November 20, 2005

Another wasted weekend

This past week, the second largest Bass Pro Shops™ in the world opened less than an hour from where I live. I figured it would be a good time to go this weekend, but as usual, my wife had other plans.
She wanted to go to this little festival called "Christkindmarkt", the German word for: A place to go buy crappy hand crafted Christmas related and other sundry items. This was held in not one, but three different places on the same day. This was also in the opposite direction from my beloved Bass Pro Shops™. I'll give you 3 guesses as to which place we went Saturday:
1. Christkindmarkt
2. Bass Pro Shops™
3. Nowhere in particular.

If you guessed #1 on the list you are correct.

The second most entertaining part of my day was when we arrived at the first of three places for this "Markt"(lit. German for Expensively priced cheaply made trinkets.) there was an organ grinder. I've always wondered what it was that an organ grinder did besides beg for scraps for his monkey. The device is similar to a player piano minus the keysYou turn a handle that pumps a bellows which in turn also spins a scroll of paper that has holes in it. The holes allow air to escape through a circuit that blows the air through a bunch of little pipes that make notes. Most of which are rather unpleasant to the ear, but fun to watch nevertheless.

The most entertaining part of my day happened when we got home that evening and I could flip through my Bass Pro Shops™ 2005 master catalog full of hunting fishing and camping gear that looks so good you just want to go to the store to see if it is as good as it looks in the book. Maybe one day before it goes out of business I may actually get to take a tour of the over 300,000 sq ft. outdoorsmans paradise. My wife would point out that I am no outdoorsman. I would point out to her that I do not know if I am or not, she never gives me the chance to try. She did, however, admit that she didn't enjoy the "Christkindmarktarkt" nearly as much as she thought she would. Perhaps she'd like the Bass Pro Shops™. I doubt it.

I Love the Thanksgiving holiday.
It reminds me that for all its flaws, I have a family to love.
And because of that I am blessed. I hope you are too.
J

1 Comments:

At 9:33 AM, Blogger Elizabeth Melton Parsons said...

Hey there, I finally found a minute to drop by your blog. Love the bass pro monologue. I don't know if you even remember me. We met at my book signing. Elizabeth Parsons.

My hubby went to the new bass pro shop on his way home from work last week and my nose was a little out of joint because I wasn't with him. When I asked him about it it he said, "I dont't think you would be interested in anything there." Now that was a rather sexist comment to my ears and I wasted no time in telling him so. After all, I love to fish and I love boats. Of course after I told him these things, he went on to describe to me in great detail the entire contents of the shop. When will I ever learn to just keep my big mouth closed? LOL.
Have a great day/life. I'll be checking back from time to time. Liza

 

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