Restive State

The wife and I went out to find our Christmas Tree today. Yeah, I know, stupid move. As I have come to learn living in a small mountain town, if you don't go early, don't count on getting the selection you thought you should get. But being infected with a bit of holiday cheer and a sense of community we decided to give a local nursery a try in selecting our tree. Having driven past the previous night, we saw that they had a decent selection with prices to match.
As we pulled into the lot this afternoon however, our disappointment began to grow. Either the selection had magically disappeared overnight, or we had been mistaken. After walking around, being shocked by the prices and not at all pleased about the trees themselves (which looked like they had been cut weeks ago and were being kept alive by the barest of measures), we left. We said, "It's ok, maybe it's like this everywhere." Not a chance.

Next stop, Home Depot. Their trees were even more dismal, many of them still wrapped up from transport. And their prices, while better were still a ways from where we wanted to be, especially when you considered the state and quality of the trees. After wracking our brains, we realized our only hope on the rapidly darkening evening was Wal-Mart.

Yes, the leveler of small local businesses, the scourge of low prices and just about the only place still open that might carry trees. So we went in to see. And there it was, the only thing lacking from the moment was an angelic choir and a light shining from the heavens when my wife exclaimed, "That's it, that's the one!" So we took it home, decorated it and captured the moment on film. Of course, being a town full of moron and jerks, while my wife was waiting with the tree in hand for me to pull the car around, some jerk-off pulled up right in front of her, blocking easy access to the car, when there was plenty of extra room just 10 feet down the curb for him to move. But like I said, it's life in a small town.

I think the moral of the story today is thus: even when infected with holiday sheer and good intentions of supporting locally owned business, unless you get there first, you're out of luck. But yes, had we found a tree that we liked at the local place we would not have bought it, y'know why? Because it was $15 more than either Home Depot or Wal-Mart. That's dinner money right there...

Until later...The ride home was fun though!