big plug-in spots. It only costs you this much to plug yourself in.

At some point, you see that this has it’s moments but in reality that will not work like you might think it should. Some people won’t like the plug’s colors. Some will not appreciate that brand of plug-in. They have to have the fancy ones across town. Costs twice as much but you get seen and that’s the important part. You know what? Someone is going to think we need drug rehab if this becomes a reality. I can see that happening….really.

So, instead of Shell, Texaco, Exxon, BP and all the others….we find ourselves at Electro City, Plug-em Up, Car Jolts, Run All Day and many more. Does any of this sound really strange to you because it certainly does to me. However, I would love to have a car like that if the price tag goes down to reasonable, which I doubt it will anytime soon. But one can dream, right? I dream about so many other things, what’s one more? Sort of like those Reese’s Cups…dream about those, why don’t ya?

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Years ago, people who did not have a lot of money usually made do with what they already had. My Dad was one such person. Learning how to save money was very important in those days because if you didn’t, you did not have the items that you needed. He grew up during the Great Depression and so learned to use what was available to make anything he wanted to use. Sometimes, the things he made looked pretty weird.

When something broke down, that did not mean what it does today….go out and buy another one. There was no such thing as “throw away” items. If you bought the thing and wanted it to work, you made it work regardless of how you did it. One day, Dad had put together some contraption that looked a good deal like one of those HDMI switches but had absolutely nothing to do with that at all. He tinkered with it for hours. I remember that because he was not about to let it get the best of him. And at the end of that time, the thing worked!!! We were always very proud of him. But the thing is, he always saved us money when he did these things. Awesome!!

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We have been married now for almost 12 years. In the beginning, I was pretty sensitive to what I got for my anniversary. You ladies understand this, right? I knew my first marriage was a bust when all I got for anniversary presents were “useful” items like vacuum cleaners and pots or pans. He never had a clue. No, I did not divorce him for that. (I am not that shallow)

My husband really did not know how much he needed to dazzle me that first year. I did not want to go through that “useful” thing again but I didn’t say a word. We didn’t have much money then (or now for that matter) so I didn’t expect him to give me much but it had to, at least, be special. It was a very pretty red rose. I was dazzled!

After that, always he gave me things that were special. But the main thing was that they were not useful. So, I was dazzled all the more. There were years that it was pretty sparse because of our finances. That was fine with me. My husband proves that he loves me each day. If it gets forgotten now, that’s not the important thing. Actually, I am the one who is more likely to forget the day than he is. I am blessed that he does not feel slighted because of that either.

But one year, we had an enormous fight right before our anniversary. We went back and forth about something; I actually do not know what right now other than he had asked me what I wanted for our anniversary. It was a fierce word battle. But the last thing I remember him yelling at me was “What did you expect, a Patek? Well, it won’t be THIS year, that’s for sure.” I simply stood there with my mouth open. I had nothing to say. That was probably a shock to him! I will not soon forget that either.

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Are you kidding? What am I going to vacation from? We live in a vacation spot. I work at home. My husband works at home. We have little stress except for bills, car repairs, the high price of gas, the high price of food and little income. What on earth could get us needing a vacation…especially if we have to PAY for it ourselves?? ACK!

Of course, we do have a place not that far away that has all sorts of attractions that we do not have right here. See, where we live, we have lakes for fishing, boating, enjoying. We have swimming pools galore for in the summer. We have lots and lots of woods for deer hunting, rabbit hunting, squirrel hunting and so on. Thing is, we do not like to do any of those things. So, our vacation would consist of other things like attractions of some type.

We do live less than 200 miles from Branson…you know, Missouri. Is there any other? They have a whole host of attractions that would be great to see like Shepherd of the Hills, all those shows and celebs that show up around there. I saw a Dolly Parton show there somewhere. Yes, I would love to go there but before I go calling the Branson real estate agents, I am going to do a lot of checking out the attractions because there are so many of them! Yes, I could use a vacation from all the bills. Sigh.

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It’s a quest. I want a laptop but sometimes the money isn’t available and sometimes it’s just not my day. All the places I look when I want to save a buck are not the right ones..trust me, they aren’t. I went to a second hand dealer of all sorts of junk. Yep, junk. What I thought was that there are treasures in those old junk stores. Guess the guy selling the laptop thought so too. His price was $150 for a laptop that must have been one of those they tried out as a proto-type. ACK!

I went to a popular site that sells the things. “How could I go wrong there?” I thought. Weeeell, there are ways. Lots of ways. For instance, do you want a laptop that actually has a power source? Then you have to add one. That costs more! Want a few more dohickies? More money. And of course, you want those extras that make things go smoothly, like a CPU. Yep, you guessed it…more money. By the time you put all that stuff on a laptop that started out at about $600, the price can be as high as $2,000. It’s not ALL the goodies but it’s really nice. Sigh.

If I go on eBay, I will find a good price…maybe…but they are not what they seem much of the time. So, I will keep on looking for that certain laptop that’s a perfect fit for me, one that has what I want for a reasonable price. What did you say? “There is no such thing as REASONABLE anymore???” Oh no! Am I doomed to sit here on a desktop pc for the rest of my life???

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