Gadget

Just as there are places that can only be reached by getting lost, so there are things that can only be found by accident, out of the corner of ones eye, or dropping into one's hands.

My mother shopped like she had live Google, decades before it existed. She hated shopping, and did it at speed. She formed an idea of what she needed in her mind, and we sallied forth to find exactly that, nearly always disappointed. (Too bad my mother, as far as I know, still eschews the internet. Google would be her bestest friend.) That disappointment was especially acute as it pertained to clothes for me. I remember striding past stuff I wanted to look at, that we would go searching for months later, and it would no longer be there.

The idea formed in my mind that the better way to shop was to be open to what was there, and to get what was available then, not to be rigid in what I expected to find. My first chance to prove this idea was when they were looking for, oh, whatever they were looking for, and I spotted a parka. Hideous green with orange inside, but it looked amazingly warm, and dirt cheap. I somehow convinced her that I would really use it. (She could hardly accuse me of being fashion conscious.) She reluctantly agreed. That ugly coat saved me from many a sub-zero day for another decade, more.

I occasionally just go and dither in a likely place, and often come out with an item I will use for many years. In the long run, it takes about the same about of time, but with much better results.

We tried to find a particular gadget* this weekend, and failed utterly, because we tried it the other way. We eventually resigned ourselves to keeping an eye out, looking askance, waiting for it to appear. In the middle of the search, we happened upon a toy for Moby. It has an electronic squeak. Engaged him thoroughly for a good hour.

No idea why such small, useful, items have such a strong SEP field, can't imagine what the evolutionary advantage might be.



*One of those anodized aluminum bottle openers that usually also fit on keychains.