The Aerie
Since picking up this downtown contract one of my to-do's has been to put saddlebags on my bike so that I could ride to and from work with my laptop. Unfortunately that was going to take about $100 I didn't have (at least for new -- I hadn't gotten around to looking into used equipment yet).
Also, I recently managed to lose the VCR remote control. I think I was the last person to use it, but I have no idea where it is now.
So the other day my kids' school has a garage sale.
You see, ongoing Republican efforts to completely dismantle the public school system have resulted in my kids school being so short of cash that they're having to discontinue practically everything. Band. Gifted programs. Recess. Everything. Teachers with more than five years of tenure are being laid off, class sizes are going way way up. It's a wet dream for the ideologues, thugs and morons who run this state.
[Rant off]
Anyway the garage sale was to raise funds to simply help balance the books, and it was stocked with donations from all sorts of people in the community.
My youngest had walked through the sale before it was underway and spotted something he just had to have: a Star Wars lightsaber. Well, actually just the handle: apparently even the Bush-diluted FTC recognized that letting children play with superheated plasma rods wouldn't fly with the voters. At least not middle class children. Anyway, despite the fact that our basement is choked with similar toys, he wanted this one. So we stopped by the sale.
He got his toy, and I was wandering around when I saw a backpack in a silent auction. It was a laptop backpack, specifically designed for exactly what I needed. Nonplussed, I walked over to the bidding sheet. $30, $5 bid increments. Okay, well then. I signed up at $35.
Suddenly the school principal stepped in front of me and took down the sign.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh, the bidding just ended."
"It did?"
A couple of minutes later I wrote the check and took the bag.
So the boy and I get home and he shows me his light saber: it's arrayed with recessed buttons.
It's a universal remote.
I went to the Internet, located and printed out the instruction manual, and lo and behold, it worked. It was exactly what I needed.
While I was on the Internet, I looked up the backpack. I got it for about 20% of its cost. Like new.
And since they don't make them anymore, the only way I could have gotten one was used.
Exactly what I needed. And like the light saber remote, like the new contract, entirely out of the blue.