Shopping

We went shopping in Huntsville this morning. I was telling Jess on the way down that's just one of the ways I am stranger than most. (NO comments allowed!!!) See, I don't do very many "middle-of-the road" kind of trips. I'm either going somewhere really close, like about 10 miles away, more or less (grocery store, Walmart)... or I go far away like Florida or West Virginia or Canada or something!

I needed a new laptop case however, because the zipper busted on my old one. And it was an OLD one. I'd guess over 10 years old and seen a lot of use. I'm pretty sure I bought it at Walmart, so it lasted a long time considering.

We looked at Walmart on our way down the Parkway, but they didn't have much. I suspect they weren't wide enough either. The labels said 15", and that's how wide my laptop is... but I didn't want to chance it. I'd like a little more room, and to be able to cushion it a little more when traveling.

Jess wanted to look at fire-proof safes while we down there, so we stopped at Lowe's next. He's been looking at ones big enough to put all his firepower in, but the weight of these things is a BIG problem. How do we get something that weighs 600-800 pounds in the basement?

Anyway, he downscaled his plans for the moment, and decided to get one big enough for papers and stuff. I just got a bill for our bank box, so I think the deal is that I'll now get the stuff out of there and put it in this safe.

Even the small versions are heavy! I think this thing weighs close to 200 pounds and it's just a 2' cube of concentrated weight. If we'd planned on buying the safe, we might have drove the truck, but we didn't. (Actually, it might have been even harder to hoist that thing up into the truck bed!)

So we tried to get that heavy object into the trunk of the car, and that took both of us tugging and lifting and tilting.... only to find out it was about 2 inches too big to slide into the trunk. ARGH!

That meant we had to carefully ease it back down onto the cart and take it around to the side door, and try to somehow get it scooted up on the back seat. Where were some of those strong stock boys (men) when we could have used one?

At present the safe is still in the car, awaiting Jonathan's return from town so HE can help Jess move it this time. I've done my part and made a place to set the thing, but I don't want to help move that monster again.

After that fracas, we finally made it to one of my favorite stores... Staples! Actually, it doesn't have to be Staples, just drop me off in any office supply type store and I'm as happy as a pig in slop. Pens, pencils, papers, notebooks, computer stuff. . . oh there are lots of things to drool over there!

I did find a decent laptop bag. I was looking for something rather lightweight, but sturdy enough to do the job. And of course I couldn't resist getting a few pens, and needed a new pad of paper before going to the seminar in a couple of weeks, and then there were. . .

Jess finally dragged me out of the store. Spoil sport. I told him I could have easily spent another hour in there just looking around. He made some remark along the lines of "that was what he was afraid of."

Of course, by then he was thinking RED LOBSTER. We timed our trip to be able to use gift cards for there that we got at Christmas time. Jess enjoyed lobster and grilled shrimp, but I got my very favorite coconut shrimp! Yum!!!

It was a nice break in routine, got some needed stuff, and had a good time. All right!