How we live now

Yesterday I did something I probably haven’t done since my early twenties… I drove around town and just walked into any store I felt like it, to look around.

I mean, I did have a list of things I needed. I ordered some hanging solar lights for the front stoop, but forgot to order hooks, so I want to get a pair of long hooks. I need some exterior dollhouse ideas, so I wanted to look at paints vs stains vs some sort of maybe wood-print scrapbook paper. I just realized as I was typing this that I meant to stop by Wild Birds Unlimited and get some more bird seed (well, I have to go back into town today, so hopefully I’ll remember). I had a front door to pick up, but I couldn’t get that in the loaner car (more on that in a second). I wanted to walk around the jewelry section of a craft store to see what sort of spacers/findings I could use to make some hanging lamp fixtures for the dollhouses. I just bought some plans to laser cut a key/mail station thing to hang by the door, so I wanted to get some small hooks to add to it. I also planned to go by Chopstix and get some appetizers to take home and reheat over the weekend. And I wanted to go to Publix.

I got almost none of that accomplished.

I dropped my car off at Aersi first thing in the morning (8 AM, which means I left home at 7, which means I got UP at 6) and took their loaner car. Usually it doesn’t take very long for them to do an oil change, but this time they were also replacing some bushings and a control arm in order to solve a surprisingly loud CLUNK that Mrs. Chippy makes when we turn right.

I thanked them for their loaner car and then swung over to the nearby Home Depot to look at hooks and paint. Of which they had… neither. I found some small hooks I can use on the key rack, but more of the garden-type, hanging plant hooks? Zero. I supposed I could have gotten some in-the-ground shepherd hooks, but I was in a loaner car so I didn’t want to get a whole lot of stuff that I couldn’t fit in the two Publix bags I brought with me. And in spite of the website saying they had a wide variety of chalk paint, I found none. OK, well, I’ll look at ceiling fans, since I need one for the pergola. They had a huge selection, of which the only two I liked were only rated for indoors. OK, well, I’ll look at solar driveway lights, of which I wanted to get because it seems like Amazon and FedEx do a lot of post-sunset deliveries. I’d looked online and the sheer number of options were overwhelming, so I wanted to look at them in person. Home Depot had a selection of … one brand. Granted, three different styles in the one brand, one of which I almost liked…. but not for that price. OK then. Tiny hooks for key rack it is, I’m hungry, I want breakfast.

iHop breakfast was uneventful, although from what I saw of the serving station I really hoped for their sake that today wasn’t a food inspector day, or they’d get a stern talking-to. Whatever, I’m old enough to remember when line cooks could smoke, so I’ve probably eaten pancakes with ashes in them at some point in my life, and I’m fine. Fineish.

Then it was on to Michael’s, out in Butler Hell. Where they had a shelf of miniature things. I did find some beads and spacers that I can use for things like doorknobs and some chains I can use for hanging lamps, and I also picked up a sign that I wanted to engrave something on which would hopefully help my delivery people as well… I’ll cut to the chase on that since I burned it last night while working on HaldeCraft shop updates…

I’m not 100% happy with it but I’m still going to stain and weatherproof it. I can always make another later if it bugs me or if the drivers tell me the lettering is too small (it looked larger on the screen as I was designing it).

Oh, and I went to Target (mostly for the bathroom) but I came out with a couple of pairs of fuzzy socks, and some dog toys. They also did not have any hanging plant hooks, or any chalk paint.

Then it was off to the Verizon store so I could compare the new Pixel 8 (I have a 6) with the new Samsung 24s. Was I going to get a new phone yesterday? Well, I didn’t PLAN to, I really just wanted to look at them both in person instead of just reading online. And then I found out there’s a $150 penalty if I pay off my current phone before July (wtf???) so I decided that no, thank you, guess I don’t need a new phone right now after all. Even though my Pixel 6 sometimes doesn’t like to respond to me. Usually if I reboot it, it’s fine.

What was next? I was running out of things to do, and I was getting hungry. I drove over to the 4th Avenue Food Park, where there was literally no parking within a few blocks. I was feeling a little pissy by then, so instead I drove over to the park where I used to walk my dog, in my old neighborhood, and sat there for about half an hour reading the book I’d brought with me.

Then I went to 2nd and Charles, where I picked up a couple of used DVDs and a Little John Funko Pop (I looked through all five racks to try to find a Robin Hood, but no joy). Then across the street to Lowes, to look for hooks and paint there. HAHAHAHA. The closest they came were some ugly dull L-brackets for shelves. I came out with a birdfeeder. I also ran into my friend Holly and we had a good gossip session. While we were standing there in the garden section talking about birdfeeders and houseplants we didn’t need, Aersi called me.

My car was NOT done, but the good news is the repairs weren’t what we thought they were going to be, and they’d be cheaper, BUT, they’d have to keep my car overnight because they couldn’t get the parts till the morning. Would I mind keeping the loaner and coming in tomorrow?

Well, I don’t really have a choice, do I???

At that point I was kind of pissy about going around in circles all day and not finding everything I needed, in spite of SEVEN HOURS of driving around and going to stores.

And I started thinking… this is like a double-edged sword. I really genuinely feel like most people, given the choice, would run up to a local store and grab what they wanted, so they could have it that day. But if you spend seven hours driving around, you’re going to think twice about doing that again, especially if you don’t find what you need. So you go home and you order it online. And the more we buy online, the less we’re buying in our towns, and the less those stores will stock because people aren’t even coming in, let alone buying or not buying. This is how we live now. We buy online because we’ve all been burned so many times by stores not having what we wanted. Or not being able to find help in the stores. If I can’t find help in a store and need to do all the research on a thing myself, I might as well do that from my couch, in my pajamas. Less people in stores buying things means staffing cuts. Staffing cuts means people not making money. People not making money means people not buying things. People not buying things means less people in stores. Less people in stores means…. and so on and so on.

There used to be the most wonderful hardware store in Gainesville, George’s Hardware. I’d go in there just to walk around. You could find literally anything in that store. Hooks. Barrels of nails you’d buy by the pound. Ladders. Bird feeders. Any random thing you might need for a house, you’d find there. Plus George (an old British man) was just friendly and wholesome as heck. I liked how we lived, then. Drive somewhere close, find what you want, buy it, everyone is happy.

How we live now? Buy it online (and I am PAINFULLY aware of the irony of me cracking on buying online, when I primarily sell online). Don’t go anywhere. Traffic sucks, people who work in the stores are cranky and short-tempered anyway, meh, fuck it.

This post is three times longer than I meant it to be, and Aersi just called me to tell me my car is ready. If you made it through this whole thing? I owe you a beer! Or a cider. Brewed locally, at the 4th Avenue Food Park. Meet you there in person some day?