After our trip to the Aquarium in Atlanta we made a little side trip to a kayak store in Dawsonville, Ga. I told my navigator I thought it was about 10 miles out of the way, but it turned out to be about 70. I recently purchased a kayak on line and after trying it out a couple of times I decided to return it. Well you just don't stuff a kayak in the drop box at UPS. It came in a 18 foot long box that was taking up our last molecule of space in our micro-machine garage. So I packed it up and drove the long box to the trucking company in Asheville where the warehouse lady complimented me on my packing.
Now the kayak I wanted next is sold right near my house; in fact the North American distributor is based in Asheville. Of course I can't deal with these people because they won't deal. Since I am a man of principle, I can't pay full price for a kayak in December. So after wheeling and dealing with the the store outside of Atlanta I get $100 off the list price and a waiver of sales tax because I'm from out of state and that adds another $112.50 in savings. The owner says he has 2 of the models I want: one in yellow and one in orange. Now before I take the 174 mile trip back to his store I ask him to make sure he has the one I want. He tells me that his computer shows they are in his warehouse out back. I'm being anal so I ask him to check in the warehouse. He says he will send one of his staff to the warehouse to physically put his hands on it and give me a call back. The kid calls in a few hours and tells me there is a Capella 166 in red in the warehouse. I'm happy because the red looked great on a Capella 16 they had in the showroom. I just didn't want the Blue 166 they had in the showroom because I like to really stick out on the water so I'm not run over by jet skiers. After I hang up I get more anal and call right back to remind the kid I want the 166 and not the shorter 160. The kid assures me that it is a 166. The 160 is a nice boat but I'm too heavy for it; when I demo'd it Carol said it looked like a submarine with me being the conning tower.
We arrive at the store and there is my kayak all new and factory wrapped. So I ask the kid to unwrap it and lo and behold it's the smaller 160. Off he goes to get the owner who says he's going to check at his house to see if there is one there. Well, he comes back and by now he's getting psychotic because the only 166 he has is the blue one. He says he has the flu and can't think straight. So he's trying to think of what to do and I'm just looking at the ceiling smiling to myself because this stuff happens to me all the time. Well it winds up that he sells me his personal kayak, a Capella 166 in red with a compass for $500 off. (Now that I have a compass maybe I'll cross Lake Ontario.) Then he offers me 25% off on any accessories in the store for life. Then he went too far and tried to sell Carol another kayak. I told him nothing can separate her from her Dagger Savannah.
Of course we did have good Georgia and S.C. talk radio for the trip. The topic was whether "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" is a Christian movie. I guess the the movie makers are afraid of it being labeled a "Christian Movie" and Non-Christians not going to see it. The general consensus was that it isn't a religious film per-se'. Like Tolkien, his buddy C.S. Lewis used fantasy to portray moral truths. It was an interesting couple of hours of talk radio. If it is a religious film our church in Maryland would have tables set up in the theatre lobby to witness and answer questions like they did for Mel Gibson's "The Passion".
We found the perfect shirt for Marianne. Yes the world does revolve around moi! Plus she got another book to give her more ammunition for the gender wars. Carol has disappeared into the murky world of Columbo re-runs. Ben after getting a Tony Benett CD, a Godfather DVD and a new hat, has now become Frank Sinatra. Now I just have to get rid of this tree in the living room!
Just to let everyone now we survived the worst ice storm since the one that left Canada in the dark for a month and spoiled all the beer. Actually I give it a 5 where we are. The brunt of the storm hit right below us in South Carolina. There are still people without power in about 1/3 of the area. We lost power and had to rely on our gas fire place and oil lamps. The power would go out for 4 hours and then come on for 30 minutes. Finally around 6 pm we got desperate and ventured out into this icy hell to drive the mile to our favorite Mexican Restaurant. It was touch an go for while; no cable, no internet, no DVD player. I went to work and did see some branches down and felt an icy patch under my wheels as I traversed an overpass. The streets were empty, as most people stayed home and gathered the family around the gas log and siped what they assumed to be their last drink of Evian. Our power came on about 7 pm that night so we were able to abort our plan to put the frozen food on the deck and go to bed with flashlight in hand. We were fortunate to still have our gas log and hot water. Reading by the oil lamp brought back memories of my early childhood when I lived on a farm in the Bronx.
