Black Friday has come and gone. The retailers started Black Friday sales early this year and extended them later. Mike has wanted a 75" TV for a very long time. He isn't very patient and it's hard for him to wait for things when he's worked hard all his life and been able to buy pretty much anything he's ever wanted, whenever he's wanted it. Every time we went into Best Buy, or Wal Mart, or Sam's Club, Mike would check out the TVs and all summer long he's watched the 75" TVs come down in price. Finally, they got to a place where he thought we could afford to buy one.
"Let's wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday," I suggested. "Maybe they'll be even cheaper."
November 18, almost two weeks before Black Friday, the deals started to roll out and Mike found his love on the Sam's Club website. A 75" Samsung TV for a good price and he ordered it. The TV's way too big to fit in our Jeep and Big Red, Mike's big red truck, is sitting in the barn with a load of stone in the back. Yeah, we could unload it and get the truck out but since it was free shipping we just went that route. A few days later Wal Mart had the same TV on its website for $106 less. Mike called Sam's Club and after they checked to make sure it was the exact same TV, they refunded him that amount. That made Mike's deal all the sweeter. All we had to do now as wait until November 27, the estimated date of delivery.
Mike tracked it online and his TV was sitting in Scranton, less than 50 miles away. He waited anxiously for the phone call setting up delivery of his baby. November 27th came and went. Thanksgiving came and went. At the end of the week, Mike called Sam's Club. "Because of its size we had to use a freight carrier instead of UPS and it can take up to 14 days," he was told.
Mike went back to waiting. He waited and waited some more. Then the phone calls began. Mike called the carrier. "You'll get a phone call when they put it on the truck to be delivered," they told him. "We actually deliver a lot of fright to Wyalusing," they told him.
"I bet that's not true," Mike told me later. "They probably don't have anything else to come up here and they don't want to make the trip for just my TV."
Mike made at least four more phone calls to Sam's Club in the coming days, complaining that his TV is right down the road and "...what's the problem? Why won't the carrier deliver my TV?"
Sam's Club told him that once the TV was turned over to the shipper, they really had no control over it.
"I could refund your money," they offered. "But chances are you'll run into the same problem with shipping again."
The same TV would cost $800 dollars more if we had to reorder it so that wasn't going to work for us.
"Can't you issue another TV, have it sent to the Wal Mart in Tunkhannock and we'll pick it up there?" I asked. "Then you can worry about getting your TV back from the carrier."
"It's an online deal only and doesn't qualify for in-store pickup."
I didn't know that so we couldn't have picked it up anyway.
"We've got so much time invested in this TV we might just as well wait," I consoled Mike. "And it's not like we don't have a TV to watch in the meantime."
Finally! Almost a month after Mike ordered his dream TV, we got the call. "We'll be there Wednesday morning."
And Wednesday morning, they were there.
The guys put the TV in the house for us and we opened it up. Now that's a big ol' honkin' TV, let me tell ya!
"Let's let it warm up before we plug it in," Mike said.
With today's smart TV's, set up was a breeze. We just plugged it in and it found all of our over-the-air stations, it found the Wi-Fi, and it responds to voice commands. It'll change channels for you, find movies, or enter the setup mode.
The 55" TV that used to be in the living room went to the bedroom. The 47" that used to be in the bedroom replaced the 22" in the kitchen. And my clock had to find a new home — but Mike is happy. This is a home where someone loves TV.
Mark's Valley View is a local restaurant where Mike and I have been going for breakfast, usually once a week. We time it so his buddies will be coming in just about the time we're ready to leave, that way he can visit with them for a little while without the danger of any of them picking up our check. Yeah. Another story for another day.
Since we travel this stretch of road fairly often, I take less and less pictures. I had my camera with me but didn't have it at the ready — and I missed a shot of a hawk. I expect to see them sitting on a tree branch, hunting, but this one must have just gotten something because he was sitting in a clearing on the hillside, looking around. In my mind's eye, I can see a field mouse or rabbit clenched in his talons. It would have made a beautiful shot, but I always think that of the shots I miss.
We made a trip to Athens for a little shopping. We didn't really need anything, other than to get out of the house for a while. This is a route we've traveled many times too and again, I find I take less and less pictures. But this day I determined to take pictures for you. And I had my camera ready for whatever grabs my fancy. "I sure hope I see a hawk," I told Mike, thinking of the shot I missed.
I don't need anything but I still like to look around the Rainbow Thrift store. Everything in there is really cheap and I like to look for a new dress for going to church or a new exercise video for my ladies exercise class.
I didn't find a new dress or exercise video but I found a bag of Lego's for my Lego-lovin' grandson.
And I scored three box sets of 007 James Bond, Ultimate Edition DVDs. There are five movies in each one plus a bonus DVD. I don't know about you, but I love James Bond — and won't he look fabulous on a 75" screen!
This is the Towanda Motel. Not a great picture and someday I may try for a better shot, but this is where my mother and father spent their honeymoon.
And I did see a hawk. "Not the way I wanted to see one," I told Mike. These guys normally get hit because they're diving after prey.
At home, I manage to stay busy. This week I made a couple of glass projects. I made a Christmas tree that sits rather than hangs. I don't do a lot like this and my base needs a little work.
I made this little baby boy for my daughter-in-law's twin, Krysten.
She had a baby boy on November 19 and named him Briar. He's such a beautiful baby, don't you think?
Mike's enjoying feeding the deer and it hasn't taken them long to figure out his feeding schedule. They start showing in the afternoon, sometimes before he's put the food out.
We have one doe that as soon as Mike turns his back to head back in the house, she runs for the food. It's so funny to see.
"After a while they'll come right up when you're still out there putting the food down," I told him.
The Agway store in Dushore is the cheapest place we found to buy shell corn for the deer and we made a trip over to pick up a couple more bags. I took pictures for you.
The little town of New Albany lost their library in the flood a couple of months ago. Now I see they have a small book exchange set up so the people who read still have access to books until they rebuild.
Someone likes Christmas, or at least, blowup Christmas decorations.
Mike was having breakfast with his cronies one Sunday a couple of months back, when Mark, the owner, passed out a sample of that day's lunch special, pot roast. "It was really good!" Mike told me. "But he only makes it every six weeks or so. Can we go the next time he has it on special?"
Like he has to ask me. I'm always up for a meal out. "Sure."
This past Sunday pot roast was on the menu and Mike and I went for lunch. We were served a nice big helping of pot roast, boiled potatoes, and baby carrots. It was good but too much. I brought about half of mine home. We'd finished our meal by the time this elderly couple was served their plates. I sipped my coffee and watched as she buttered his roll for him.
"I'm not the only one who butters the roll for her husband," I told Mike and nodded to the couple across from us. Then she reached for his fork, gently slipped it from his hand, pulled his plate a little closer, and cut his meat for him.
We were heading out and I stopped by their table. I touched his arm to get his attention. "Aww, she loves you! She butters your roll for you and cuts your meat..."
"We've been married for 73 years," he proudly tells me.
"Oh my gosh! What does it take to stay married that long?"
"Patience," she replied. "And a lot of give and take."
Mike spoke to the woman, "Yeah, you give and he takes, right?" he joked.
She laughed and agreed. Then she let us in on the real reason she prepares his food. "He has macular degeneration and can't see very well."
We didn't keep them from their food any longer, bid them a good day and left.
Speaking of food, I made Spicy Ranch Crackers this past week. I made them five or six years ago using saltines but I didn't like them then — the red pepper flakes made them a little hot.
I don't know when things changed for me but they did. I had the leftover red pepper flakes living in my spice cabinet, untouched all these years, until one day, when we were having pizza for dinner, I spotted them.
Angie, ex-wife to my oldest son, holds a special place in my heart. Mike and I had taken Chris and Angie for pizza early on in their marriage and Angie put red pepper flakes on her pizza. "Why would you ruin your pizza like that?" I asked.
Well, Angie didn't think it ruined anything. "I like it," she told me, not flustered at all by my... rudeness? Bluntness?
On a whim, and thinking of Angie, I sprinkled a few red pepper flakes on my pizza that day — and I liked it! From then on my addiction has grown and I use a lot more flakes now than I did when I first started sprinkling them on, and she's right, it doesn't ruin it, it makes it better!
Aldi's carries a brand of oyster crackers that I just love. I can sit and eat a bag just like most people eat potato chips and I don't need anything on them. But I got to thinking about the Spicy Ranch Crackers and decided that since I now loved red peppers, I'd like to make the crackers again — and use my oyster crackers. They were good and nice for a change, but I don't think I'll make them again any time soon. I just don't need the extra calories the oil adds.
Even though this is such a little, trivial thing, you just never know when you'll touch someone else's life.
There are only two pictures left in this week's folder. Macchiato, sitting on the stump outside the kitchen, watching the deer forage for dropped seeds under the bird feeder.
And a milkweed pod.
Let's call this one done!
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