White Lightning Axiom: Redux: Vacation Day 5 (Black Friday)

Friday, November 23, 2007

Vacation Day 5 (Black Friday)

So, I caved. Big time. We actually went out on Black Friday and (GASP!) shopped. Well, more like scavenged what was not already picked clean, but we emptied our savings and bankrupted our 401k in the process. Most of the goodies were for the Mrs and I. Electronics and gadgetry galore. While we were raiding the shelves, the Granparental Pair were distracting the Tyrants in the local book stores and pet shops. The pet shops in Ithaca are fairly pathetic. Mostly fish. Absolutely no puppies. I do not disagree with the policy either. We got our ... slightly engineered hounds from a breeder. Interviews and such were involved, but we did not mention the cybernetic implants we had planned. But I digress. We shopped in the less frequented stores such as Office Max, Staples and such. Mostly us geeks trolling those stores. We did make a cameo appearance at Best Buy and fled quickly with a 12$ wireless mouse. No need in hanging about that mess ... complete and total consumerist orgy with not a single brain engaged. What money we had left was crammed into the Red Kettle Bell Ringing stations by the Tyrants. Hey, even future draconian world dictators can have a soft spot you know. Don't tell, it would totally ruin their rep.

After we exhausted the possibilities for pillage and ransacking, we stopped off at the Township library. Really nice place, honestly. I felt compelled to pick up a bit of trash in the lobby and was promptly thanked by one of the wizened denizen of the reference desk. Was it some sort of test? In a fit of civic minded generosity, I let Jovial Jake drop my last dollar in their bin, even though the place is effectively run by the UAW. Go figure. We grabbed another load of DVDs and scurried home to survey them. We made a mistake of getting one labeled 'Natures Monsters'. Jake watched, unable to turn away, with a mix of horror, disgust and fascination. Alexis, cowered off behind one of the love seats and peeked around the corner with one eye ... always prepared to either leap into battle or flee to the comfort of Gram's arms. The remaining DVDs were either educational or saccharine children's programming. I nearly went hypoglycemic previewing them. Finally, I helped Gramps string up the Christmas lights on the FOB ... only to find that there were parts of some of the 1000 meters of strings that were nonfunctional. I'll have to see if we can pick up some of the LED lights at the end of this season so we need not combat that particular Holiday Bedevilment again.