In what has to be the slowest bloggin' day since Columbus Day in 1932, I am highly 'spectful that there was rampant commercialism takin' place in the marketplace which kept the majority of ya'll from your appointed bloggin' duties. Me, I went shoppin', too, but I wasn't gone long. Seems I got there too late to get to go through ever' DVD they was sellin' for under $4, but I did pick up three: Pale Rider, a good Eastwood western, Rio Bravo, a well-done Duke western with Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson and a lot of other stars, and Blade Runner, likely one of the best SciFi movies in which Harrison Ford took part. One of the other people pawin' through the selections tol' me it was not a very good movie.* The wackos were definitely out at Walmart. I also picked a couple more movies outta the bargain bin, the $5.50 ones: Titan A.E. and Earth Girls are Easy. I have seen the former and loved it. I ain't 'spectin' much out of the latter and hopin' to be pleasantly surprised. The strangest thing 'bout my trip to Walmart was that I bought a mountain bike. I swear, I was pushin' my cart along the area behind the registers so to check the $5.50 bin that had been in that area when I was there last Tuesday before headin' over to the electronics department. They had moved that bin ag'in, I found, so I was headin' toward where I 'spected those movies to be when I passed this lady standin' next to a pallet stacked with big boxes of mountain bikes: 26 inchers, with 15 speeds, for $40.00. Yeah, ya heard right, I said $40. I had one of those boxes placed into my shoppin' cart and then drove blindly through the store, unable to see forward 'cause my vision was blocked by the tall bicycle box.
Well, anyway, I ain't had a chance to see any of my new movies,** yet. I did assemble the bicycle though, but the tires were flat so I walked it to the store to inflate them. As I attempted to ride home, however, I discovered that I had the front forks turned backward and my foot was hittin' the front tire durin' turns. I came home, loosened the handlebars and flipped the front forks the other way. I later decided to ride the bike to the store to refill my DP cup and discovered that I had now flipped the handlebars the wrong way and had to U-turn, come back into the house for my bit driver and the large Allen wrench bit that I would need so as to reverse those handlebars. I ain't gonna describe the difficulties I had puttin' the pedals on, but it surely did surprise me that, although they looked identical, each was actually designed for one certain side. Still, I managed to air up the tires without puncturin' a tube with a spoke, so my bicyclin' skills have already improved somewhat from when I was 12. I managed to ride to the store and back and didn't fall over and scrape my knees, although I did almost run into my own front fence when I discovered that the front brake wouldn't lock down to stop my forward momentum.
I think my havin' obtained this bike might be the biggest news on the navel front for years. If I 'member the results of bikin', it seemed to always give ya a purty good workout in the abdomen area. My Buddha belly could use a good workout program. I didn't really feel like I could afford it, but I have kinda been wantin' a bicycle, and $40 was definitely a bargain. I jes' can't see how the Chinese can make stuff so damn cheap. I guess if ya can get by on a handful of rice and sleep on a mat laid out on a dirt floor and be happy, ya don't need to make much at the factory, huh? Anyway ... End of report.
*It has been voted by imdb readers as one of the best 100 movies ever made, even if it is somewhere close to the bottom of the list.
**I did, of course, watch 2001, a Space Odyssey, as earlier mentioned, which I am sad to say I understood about as well as I did when I first saw it at what, age 13. I guess, for bein' made in the pre-Star Wars days, the special effects were fair, but the movie dragged and dragged, and thank goodness the fashions did not turn out like were predicted in the movie. Jeez, weren't those funny lookin' things on the women's heads durin' those space trips atrocious? I also jes' finished watchin' X-2. I wanna be Wolverine, so bad. I mean, indestructible metallic claws jes' shootin' right outta your knuckles whenever ya feel like kickin' butt, jes' how cool it that?
Posted by Tiger at November 27, 2004 12:20 AM