at the pet store

I thought about not using any capital letters since I still can't figure out how to get bigger pictures, but I will. That EBay change was about as helpful as "Yes We Can" change we heard two years ago. I saw a tee shirt the other day that showed our Prez's picture on it with the caption "Guess, We Can't". Talk about truth in advertising.

At the Fashion Mall in Scottsdale on Friday, the lingering recession showed with few shoppers. It's been that way for some time now. And it's not just at that once popular mall. On at least three occasions in the past year, we have gone to a restaurant for a good meal only to find it had closed. Theses were places that usually had a big crowd, that sometimes required waiting. Kinda like our neighborhood. The past two years have found more houses for sale than the previous seven years we've been here totalled. It's that kind of economy still in the Far West.

So, to the point of this entry, I suggested we amble into the pet store. Just browsing, of course. My wife is slowly teaching me that you can shop or look with absolutely no intention of buying. And, no, there is no denouement: that is, we did not buy a dog.

For one thing, I couldn't afford one. One cute little guy with near perfect coloring (I would identify the breed, but I don't remember except the first word of it looked a little obscene and in Jack Paar days would have been censored) had a nifty price tag of $1,400, plus an additional $125 for carrying costs or something like that. My goodness, I thought, this dog must talk or something, but he just walked around the little glass cage that warned not to tap the glass. Are you kidding me? I couldn't get out of there fast enough, afraid I might do something that would force me to buy the dog.

But cute. One guy, also with a fancy name and fancy price tag, just looked at us with blue eyes, not begging but questioning, "Are you going to buy me?" He was cool. He was checking us out, too, to see if we would be suitable owners. Tempting, but I'm the altruistic kind of guy that wouldn't want to take the pleasure away from someone else as enamored with him as I.

We left as so many potential buyers had left before us. What with trilllion (I know there are only 2 l's, but I think for that kind of debt, maybe there just should be a third l) dollar budget, stimulus money, health care for all, well there just doesn't seem to be enough room in most people's budgets these days for necessities. Like clothes and food and dogs.