Sears = USPS?

It's an anagram - if you rearrange the letters to the venerable retailer, you get USPS.

OK, obviously not.  But, based on my experience, they do have a lot in common.

Owing to frustration with a string trimmer (I've replaced the carb, and rebuilt it twice), I've been looking for a dedicated edger, mainly on Craigslist.  I like the McLane,  as well as some of the Craftsman models.  Unfortunately, I haven't found just what I'm looking for.

So recently on lunch I decided to go to a Sears Outlet that features power lawn & garden tools.  No edgers on display, but a clerk asks if he can help.

"Sure, looking for a gas edger - not the string trimmer kind."

"Oh, we just got a couple in.  Let me check."

After five minutes he returns with a dolly and a NIB edger, no visible transit damage.  He opens the box, and it's pretty much what I'm looking for.  158cc B&S 550 engine, four wheels, trenching option (for burying LV cable, I suppose).  (Digression: I've taken the Myers-Briggs & Stratton test probably close to a dozen times and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.)

"How much is it?" I ask.  He looks at me as though the question caught him by surprise.

For the next ten or twelve minutes, the clerk, another clerk, and their supervisor (who really could've been mistaken for a postal employee) try to find a price for this boxed and labeled piece of equipment.  Actually I think their data connection failed when the telephone handset broke in two trying to insert it into the 150 baud modem acoustic coupler.  Finally, they announced a price, clarifying that it was in dollars.  Dang, all I had on me were yuan!

It didn't seem out of line, but since I wanted to check it vis-à-vis the regular retail store price (turns out it's about $80 less), I thanked the clerk and returned to work.

While the crack staff were summoning the pricing wizards, I'd spent some time walking around the showroom, checking out this and that power tool.  As a little kid, many hours were spent in Sears stores, which in those days were bustling places. Later, I can recall shopping at the Sears outlets in Grand Prairie, Hampton & Illinois in Dallas, and on Denton Highway in Haltom City, and back in the day you could score some reasonably good bargains on scratch-n-dent or refurb merchandise.  But today's SR & Co. seems to have the same mindset as Radio Shack ("You've got questions - we've got blank expressions!"), offering unremarkable goods at a slight premium, coupled with uninspired service.  With todays category-killer big box stores, as well as online retailers, it amounts to, as the Wharton MBAs say: a lose-lose proposition.

So, at this point I think I'll pursue a Craigslist entry - after all, the guy already has a price in mind.

Summer Series - Guest Pastor

Eric Bryant from Gateway Church in Austin delivers this week's message, reminding us that it's not what we get out of Church, but how we show the world His love.

Also, it's OK to note that some of the best pastors have no hair.


Summer Series - Loving Unlikeable People from Keystone Church on Vimeo.

Déjà Vu...yet again

OK, this is getting weird.   A couple of weeks ago, I started listening to the CD changer in the car (yeah, I don't have a 6 terabyte flash drive jukebox - yet).

One aftertoon, as I walked from my office building across the parking lot, I found myself humming: "La la la la la la la la / la la la la la la la".  I clicked the door unlock, got in the car, and turned the key.

The engine started, the stereo cranked up: "Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming / we're finally on our own...", perfectly synchro-meshed with the soundtrack that'd been running in my head just moments earlier.

"Man, that's weird!", I thought¹, before reasoning that my subconscious (which is way smarter than me, by the way, and better looking) self had simply picked up the mental soundtrack where it'd left off when I parked that morning.

Fair enough.

I'd been searching for a scope base for a poodle-shooter I'm upgrading, so I drove to the Hallowed Place - Cabela's - to see if they had the model I sought.  Two or three more songs had played from the CD since I'd left the office.   I found a space and parked the car.

Looking to the right, this is what I saw:

Touché.  By now, I'm thinking "There's some really cool karma going on here."  And I began to plan how to journalize this on my blog, if for no other reason than to one-up my friend Todd the Blogger by spinning a thin premise into a long tale.

But the truck graphic also made me ponder "Maybe Combat Kevin or Her Majesty actually know the folks out at Crazy Horse Ranch, and maybe there's fewer degrees of Kevin Bacon than previously theorized."  I snapped the picture with my phone camera and commenced shopping.  And after not finding what I was looking for in Valhalla (later special-ordered from CheaperThanDirt), I pretty much forgot the episode, figuratively gathering dust behind some LP records and open reel [Maxell] tapes in the cobwebs of my mind.

Until today.

Firing up the Commodore 64 after work, I adjusted the cat's whisker to tune into the Blogadelphia frequency and today's post.   Then I clicked on the link on the last line.

Doo-doo, doo-doo / doo-doo, doo-doo.

I bet any minute Allen Funt is gonna walk up to me...and rip off his [latex] face...to reveal Rod Serling!

¹ Yes, I often think in italics.  It helps clear the mind.

Motörhead

Not really, but for fans of Top Gear, here's:

Sale!

Two bundles for $3.00.  Only at RaceTrac.

Get yours for the upcoming cold June nights in Texas...

Pray for me

I recently noted that I'd begun setting aside Saturday mornings for domestic work (I am seriously domestic-challenged), after a lengthy [20+ years] hiatus.

Now comes news that shakes me to my core.

I knew those devices were dangerous.

But with enough of Sienna's cast-off fur lying around to spin into wool parkas for an Arctic expedition team, I had to bite the bullet and fire up the Hoover.



I just hope I don't incur $400M in damages - my MasterCard doesn't go that high.

Wonder if they make Nair for dogs?

Edit: I replaced the image because the URL shown on the other image was possibly causing issues.

Darlin' is he gone?

An old song by Ry Cooder, with a kind of Zydeco feel:



And the more accessible version that I've known for about 35+ years¹:



¹For those who track vital statistics, at least two of the musicians in the Ronstadt vid are now playing underground concerts: Kenny Edwards (bass) and Andrew Gold.  Sharp eyes will of course note guitarist Robert "Waddy" Wachtel on slide, not dead, who has for many years been bandleader for Stephanie Lynn Nicks.