We went to our local Tree farm (being out in the country, there are several tree farms to pick from) to slay our Christmas tree. The "product" of a fresh-cut tree involves climbing on a tractor, being abandoned in a field with a saw and hauling the tree home atop one's car after the tree has been baled. Wondering around in the field looking for a tree means that quite quickly, nearly all trees begin to look the same. Only once it's home does one notice the bald spots and general crookedness of a tree that looked just fine in the field. Buying a used car is pretty much the same experience, what looks to be great in the lot with its companions seems to loose its luster once you've gotten it home. Buyer's remorse? Maybe it's just too difficult to process so much information at one go, so our brain fills in the details, dents and scrapes. When we're looking at one car, we can the concentrate on the finer details.
Probably won't fall off, maybe? |
One feature of the Freestule that I just love is the raised roof rack. This made securing the tree much easier, as I had an easy place on which to loop the twine and make knots. In the process poorly securing the tree to the car, I looked down and what did I see by an expended hypodermic needle. It's probably flotsam from a friendly neighborhood injectable drug user, either getting their tree or working in the fields. Maybe a diabetic? Most diabetics fanatically keep their sharps safe, so maybe, but unlikely.
A trip to the mall, some more Christmas lights
Limp home mode |
Former furniture store |
My last visit to the mall was... I can't even recall when I was last at the mall, but over the years, there's been a shift from retail to personal services. Now, however, the transition now seems to be from personal services to just empty spaces, not unlike the transition many small town's main streets in the area endured in the 1970's as retail fled main street for the mall, store fronts turned into exercise and tattoo parlors before the front windows served to hold news paper concealing the empty insides.
Earlier this year, before the retail season, Sears closed at the mall. When the Beaver Valley Mall opened in 1970, Sears was an anchor tenant (along with Gimbels and Horne's), maintaining the same location for 40+ years: a dependable source of tools, lawnmowers,
As always, an empty lot around Sears |