Surprise, surprise, the Miata wasn’t ready. I called at 3:30 to see if I could return the Taurus and pick up my car. I was told, “I have a man working on it. We hope to have it ready for you tomorrow.” I almost believed him.
When we first moved to Aiken in 1989 to shop in an enclosed mall you had to drive to Augusta, but they were building one here that did open a couple years later. It took more than ten years past that to get the mainstay of mall-dom, GAP, to open up a store in it.
When they did open the store did a huge business, but it trailed of rather quickly. Last year after maybe 3 years of doing business they shut the doors. Don’t worry they told us, we are going to remodel and open up as a GAP Outlet. The “outlet” has been open for a few months and they really most have expected a huge swing in shoppers. There is one central cashier station at the back of the store and they have the nylon strap equivalent of velvet ropes in front of it that is two 15′ sections folded on each other, probably hold a dozen shoppers.
Admititly it was a Tuesday, but Donna and I plus another couple were the only shoppers in the store. We were outnumbered 3 to 1 by sales associates who mostly stood around behind the cashier’s station loudly trying to one up each other with retail job interview stories. Maybe the Saturday before Christmas they might get a dozen shoppers in the whole store, never mind checking out at the same time.
Donna and I went to the local mall and did some shopping, a couple of shirts and a denim skirt for her, no action figures for me. After we were done in the mall she had one more thing she wanted to buy some place else, an ice cream cone. As we left J.C. Penny’s we noticed a ’95 M Edition Miata, that pretty Merlot color with the BBS mesh wheels, right near the entrance with its top down. Inside was a woman talking on her cell phone. I guess she wanted to finish her conversation while her driver was inside shopping. We walked all the the way out to the far end of the lot and got in our car, as we pulled out of the lot I could see that she was still on the phone.
A mile or so down the road we stopped to get that treat. The girl made a cone for Donna and filled a cup for me, then we went back outside, wandered over to a picnic table and sat down. A couple minutes later, what should pull into the ice cream shop’s parking area, but that same Miata. The woman was still talking on her cell phone. They parked and the man driving slowly walked around the back of the car giving the woman a few seconds to get out. When she didn’t, he opened the door then reached in and undid her seat belt all the while she is talking. At first I thought because of the way he was helping her she might be handicapped, but no, she finally stood on her own power and sauntered over towards the shop yakking away while he closed the door behind her. He managed to get half her attention with a question to which she nodded back at him. He headed into the store while she tried out a couple chairs looking for just the right one all the while with her cell phone glued to her ear.
A couple minutes later the man returned with what looked like two small sundaes. He placed hers down on the the arm of the chair she was in, sat down and started to enjoy his ice cream. At one point I think she braced the phone between shoulder and cheek to sneak a spoonful, but maybe not. By now Donna and I were finished, so we walked back to our car which took us right by the couple. As we passed I could see her sundae was untouched and his was half gone. When we got by, I asked Donna should I give him an MMC newsletter. She just shook her head no.
I started our Miata and he looked over, recognizing the sound perhaps, and gave us a thumbs up sign. I responded with a friendly wave and backed out of the spot. As we turned right out of the lot onto the main road, he was still looking and she was still talking on the cell phone. Maybe I should have given him the newsletter, because it seems like he could use some company that might actually involve him in the conversation.
We went out this evening to buy a few things, I needed some new tan work socks and some quarter high sneaker socks. Donna wanted a couple of bits of garden art to replace her rapidly deteriorating 3 wooden flower flairs and some bird seed to fill up the feeders in the backyard. We figured our best bet to get all the items we needed was Target. First we went to the guys section for my socks and then headed across the back of the store to the garden section. We just happened to pass right by the toy section…
We did manage to get some bird seed, but we will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday for the garden art. Target’s selection was slim to the point of being threadbare, so a trip to Lowes and Home Depot is called for.
How are we going to pay for all this shopping we are doing you ask, here is how, I’ll sell my domain name. According to LeapFish, mr-miata.net is worth a base value of $291, but its estimated actual value is $14,114. Try it and see how big an internet magnate you might be: LeapFish.com.
Sat down in front of the computer last night to listen to the ballgame only to find out the FRS had the night off for a travel day. They must be riding their bicycles to need a day to get from Baltimore to Phillidelphia… So I thought I might listen to the Rangers and Yankees game and root for Texas, but that was an afternoon game, so it was long over. So I left the computer and picked up a book. Forgot all about blogging until just as we were climbing into bed my wife asked, “How come you didn’t blog tonight?” (She reads nightly to see if anything interesting happened to me when she wasn’t looking.)
For Thurday:
Captain Jack Sparrow came to work with me on Monday. Posing is limited and standing on its own is hampered by the built-in sword slashing action mechanism, but this doll action figure is not too bad for eight bucks. Definitely not McFarlane caliber, but he wasn’t making them…
Jack couldn’t stand up too well on his own to begin with, but with the angle of the monitor top it became near impossible. I decided to get him some help, a little double stick tape to plant his feet on and everything was just fine.
When I came in this morning Jack was flat on his back. Apparently drank too much rum on Monday night. Or I need some better double stick tape.
From the trailer to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest due in theaters July 7th.
Elizabeth Swann: There will come a moment when you have the chance to do the right thing.
Jack Sparrow: I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.
The merchandising is already starting to crank up. We were in Target the other night looking for a swim cap for Donna. She wanted to go to our health club and swim in the pool and didn’t want to frighten any other swimmers with her recently shorn pate. We found a couple different ones to choose from and opted for the more expensive silicone one over the vinyl. Right next to the sporting goods was the toy section where the end of one aisle was loaded with boxes full of “Talking Mr. Cotton’s Parrots” and skull & crossbones alarm clocks. I wandered further down the aisle and found some TDPM II action figures. There was a sword slashing Jack Sparrow that I just had to have, it was destiny, Cap’t Jack was $7.99, exactly what the swim cap cost…
In other movie news: This September you will be able to step back to 1977 and relive the greatest movie of all time the way it was presented back then. That’s right, just in time for winter solstice gift giving season, the Star Wars Trilogy as they were originally run in the movie theaters arrive as “bonus” material on 2-disc DVD sets of each title.