Gone Shopping!

Today was supposed to be my big, fun, shopping day! But, like yesterday and the car purchase/bank transaction, today left me kind of hanging too!

Mandy and the kids and I left around noon to head to State College - destinations Office Depot, to check out a computer they had advertised in the Sunday paper.

Well, we got there and really had a big disappointment then. Not only did they not have the model they'd had advertised in the paper on Sunday but they had NO desktop pc's at all! Not a one! Well, none on display anyway!

According to the clerk I spoke with, not only did they have no pc's right now, but neither would we find any at Best Buy or Circuit City at this point in time either. Oh, he did confess that they DO have new pc's in the back, in the stockroom, but they are not permitted to put them out on the floor and sell any of them until January 30th! Brother!

Of course, according to him, this all has to do with making sure all the units they have in stock will now force customers into purchasing a computer that has the new Windows Vista operating system in it!

I don't know why but this entire deal - that this store and the three other major sales points in the area of computer - none of them have any pc's available, seems a bit like coercion of the customer to me.

Had Mandy not needed to make some purchases at the Target store in State College, the day could have been a total bust - a 70 plus mile drive (round trip) for nothing. Well, I made use of the trip too by picking up some of my favorite product along the addictive substance lines while in the area and where I could get it at a slightly lower price than it would run me at the local grocery store here. Ah, ever the bargain hunter, huh?

Tonight, I went online and looked at the website of the brand computer I had been considering purchasing - a Lenovo - and according to that site, I could still order a computer there with the Windows XP but with an option to upgrade to Vista. I can also order a computer there that they would put together for me so I could have accessibility of a floppy disk too. Something you won't be able to purchase from a store model and since I have a couple boxes of floppies here with writings and photos stored on them but also, since this computer doesn't have the capacity to burn a cd, I had no way to transfer them over to a cd except to have my next-door-neighbor's son take my floppies and do that for me. So, for that purpose, I really want/need to have a floppy disk thing on any computer - either installed or an external unit. (Of course, I could get the external unit at Office Depot or any other store too but..... )

Well, anyway, I priced out a Lenovo online with the components I think I want/need - it would run me about $850. A Dell, with basically the same equipment would run me over $1,100 - I don't recall the exact price of the Dell. The unit I was interested in buying today - was priced (on sale of course) at $599 - a bit more in line with my finances! Last week though, the same unit I priced today was available via special order for $699 through the company's website. And I wasn't being forced into going with a new operating system they are touting as being WONDERFUL but which hasn't really been proven out to be all its cracked up to be from what few things I've read about it.

All I know is now I am relegated to making yet another trip to State College next week to see if I can find a computer within my price range and with as many of the extras loaded into it that I'd really like to have! I want one with 250Gig, at least 1G processor too, cd/dvd read/write and either a pentium 4 or Athalon - not sure which there as I don't understand enough about these things to know which would really be the best bang for my bucks! A nice flat screen monitor would be wonderful to have too, ya know!

Once I get this computer thing taken care of, my next major expenditure will be a trip to the eye doctor and some new trifocals so I can see properly once again!

My son called home tonight - he left last nite about 2 a.m. to go back to work - and told his sister he and his partner are enroute now to Denver. I really envy him - although I am perfectly aware that driving a tractor trailer for a living isn't quite the same as sight seeing - because of all the places he has been able to go to in the past 6 weeks since he started this job. So far, he's been to Atlanta, Dallas, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Reno, up to Wyoming, Nebraska, Tennessee several times, through Missouri and a few runs in between to Toledo, Ohio too! On their way home from one of the runs to California, they drove almost within "waving" distance of where my ex-husband, Clate's father, lives now in Laughlin, Nevada. I asked Clate if he'd phoned his dad as they were whizzing by there but he said he didn't feel right calling when he was driving that close by and yet, not stopping even for a cup of coffee. When his driving partner found this out later in the run, he decided that in the future, when they run past Laughlin, they will figure a way to take a break and stop so Clate can call his Dad and maybe have a brief visit with him.

And, that idea really makes me very happy, indeed!

It's a big relief to me that now my son and his dad can communicate, openly and freely again. And, in that respect, I'm very happy that both my daughters have good lines of communication established as well with their Dad. Whether their father and I get along is immaterial as long as they can talk to him, visit with him comfortably when he takes a week's vacation and comes back here to see them. And, actually their Dad and I can talk now too - usually can carry on some good conversations now and compare notes and ideas too in the process about our grandchildren, other things going on with our kids too! We even discuss our current medical issues and compare notes there as well without thinking the other might be trying to plan ahead wishing for an early exit from the planet for each other!!! LOL

So, I'll be here over the weekend now, trying to hone up on computer knowledge and pricings so that next week, when I try to go shopping again, I'll be much more in tune with what I want, what I need in that department!