Georgia on my Mind

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".