A Fortuitous Turn Of Events

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ William Shakespeare

Black Friday. Oh yes. Let me tell you of my "Black Friday" adventure:

Best Buy's circular advertised an E-machine desktop computer for the unbelievable price of $199.97. Regular price was $619.97. It comes complete with a printer!

There were only 15 of them in stock in each Best Buy store, and no rain checks would be issued. The circular informed readers the way to procure this computer was to arrive at the store by 3:00 AM (that's AM!) and wait in line, (assuming there would be a line, of course) and the first 15 people who were there for the computer would be issued a ticket for the particular item they came to purchase.

First come, first served.

When the store opened at 5:00 customers would then be allowed to enter and purchase their item of interest.

My own desktop computer recently broke, and I have been wanting a replacement for quite some time, so I conceived a plan whereby I could procure this computer. There wasn't a lot of information on the specifications, but I reasoned beggars can't be choosers.

My last computer was an e-machines, too, and it was, at the time, the absolute cheapest I could find. Ideally, the next desktop would include the new Windows Vista, a CD/DVD player writer, more memory and power.

This is the Desktop advertised, below:

I figured even if the new one didn't meet my qualifications, I could always sell it on E-Bay and make enough profit (remember: regular price is $619.97) to get one more to my liking.

I considered arriving at the store around midnight, to insure a good place in line, but the night was the coldest of the year so far, and I had no one to go with me in case I needed someone to stand in my place if I needed to answer natures relentless call. So, instead, I drove to the store, timing my arrival for about 10 minutes before 3:00.

When I drove into the parking lot, I realized I made the wrong plans. There was a line beginning at the store entrance and snaking around the corner all the way to the back of the store, and more were arriving. Many people were in tents and sleeping bags. And I only had on a leather jacket and gloves. Even if only a small percentage of the 100+ people already there were planning on purchasing the computer, there were still many more computer buyers than 15 in line.

So, I continued through the parking lot and drove off to Walmart, to buy some Diet Mountain Dew. Then I went home and went to bed.

But the adventure doesn't stop here.

Later in the day, my fiancee informed me that she desperately needed $150.00 immediately, so I deposited that into her bank account.

Now, it was clear that if I had purchased that computer, and then deposited the money in her account, it would have put a serious strain on my already meager bank account.

And I have a habit of making bad economical decisions.

I considered that Someone was looking out for me.

But that still isn't the end of the story.

Later that afternoon, I received a call from my boss, who offered to give me a desktop. He had recently sold a successful business and had a couple of office computers left over, which he was going to donate, but then he had remembered I had mentioned a while back that my computer broke.

He will bring the computer to the office on Monday.

I haven't seen the computer, and I don't yet know if it has Vista, or a CD/DVD writer, etc, and I didn't ask. What kind of person would I be if I looked the proverbial gift horse in the mouth?