So we got about 24 inches of snow Friday and Saturday. It was something I dreamed of when I was younger. I think we got that kind of snowfall once when I was in school. We had two days off and I spent two days shoveling. I never got to enjoy it fully.
We just got a new tv. We were borrowing a television. It was a 26″ CRT tv. Last summer it started giving us trouble. We would turn it on and get just a horizontal line. Hititng the side of the tv did the trick. But as time went on, we had to hit it harder and more often. Eventually, I had to open up the back of the tv to look inside. When I pulled out the circuit board a half an inch, the picture came up. So, for a few months, we watched tv with the back half on, moving the cover front and back a little to get a picture. It just got worse and worse. It may only need a vertical deflector unit, but decided I had had enough. So we ordered a new flat screen tv from amazon for a great price, no tax, and no shipping.
So now I want a blu-ray player to take full advantage of the 1080p. I found one online (amazon again) for $76 off retail, the cheapest price by far of any other retailer. It upconverts regular dvds to 1080p, and plays CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-R, and DVD-RW in addition to blu-ray discs. Well, if you know me, you know I’m cheap and frugal. I could not just purchase this player because of numerous
budgetary reasons. So, I got creative. I sold a juicer I had bought back in college on craigslist last week - 25% closer to the blu-ray player. Then the mid-Atlantic storm was forecasted. So I borrowed a shovel from a friend and waited for the storm to hit. Saturday morning I went out, triple layered as the snow continued to fall (only 2 more inches would end up falling on Saturday after I went out), and went door-to-door in the nearby neighborhood asking if people wanted their snow shoveled. 3 houses and $85 dollars later, I went home exhausted and happy. I got a great workout in, and made money. I then ordered the blu-ray player with no bad feelings or regrets, but a sense of encouragment.
One guy actually told me to come back the next day and he would have more work for me to do. He must have thought I was poor. I had wind pants on over my jeans and the wind pants had holes in them. My cap was wet, old, and holey. And my jacket was soaking wet, which made it look even older than the 11 years it already is. I looked the part of the guys that hang out at certain areas around here, especially Home Depot, looking for work. The lesson from this experience is if my company continues to lose business and I get let go, I will have no problem finding some work to do around here. No matter how humbling it may be, I really get joy from hard physical labor.
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Raging Kitty