Rewards

After I'd posted the first month anniversary of my blog, my roommate suggested I be rewarded with something.  I'd been looking at a new chair for my front room where I could use a computer.   Most chairs were to big for the spot in mind or way to deep to sit at & use a computer comfortably.  We noticed a commercial advertising a nice little accent chair at a local chain for under a hundred bucks.  Sounded great, so off we went to Fort Smith to Furniture Factory Outlet, FFO.

There was a wholesale/resale place on the way over so I decided to stop & look to what they might have.  They didn't have what I needed but they did have a lot of good buys on new/used appliances.  I tucked that info neatly away into my swiss-cheese memory & headed out on to FFO.

I get to FFO & ask to see the chairs that they advertised on TV & in print.  They took me to one lone, ugly chair.  Not only was it hideous, it was no where near resembling the one they had shown in the commercial.  It was much wider & far more squat.  The chair they had shown on TV was narrow, like a armed slipper chair.  It had a nice reverse, camel-back apron & a roll-over back.  This chair they were now showing me was a short, squashed cube covered in what felt like burlap with a nasty print.  When I pointed it out, they told it was just the same as the chair they had in he ad.  Fed up, I left.

The van was covered in snow & road sludge, so we decided to wash the car at one of those drive thru, brush car-washes.  It was interesting.  It cleaned the van well.   So well indeed, it cleaned the antenna right off it.  

Then we headed to Big Lots & finally managed to find a chair, or several chairs.  There was a nice little u-shaped accent chair in questionable fabric, a set of shaky parsons chairs & the one I finally choose.  We opted for a normal high-backed, armed computer chair. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was something that  I could live with & could do the job.  Didn't hurt that it was half the price of the of the other options.

It was an interesting experience.  One I should've have expected.  I've never had any luck with ads from furniture stores, especially not outlet ones.  The antenna got replaced & we got out of the house for an excursion.  Seems like the Stones had it right....

First Snow

It snowed for the first time this season.  Driving on snow and ice tells you a lot about how people view life.  Some people are so afraid of the white stuff they absolutely refuse to even go out the door.  Other's race through it like maniacs speeding to their deaths.  While some of us calmly get in our cars and cautiously proceed wherever we need to go.  Icy roads like many things in life demand respect.  If you're halfway smart and respectful of your situation you can get through it.  If not you should just stay home.

It's January, so according to Lucy it's perfect snow flake catching time.  She was always my favorite Peanuts character.  Followed closely by Linus, but he needed props, so it goes to his sister.  The Van Pelt family was my fav family of the comic.  Rerun had his soliloquies of near death on his mother's bike and his deftness with handling Lucy.  Linus had his orations, philosophies & unshakable beliefs.  But Lucy, she was just Lucy; an angry, manipulative, romantic, cunning ball of fury.   She was smart but fallible.  She was the obstacle that Charlie Brown had to overcome.  Lucy Van Pelt was the Peanut's version of Coyote.   Snoopy was her nemesis like Coyote's Duck.

I know the easy character to like is Snoopy, he is funny, but he's easy.  You're supposed to like the beagle, he's Charlie Brown's funny man.  I never really care for the accepted center of any ensemble cast as much as I do for some of it's side members.  I prefer Lucy to Charlie, Niles to Fraiser, Chloe to Clark Kent, etc...

How did I go from driving on snow to second tier characters from comics and television?  Easy, how you drive in the snow, who you like in a show, what you eat first on a plate, these may all be little things but they speak volumes about you and what type of person you are at heart.  Keep that in mind, you never know what your giving away to someone actually pays attention to these things.