Column: The bargain of the season includes an unexpected trip

By Margi Washburn

I never thought I’d see the day.

The day was last Friday, and as one of the two people who live here, I was responsible for setting the alarm so someone could join the hundreds of hardy souls waiting before 6 a.m. for one store’s doors to open.

To be fair, I did promise to go along but due to severe lack of sleep and a wonderfully busy Thanksgiving, I was just too chicken to stick my nose out the door. Too dark, too cold, far too early.

This store opened at 6, so naturally I woke at 6:01. Hubby threw back the covers, and the two of us half-racing downstairs woke Sarah the pup and now the whole house was bustling.

I felt awful about waking up late because I know what it’s like to want a certain something, whether it’s a gadget, an appliance or whatever I’ve had my eye on but couldn’t afford. This time, it was something hubby had been wanting for over 20 years. He wanted a ShopVac.

This was the perfect buy, in his humble opinion. He talked about it often from the moment he saw the ad. It was big enough, powerful enough and it had attachments. He would clean the basement, the attic and everything in-between. This would replace the one I gave away many years ago, and the one that he bought recently at an auction for $20 that nearly blew up within five minutes of using it. That one ended up in the city landfill.

It was hard waiting to find out if all of the rushing around would pay off. Did he get there on time? Did he get discouraged at the number of cars in the parking lot, the long lines, the crush of the crowds?

Well, yeah, all of that happened. He came home with the prize and that’s when the day got really interesting.

Once all of the gizmos were connected, it was time to plug the vac in and watch Sarah go bonkers. As soon as the roar commenced, the dog attached herself to me. If the offensive noise drifted off to other parts of the house, Sarah kept a wary out for the return of the new monster.

One place that needed a good vacuuming was the stairway in our foyer. While hubby moved some furniture and found an outlet, I got ready to work on the computer in the adjoining room. It never occurred to me to check and see if the dog had gone quietly berserk (she had), but it didn’t take long for me to find out.

I turned from the printer to the desk chair, saw a mound of brown fur, overcorrected, toppled the chair and landed on my face. I hadn’t felt this much pain since the time Sarah pulled me through the living room and I broke my pinkie finger.

I’m not sure if it was the sound of the fall, or if hubby’s peripheral vision caught sight of his wife sprawled face-down with the dog on her back, but he abandoned his early-morning bargain and ran to see if I was all right.

Once I managed to turn myself over and check for broken bones, the next step was to ask the dog to stop licking my face. I could hear the vacuum running all by itself in the foyer, which meant that hubby was breaking rule number one out of 23: do not leave appliance when plugged in.

The pain from the fall was pretty intense Friday and most of Saturday. The leg is much better now, with only a giant bruise around a swollen knee. In all of the excitement, I almost forgot to be thankful about that.