December 26, Return Day

I returned to CompUSA today to return a device, a card reader I bought of Sunday, I got the wrong size. I was pleasantly surprised to find few people out, oh there was a line at the service counter but not too bad. I watched people for a while. There was a daddy daughter team. The dad was upper middle class. He obvious did not want to be there with his older teenage daughter. She looked like she could have been a college student. They were returning an IPOD product. The item being returned was some sort of media storage device. She and dad were returning what ever size Dad had got her for an 80 gig storage device. 80 gigs! 80 gigs is a lot of space I wonder what this kid is planning on doing when she goes back to school. Even more I wondered how the Christmas experience went when the kid opened the gift and saw the gift was not “Giant size” Rip,rip, tear ...silence. Dad is beaming thinking that his daughter will be so excited when she sees th 40 gig storage device then ..” Ah Daddy? This is the forty gig hard drive did I say that I needed the 80 gig size.”

“ 40 80 gig whats the difference, it'l take you a long time to fill 40 gigs of hard drive.” Dad laughs when he says this thinking the daughter is kidding after all he did the research a 40 gig hard drive will hold 10,000 songs, and this is not enough?

“ Daddy” now whining “ 80 gigs is what I am going to need. It's not just music

but lectures, movies and everything. The 80 gig is only $150.00 more. I am going to nerd the 80 gig pleeeeeassse.”and on it went late into the Christmas night and there he stood with daughter in toe exchanging the little box for the big box. When the CompUSA clerk asked if there was defect with the equipment and she just said no, it was not big enough, that was all and the clerk seemed to understand perfectly. I could see in the clerks eyes like “Wow, what are you bitchin' about? Least you have an IPOD that you did not have to work for. I get a discount an I still cannot afford one un-lease I steal it and that's not going to happen.”

I zipped round and left. I next stopped at the Deseret Industries, the great Mormon second hand store, across the street. I wanted get a power strip to take into work and I have seen powerstrips there for just a $1.00. I could not believe it there were no powerstrips. What I did see was touching. I saw a dad with his daughter. The dad was kneeling down helping the daughter try on shoes actually they were trying on boots. Cute little kid rubber boots, a set of little pink boots and a set of fur lined boots. I left them and wondered over to the books. I found something and left for the checkout. When I got there I happened to behind the dad and daughter. The six year old was beaming holding two sets of boots like treasure. Worlds of difference just crossing the street.