The Economics of Returning Items to the Store

Tonight, I have two options, either remain sitted and watch the second re-run in a row of Hawaii Five-O in as many weeks, gads, or run to Long's (CVS) to return an unopened package of glue that I don't need because I have a half-used tube of glue lying around. The tube of glue cost $4 which ain't a huge amount by any standards, but nowadays I gauge the cost and urgency of any item that's borderline essential to what a gallon of gasoline cost. That is, if a given item cost around a gallon of gas, then would it be more prudent to refrain from buying the item and save the money to purchase gasoline. In this instance, it's a matter of returning an item. I use to not do this. Instead, I just stored away a redundant item I just bought from the store on the contingency that I might need it in the future. Well, the future arrived sooner than I thought that it would, but arrive it did, but solely in the sense that I accumulated so many unused items that I ran into storage issues, that is, I lost track of where I stored away a given item under a mountain of similar items that seem to all blend into each other. However, returning unneeded items to the store seldom proves cost effective, since you tend to end up purchasing random items that you absolutely have to have for some reason or the other. True, if I won the lottery tommorrow, or for that matter, the day after, all this pinching pennies would have amounted to a moot issue. But rumor has it that even winning a mega lottery works out to be a net lost too in the end. Yet in the back of our minds we prepare for the day. The day we win the lottery. How do you possibly prepare for this eventuality? Why you plan ahead where you'll gonna move to permanently with a new identity.

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Some kid in the building forgot their shoes or slippers and a passerby stuffed it behind a bench in a hallway that residents pass on their way to the elevator.

Saturday Dis' plus Dat'

At the moment, if I buy another $4.oo more of merchandise then I'm into 'Free Shipping' at Amazon which applies to orders totaling over $25. The shipping cost is $10 for both or for even one of the items below. A roll of chrome tape and an LED headlight. Easy enough. I'll buy some rechargeable batteries and that should easily exceed $25. Well, not so easy. Apparently there are items on Amazon which are sold and shipped by Amazon. Then there are items advertised on Amazon that are sold and handled offsite by vendors or manufacturers themselves and the cost of those items don't count for the $25 free shipping bonus round. Unfortunately rechargeable batteries fall in the 'doesn't count' category. For the life of me, I can't think of anything I need badly. Neither do I want to pay the $10 shipping so this might take a while. It strikes me that the Amazon strategy is that while you're looking for something else to buy, in my case, $4 more, Mr. customer might end up purchasing something worth $60 or $600 while confined to the premises esentially upgrading from economy class to first class and so forth. At the very least 'seeing' other wish list items to dream about.

Wordless Friday

More Wet Weather

A second front of bad weather has made it's way over the islands and suppost to last into the weekend. Lawns will get watered and houses will get flooded and traffic will be a nightmare and the ducks will be happy but for the people who aren't able to stop by and feed them due to the fowl weather. Yesterday I found that water had seeped into my walk-in locker room downstairs. Just a thin layer of water but then anything on the floor wicked up the water. So I took everything out of the locker and allowed the room to dry. It's the putting back that's the larger challenge. I've done this before. However I didn't want mold to take hold. I've heard inhaling the spores can make you sick. Stood guard over my possesions while letting the room air out because in an apartment building it's not very wise to leave things unattended for too long a time otherwise they disappear. It's not usually a fellow tenant pulling off the heist, but 'friends' of tenants that might just happen to drop by at the most opportune time and take home some soveniers. What are friends for after all. Wiped the concrete floor dry with a rag because I couldn't catch the elevator upstairs to fetch a mop unlike living in a house. Then the putting everything back ritual commenced for the upteenth time. Is this a reflection on how juxataposed items in my brain is organized too over the years because if it is, than, than, I have to do something about it. Yea, all righty. I have this PC Tools Registry Mechanic on my computer now which I signed up for during an update for Adobe Software. The darn thing erases the last places I've visited on the tabs of a browser so you have to start over again when you re-open the browser after you've closed the browser. It's starting to get irritating. I'm sure there's a way to adjust the settings on the Registry Mechanic but I haven't reached a stage that I've been that irritated yet.

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I purchased an item from an Internet retailer that operates out of his garage, and the Email confirmation had a tracking number on it. When I clicked on the tracking link I found that Stamps.com provides the tracking service.

Possibly the Wettest Day of the Year

It is a fine day to be a duck on the Ala Wai canal. The kind of day that makes you wish you were a duck in the sense that they don't get phased at all and the torrential downpour won't disrupt their schedule. The fairways on the Ala Wai golf course are innuldated with duck ponds. The entire golf course is soon to be one big duck pond. Other than that, it's a wet wet day.

Of Ominous Weather and Garlic

"Flooding expected," that's what the weatherman said. During a break in the drizzle I rode to the store with my convertible the kind without a top nor windshield wipers. That was about 5pm and it was already dark for that time of the day. At the checkout the one customer in front of me had this strong aroma probably garlic. And by strong, I mean it repels you back like struck by an invisible force field and makes you gasp for oxygen. So I stood as far back as humanely possible with my items already on the conveyor belt, and since I was the very next customer in line, the rest of the checkout conveyor belt was empty. Looked behind me and fortunately no customers so I didn't have to move up to keep in step with the conveyor belt. Then 2 customers did pick the hazardous gas zone checkout counter but then they didn't know whether to place their items on the conveyor belt because I was standing so far back that they would need to intrude into my air space if they did. They looked a bit puzzled. I don't blame them. But enter at your own risk. I'm but the sentinel minding my post. Fortunately the customer only bought 2 six-packs of beer. However Mr. Aroma started paying in cash. The cashier decided to recount the dollar bills leafing through each paper bill methodically. Never mind me. Time is of essense, so to speak. Or not to speak, for who could possibly find words to utter at those moments.

As I already mentioned my convertible doesn't have a top. So at home immediately put some saimin on the stove. Slipped on a dry t-shirt. Turned on the room size heater to it's highest setting. If you haven't noticed yourself we've had a flue free season so far this winter and I'd like to keep it so. It's thunder and lighting as we speak. And you would think Hawaii Five-O would not be a rerun tonight of all nights in view of the weather. Alas, it's indeed a rerun. I'll never watch that shoe again. I think the producers heard me above the thunder and lighting pretending I'm King Lear. It's not like they're broadcasting the show live and the wet night's weather pre-empted the live show like a football game.

Guess Prices

The other night on Fox News channel the host predicted that gas prices would hit $4.25 a gallon in April based on the recent trajectory. By the looks of things (pic above), it's already April in Honolulu.

Oh, Fox News is indeed a political wing of the Republican Party, no argument about that. However, the reason that I tune into Fox is that the newscasters are the best in the business. Unfortunately, they're all under team orders to bad mouth Obama. Glenn Beck went beyond the lunatic fringe. Either a program begins right off the bat denouncing the Obama administration or they'll plug a criticism du jour later on in the script.

However, Fox women anchors are as professional as there is for their gender. CNN has stellar male anchors but 99.9 percent of the CNN women are bimbos. They project a tabloid demeaner alike the hosts on The Insider or some other celebrity gossip tv program inconducive to reporting worldly events even though news can and is frequently funny but the newsroom is an environment where disasters and tragedies can intervene on a moment's notice. Then what do you do, switch instantanteously from smiling like a laughing haena to a somber face. That trademark smirk that CNN girls have on their faces looks so natural that it must have been done by the very best plastic surgeons. When the CNN women anchors deliver the tease, that's the 'after our commercial break, we'll be back with this or that particular news item that you couldn't live without,' their smirk rises to the forehead. Sheesh, there's a way to deliver a tease and there's a way not to. Fox girls are straight faced anchors in comparison and they pitch the tease on the right note.

All this might effect me more because in my neck of the woods the local news is the official stage for vaudville reporters. With the exception of a few and far between namely Joe Moore on the local Fox affliate. I don't watch Joe Moore. Met him. Like him. But I don't watch Joe. However Joe has perennially the highest rated local news tv program and he accomplishes this without a co-anchor at his side. No secret forumla, he simply refrains from going overboard with da horseplay. The competing stations have brought in new anchors and renovated their newsroom sets but it hasn't even put a dent in Joe's ratings.

Anyways, getting back to where I was, I was watching Fox News and the hosts were reporting with tears streaming down their cheeks indeed how sad a day it is that that GM is haulting all production of their Volt, the electric car, due to lack of sales. Then they delivered the punchline. Paraphrasing, "This is the same Volt that President Obama last year glowingly touted as an example of the benefits of subsidizing green energy products." The point being that the market failure of the Volt demonstrates how poor Obama's judgement is and impeaches his legitimacy at the helm. Then of course they tossed in the Solyndra bankruptcy, the defunct solar panel manufacturer. Again, the hosts on Fox News are bound and gagged by team orders to denouce Obama with anything they can scrap up and toss at the oval office. They probably score bonuses if the president's latest job rating poll numbers drops. If there's an accolade due Obama, they'll shelve that positive news.

Friday's Pics and Lack Thereof

Either this is the height of laziness or gasoline is cheap, the admiral owns a gasoline station downstream on the Ala Wai canal. Am I wrong but there is a paddle velcroed to the port side of the plastic kayak. Alrighty, the paddle is just for emergencies stationed idlely like lifeboats winched up on the sides of a luxury liner, knock on teak, never to be used. I've stated previously whether people are jogging, trotting, lifting weights on the banks of the Ala Wai canal or paddling canoe practice on the Ala Wai, whatever the activity, it's beneficial for residents living along the Ala Wai and drivers driving by. It's beneficial in the sense that it inspires onlookers to get off their lazy buttocks and do some sort of physical exercise themselves. Left buttocks that bounce independently of the right buttocks to boot. Participate not partake. Partake is reserved for the other 'E' word. Mahalo, Kay. The physical activity rubs off in the same way blogging about physical exercise tends to rub off on the minds of your readers. It encourages them to exercise. Too. Not all. But more than a few.

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Death of a camera. I dropped my trusty 4-megapixel camera yesterday and now all I get is a white screen when I turn it on. I have tried to revive it by of course the time tested method of turning it off-and-on but the magic didn't materialize on this occasion. About 99.9 percent of the pics I've posted on this blog have been recorded with the 4-mega pixel camera. I do own a Powershot SX20 camera but it's too bulky to lug around town to take random pics. Funny thing about the incident, dropping the camera, that is, for the past week or two I was thinking about where the ever did I 'hide' the case for the camera. Almost like a horiscope, fore told. But who pays attention to horiscopes. You read another horiscope authored by a different horiscoper and it's a different prediction for the same day. Alas, this thought horiscope was right on the money.