Atomictumor

So I’ve noticed several folks have posted thoughts and reflections about consumerism, spending and taking care of your money. It has me thinking about the whole thing. I’ve written about this before over at Ninemonths.

It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the posts have come up around the same time that the Oak Ridge City Council is courting Target. They hope to land Oak Ridge revenue from a big box shopping complex. I hope it comes, since I already shop at Target. I would just a soon save the gas and time it takes to get over to Turkey Creek. I’d like to keep my tax dollars at home and the employement created off this venture is a boon as well.

I can’t help but say I’m dubious about the overall good of the whole thing. It seems to me that we’re robbing peter to pay paul. Peter being Oak Ridge consumer citizen and Paul being the City of Oak Ridge. Yeah, Yeah, I know it’s a win/win situation. I get to buy stuff, every bit of it being stuff I “need.” Then the city gets revenue off the property and the sales made there. I get goods and the city gets money to build roads, buy books for the library, and pay its employees. Oh yeah, some people get to work there so they can spend money there…. It’s the American Way.
Jeeze, I sound like a grinch.

Initially I thought I’d call your attention to the several folks who have written about spending and consuming. Netmom has a really good reflection about wise spending. She makes the very important point that spending is a reflection of the values we esteem. An even more important point she makes is that the values we have about money, we learn at home.

Then Hubsley, writing over at The Shelf, brought up one of my favorite parables. It’s the one Jesus told about the farmer who had a bumper crop. Spending and more importantly consuming has deeper, spiritual ramifications. I am called by my God to be a good steward. (Can you be a consumer and a good steward at the same time? That’s another post for another time.)

Thinking about all this reminds me how much I like shopping at Grove Center. I like that it’s close by. The businesses are locally owned. I know where my money is going. The Missus and I went to Harry’s Aquarium. It’s a Grove Center store. While we were at the store we ran into a friend who also happens to work there. She was happy to work at Harry’s and for reasons that make me want to shop there. The same is true for the other shops in the center. I like the barber there; he cut my hair very well. The florist took the time to make the single rose I bought for the Missus look even better than simply a single rose.

But like I said above, I’ll be shopping at Target, Walmart, etc… because they have what I need at the right price. I’m also a pragmatic shopper. I have to be. In case you haven’t noticed the Missus and I have a big family. In all honesty, Harry’s Aquarium didn’t have to dog food we were looking for. There are somethings I can’t afford to buy locally, or just aren’t produced locally. As for the dog food, we can always have Harry’s order it for us. I think it will be worth the extra cost.

So, word around the campfire is that Oak Ridge and Target are looking to be BFFs, as long as the town can work up about 10 million clams to fix up Pine Ridge, which is currently a big hill, a sign, and like, some buildings or something out on Illinois Ave.

This registers a hell yes.  In fact, on the Atomictumor Hell Yeah-O-Meter, this comes in as a solid Keitel.

A Target in Oak Ridge, alone, is an awesome thing, but the forward momentum in getting decent quality shopping in the town would go a long way toward alleviating the damage done by that Arnsdorff and his little mall meltdown.

Provided that we can ensure that development of this thing will be prompt and on schedule, done by a group with the maturity level necessary in working business transactions like a grown-up, this will be wicked awesome.  I full on and 100% get right on behind approving the money and whatnot to develop this bad boy.

Beyond that, I also have sent instructions to my legions of Atomictumor automaton puppets (Atomictumatons) installed in various positions throughout the town to lend full support and grease all palms necessary.

Seriously, tho, I’ve long complained that this town is stagnating.  Sure, we’re getting housing, and sure, the industrial/federal complex is in full on mode, but for any kind of decent shopping, we have to bust it on down to Knoxville.  A Target opening up in town would also pave the way for a better class of shops (shoppes) to anchor to the beast, and take all of my money.

Particularly a SuperTarget, because, man, Food City sucks.

I am Atomictumor, and I have approved this message.

Here’s a question for all you ethics experts out there.

The Missus and I bought a new car seat for lugnut. So now we have an extra seat that we don’t need. It’s at least six years old and is showing its age. On its back is printed a warning stating not to use the seat past December 2004. It still works, however and could be given to charity for somebody else to use.

So the dilema is this: Do I throw it away, or do I give it to charity?

It is very well worn. The manufacturer warns against using it any longer. It’s a potential danger, evidently. How could I lay that death trap on some family that can’t afford any better? Good grief!

(I’d also have to clean it up before I took off to said charity, if I so choose.)

Of course we’ve been using it for two years past its prime with no problems. It appears structurally sound. A good bath might do it wonders. (I’d have to bathe it. That’s the strongest argument in favor of el dumpo, so far.) Why should I make the charity’s decision for them? If they think it’s crap, let them throw it away. I’ll just be prematurely adding more junk to our overjunked landfills, if I throw it away now before all its potential is used up. Al Gore is shedding tears right now at the horror that thought. (I don’t believe he uses this internet. I think he uses internet 26 sub 7. So chances are he’s totally unaware of this unfolding moral… choice.)

Seriously, What do you all think? Should I take it off to the dump or over to charity? I suppose I could bronze it and mount it onto the hood of my truck for a makeshift hood ornament. Dude, wait a minute! A bronzed carseat would look great on a Mazada 6. Heh…

[edit: That’s Mazda 3, not Mazada 6. Those are crap cars anyway.]

Final deal:

Car: Talked down from $16900 to $15000.

Van: Talked up from $2500 to $2750

Loan: A little bigger than I thought, because I forgot that I owed money on the van still (HOW, after all this friggin planning, did I forget about THAT?)

I don’t like that van, and I never really did.  We figured, at the time, that we needed one, and they’re all pretty suck, just on account of they’re minivans.  It was extremely good at what it did, was comfy, etc, but by the end I was so sick of its electrical woes (power windows that don’t work, door open light constantly on, etc) that I was ready to light it on fire.
It was BJ’s vehicle, tho, and it was a little bittersweet leaving it.  She didn’t like it much either, but never bothered to learn to drive a stick, so we never swapped out.

When I cleaned it out yesterday, I found some things.  I found some of those little notebooks that she always kept around her, with things like to-do lists, and sketches and stuff.  It made me smile.  I found a hair scruntchy with a lot of hair in it, including on of her slightly multiplying, but still rare grey hairs.  I put it in the Volvo, and I’ll put it in the Mazda some other time, somewhere deep in a pocket, just to have a little bit of her around.

When we were dealing, or rather, waiting for people to do things in the back, the used car guy (Glen, I’ll admit, at Mazda Knoxville.  If anybody googles it, so far, I give em a mighty good rating) asked what happened to her.  I asked him if he really wanted to know, and told him.  It feels good to tell the story.  I start with the renewal, and her flu, and progressive degeneration.  Her bleeds, that shut her brain off, and the stroke, that broke it.  I do it with just a little bit of emotion in me, that I keep locked up in my jaw, because I don’t let it out around people, and particularly not strangers.

He gave condolences, and said that he had a girlfriend that worked at another dealership, and that that would really be hard, if he were in my shoes, what with kids and all.

Its not, really.  Not yet, maybe not ever.

—

I typed a bunch more that wouldn’t end this post on such a down note, but somehow it disappeared.  C’est le vie.  I’ll pop some pictures up later.

Night folks!!!

(PS: Woot!  I got a new car!!!)

And its not a rocket, and no, I’m not necessarily happy to see you…

—

I got a call from the used car guy, saying that his manager is tearing him a new one, and oh, by the way, do you happen to have the keys to the car from last night?

Quick check of the pocket indicates… yes.  Yes I do.

To be fair, tho, I remembered this morning that he still has one of my van keys, so we’re really even.

I’ll be picking up Pigpen after school today and heading on down to K-town, dropping the keys off.  I figure he’s going to try to pin me down, but I’m just going to act vaguely irritated that I drove down there three times, with nothing to show for it, and mention again what the other dealers are doing.

Oh yes.  Its on.