A Christmas Miracle

I will often go into a store just to see what kind of merchandise they carry. More often than not, I have no need of what they make or sell, but it’s always nice to know where I might find some doodad that I might need sometime in the future. Often, that doodad will help me figure out how to finish a project I am working on. Sometimes I go into a store with a particular item in mind and when I find myself in the store, I have no idea what I came in for. Oh well, there is always tomorrow…

Today I found myself in standing in Rona wondering what I was doing there. They have a pretty good selection of Christmas paraphernalia and it’s always fun to look at the things I have no room for or things I have no intention of buying. Once they had seven foot tall nut crackers. They were awesome! If I had several thousand bucks and a huge storage facility I would have bought two sets, but I would also need a house that wouldn’t be dwarfed by these nut cracking soldiers. Besides, where would I find nuts that big?

 

I’m not really a big fan of Elvis decorations, but I am sure there are many who love that kind of thing. I like to look at the miniature village buildings and fantasize about being able to set the whole thing up every year. Some of the buildings are just amazing. I will also look at the different artificial trees that they have. Louise and I have a tree that is past it’s best before date, but it is hard to justify spending a couple of hundred to save myself the effort of wrapping a string or two of lights around a tree. Maybe next year…

I was looking at this really cool system of turning your tree lights on. There is some kind of remote that you plug into the wall and a little brass angel that hangs on the tree. If you want to turn the lights on or off, you just touch the angel. Pretty cool eh? While I was reading the back of the remote, I overheard a sales associate telling a customer that they only had the green bulbs, no red. They were looking at the old style outdoor bulbs and I could sympathize with the guy, more of the green are no damned good if the burnt out bulb is red. That throws the whole string out.

 

I stepped up to them and said “I hope you don’t mind, but I know where you can get red light bulbs, but I hate to take a sale away from Rona.” The sales guy said that the customer getting what he needs is the most important thing. I told him that at the second hand store across the street, they have a bin of assorted loose bulbs, or you could just buy one of the many strings of lights they have just for the red bulbs. The guy thanked me, thanked the salesman and went on his way, I suppose across the street.

The sales guy smiled and asked me if he could help me. I asked him if they had bulb testers. He said that they did have them but were sold out. Sorry! This guy that was walking by told us that I could find the testers at Lowes. He grinned and said “I guess it’s not Rona’s day.” I thanked him and told the sales guy that I would be back and maybe I can buy something then.

It occurred to me that everyone got what they wanted. Someone would get red bulbs, someone would get a bulb tester and someone got satisfied customers. A Christmas miracle? Nah!