I Bought Stuff

I am not a materialistic person.   In the last week, I bought 2 vacuum cleaners (upright and dustbuster), a computer, got a new cell phone on warranty, fancy jewelers pliers on warranty, a miniaturized PC by Intel called a NUC along and 2 polo shirts.

These will make my life better and I appreciate having them and being able to afford them.   Was not much of a “retail therapy” high associated with buying them.   I did feel much better than usual last night when I got home.  I think most of that was from a good meeting with my NA sponsor.

I have both a nice Miele canister and a Hoover upright vacuum cleaner.  The Miele makes less dust but does not work so well for me to use from my wheelchair.  I got the Hoover used 13 years ago and the plastic power switch mechanism was dying.  Costco had new Hoovers on sale last night on my way through the store.  I passed them by, circled back and got one.

The dustbuster is for cleaning my car.  They lack power but will certainly be better than going months between gas station vacuumings.   I have a mental barrier on vacuuming that makes for a messy car floor.   The dustbuster will make for a cleaner car carpet.

My cell phone was not working on handset audio (vs speakerphone audio that did work).  Was less than a year old and so under warranty.   Same model of phone.  Took less than an intermittent hour to swap phones via activation and updates.   That went well.

The new NUC (Next Unit of Computing = full power computer in 4 x 4 x 2 inch case) PC will be used as like a TIVO controller for my TV.  My previous TV controller laptop lacked graphics oomph.  This has Intel’s latest onboard 6100 graphics chip and be all the graphics power I need for years to come.

A friend’s husband lost a lot of weight 8 years ago.  She gave me his shirts.  They were at least as nice as what I would buy or even a lot higher quality.  I have not had to buy shirts in years.   I bought a couple of inexpensive shirts since it is getting on time to upgrade my wardrobe and I want to get a special mini-HDMI cable tomorrow for my new PC from Amazon that required spending $35 for 1-day delivery.  Thus, 2 new shirts.

That is more hardware than I have bought in the last 18 months.   Just kind of happened that way on the time-line of all coming together this week due to the pliers and phone breaking last week.  Ordered the NUC last week.   It had to be assembled and shipped from Oakland.

For several years, my TV controller was a giant insulated/soundproofed tower PC case.  Now it is about ½ a thick paperback novel for a fanless more powerful PC.

I am grateful for the ever shrinking power of modern electronics and for classic designs like polo shirts, Hoover uprights and dustbusters; and for being able to afford to buy these formerly  luxury items at will.