Are You Ready To Ramble?

So, here's the deal...Yesterday we (as in, Lamar and I) received an energy refund. I have had plans for this energy fund for some time. We get this refund every year in the first few weeks after the New Year, so I know it's coming all year and plot and plan how best to put these funds to good use. Now, it's less than $100 but I still have fun planning what I want to buy with that money.

For some time now, I have had my eye on a printer/copier/scanner at (the) Walmart(s). This printer has a price of $54.97. They had stacks of them to the ceiling before Christmas, yea, verily, pallets of them for sale to those who had a spare fifty-five bucks. Which I didn't.

I have two computers, one off-line and this one that I blog and surf with. This one is a Windows XP. My older, offline model is Windows 98. My copier/scanner will only work with my old computer, so I don't have one for this newer computer. In order to scan pictures and then use them on this computer, I had to scan them on the old computer, transfer them to a floppy or CD, then copy them to a file on this computer. Yeah, that gets real tiresome after the third, or, oh, sixty-leventh time.

That's also the main reason I've kept my old computer and haven't passed it on to someone who would welcome it and give it a good home. It also takes up space that I could put to good use if I could move it out of here. 'Cause I have to have it out where I can use it, ya know.

So...Me, I'm a-thinkin', this here's what I'll do: I'll buy me that there $55 printer/copier/scanner and I'll be able to move out my old computer, get a new printer/copier/scanner, and have a few dollars left over for other. OTHER covers a lot of area. I'll free up some space, have a new toy, and also be able to buy a few things that normally would be luxuries for us. Like, for instance, MEAT. Priced any of that stuff lately? You'd think it grew in pastures or pens or something!

Stay with me here, I promise I'm going somewhere with this. Really.

I rode the Senior Citizen's van to Jonesboro this morning to Walmart, my printer/copier/scanner at the top of my "To Do" list. I grabbed me a crippled, clanky buggy, just like always (!) and headed for the Electronics section, my $$ burning a hole in my genuine faux leather wallet. I hobbled as fast as I could (bad knees + arthritis + weather change = fat girl don't get around too good) to the computer accessories aisle and moseyed. I moseyed down once, I moseyed twice.....*.....Now where could my treasured $55 printer be? All that was to be seen was an empty shelf with a price and description label. By now my anticipation was beginning to turn into a bad taste in my mouth.

I limped off to find a blue-vested Electronics Associate. I implored him to PLEASE, OH, PLEASE! tell me they had some of my beloved printer/copier/scanners in the back for immediate purchase. My disappointment knew no bounds when he informed me, with not much sympathy at all, that NO, there were none in the back, and there MIGHT, MIGHT, you understand, be some on a truck that MIGHT run at midnight Friday night.

Oy vey.

The next higher priced printer/copier/scanner was a brand I don't particularly care for, and it was priced $25 higher. Not an option as far as I'm concerned.

So I passed on the computer toy for now and proceeded to buy some of those luxuries I spoke of earlier. I left without my printer/copier/scanner but I did buy one of those Feed-A-Small-Town-sized packages of ground beef, a package of frozen fritter-style chicken strips, a gallon of milk, 2 loaves of bread (one white, one wheat - for me), some Thunders and Colas for Lamar, and Diet Cokes and club sodas for me. You know, the necessities. Plus we MAY have some frozen precipitation this weekend, so we're ready now. I could have done without most of those things, but I'll sleep better knowing I have Diet Coke in the house. Now I can weather any crisis.

And there's a Mexican place just in front of Walmart that has a $4.25 lunch special. You can choose from 15 different combo meals, plus free chips and salsa. I drowned my sorrows in refried beans, a burrito and a taco, and had ice water with a wedge of fresh lemon.


Hey, while I was looking for a picture of a printer to use in this post, I found another printer/copier/scanner/fax at Walmart for $29.88! And they have 97 cent shipping, too! So I may be going that route, because I know they didn't have that model at my Walmart store. Stay tuned, this story may have a good outcome, after all....

That's the picture of it up at the top of the post, and I linked it to the Walmart site and the page it's on if anybody else is interested. Click on the picture to check it out.

That's all for now, folks. Hope you're having a great Thursday!