June 21, 2013
Dear Everyone:
Last weekend, “Jeannie” came down to my place.
We had a lovely lunch at a small, family-owned Mexican restaurant
and then went to explore a relatively new nearby shopping center that
features “factory outlet” stores.
Originally, these stores were fairly few and far between; a place
to dump the factory overruns, when the manufacturers made too many of
something to sell in their usual retail spaces.
As the word spread, the stores became more frequent, becoming another
place where you could shop for something directly from the manufacturer,
without paying the usual markup in the more traditional department
stores. Of course, now that
manufacturers can sell directly via the
Internet, the need for
“brick-and-mortar” stores has diminished.
Nevertheless, some people still want to shop in a physical space, where
they can touch and feel, and try things on before actually making a
purchase. While still
getting a bargain, of course.
Particularly if the manufacturer is an “exclusive” designer name
like, say, Ralph Lauren or
Coach.
This particular shopping center was apparently designed with what is
known as “foot traffic” in mind.
The idea is that, as you are walking from Designer Shop A to
Designer Shop B, you walk by Not-So-Well-Known Shop X and decide to go
in because you saw something in the window.
This is known as “impulse shopping”.
Not always a bad thing.
I now have three new pairs of socks.
And “Jeannie” picked up some shiny hair-thingies.
Nevertheless, it involved great deal of walking.
So afterward, we sat in my living room to rest for a bit.
At which point a dark shape came plummeting down into the floor of the
patio. Floowp!!!
“What the heck was that?!!!”
Turkey Mommy.
The baby turkeys had come by to visit (“Peep! Peep! Peep!”), scratching
at the dropped bird seed and picking up tidbits.
They’re three times the size they were a few weeks ago, growing
by leaps and bounds, but are still small enough to just walk under the
patio fence, where the clearance is about eight inches.
Mommy can’t fit under the fence, but she’s bright enough to figure out
how to fly up on top of the fence, at about 5½ feet, then descend
not-so-gracefully to land with a resounding “floowp!!!”
As we watched her, placidly picking up bits of seed, I couldn’t help
thinking what the original European settlers (i.e., “Pilgrims”) must
have made of their first sight of turkeys.
After subsisting on the occasional squirrel or pigeon, imagine
something that size sauntering into view.
Enough to feed a family for a week, if not more.
No wonder Benjamin Franklin advocated making the lowly turkey the
Official
National Bird of the new United States of America.
In other news…
I’m working on yet another sweater and “Jeannie” gave me a big bag of
yarn for my birthday, suitable for constructing a large “blankie” for
her. She even picked out the
pattern, a basket-weave. So
far, this has succeeded in keeping my
crochet cravings in check.
Love, as always,
Pete
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