Black Friday

Not happy Friday or shopping Friday ..... but BLACK Friday. This doesn't sound like good things should happen. The good guys wear white hats, not BLACK hats.

Normally, I totally boycott the shopping frenzy known as BLACK Friday. Not because of the title of the day. I just don't care to be jostled around in big crowds of rabid buyers. I have not shopped this day in over 15 years.

So, why did I do just that today? For a stupid wet/dry vacuum. The motor went in ours and Menards had one for a mere $14. So, off we went. Not early, mind you. I did not think there would be a huge demand for something so mundane as a wet/dry vac.

As we approached the store, we could see that traffic was backed up and a line of cars waited to get into the huge parking lot. As many cars were coming out as going in, so we inched along and found a spot right away ...... in the far corner, as far away from the exit door as you could possibly get. But, we would be able to leave easily, once we made it back to the car. As we headed to the entrance a nice lady on her way out advised us to obtain a cart from someone unloading. We did and we rolled into the store to see that there were no shopping carts anywhere in the store.

I was feeling pretty smug as we rolled right up to that nifty shop vac and tucked it into the cart. I needed a set of lights for a project I was working on and we snapped those up pretty easy. Then we sort of stood there looking at each other. I remembered they had a set of rugs on sale.

For years I have tried to put rugs down, only to have Oscar mark them and designate them as pee areas. I finally gave up. But, Oscar is no longer here and for only $20 I could have a room size rug and two matching smaller rugs. I hunted in all the likely places. Finally I escape the slow moving traffic clogging the main aisles and found an entire pallet hidden away on a back aisle.

We left the store pretty content. We bought toys for the dogs and HeWho promised lunch on the way home. We went to Walmart for something in the automotive department ( I wasn't listening) and when we left, I heard my driver say something about the battery light being on.

We stopped about halfway home for an Arby's fix. I could feel the change in the way the engine was running as we made our way along the drive-thru.
HeWho drives put the car in neutral and gunned the engine. Didn't really help and I am sure the vehicle in front of us thought we were awful people. Or impatient, anyway.

Got the food, only to find that the window would not go up. We made our way to a parking spot and turned the engine off .... with the window down. "Let's eat," he says. I ate my sandwich, all the while wishing I had ordered something hot to drink.

He kept trying to start the engine and just got that tinny click-click sound. Finally he found someone to give us a jump and we headed back onto the interstate  ........ we were moving along and then we weren't. We were sort of coasting downhill until we wound up on the shoulder with a safety rail right next to us. Not a good place to be, as HeWho kept lamenting as we waited for a tow.

Yes, we had to be towed. In the new(er) car that is to be mine. BLACK Friday, after all. I didn't even get a picture to post of the car sitting on the tow truck because my phone battery died. BLACK Friday.

Could be worse, I suppose. We could still be sitting in the truckstop parking lot with the window stuck in the open position, rolled up in my new rug eating cold curly fries.