In For $5 … Out For $50

I went into Fry’s this afternoon to pick up a $5 item. Now, I KNEW I’d buy other things while I was there … I ALWAYS do when I go into Fry’s. There are just TOO many cool things there.

The item I was LOOKING for was a non-Bluetooth headset for my cell phone. I like having one in my car just in case … and a Bluetooth headset would need to be charged regularly to keep it working. So it’s just EASIER to get one with a wire. AND, they’re super cheap now since even Bluetooth headsets are available from about $15 or $20.

I didn’t make it 30 feet into the store before I grabbed my FIRST impulse buy. It’s the latest in my kitchy USB plug-in devices … this one being a little fan that I can use to cool my trouble writer’s brow in the heat of the California summer. It’s actually pretty awesome, and will be MORE useful than the USB snaking light I got for $5 the LAST time I was in Fry’s. (The light is too diffuse for it to really be useful to me in any practical way except during a blackout or when trying to use a laptop in the dark (IF I ever try to do that).

The other real PLUMB from my expedition is a reference book for Photoshop version CS2 … which is what I’m running on my machines. (They’re up to CS4 now, so finding book for CS2 was quite a surprise.) I know a fair bit about Photoshop … but I don’t use it frequently enough to really remain quick about remembering HOW to do certain things I’ve puzzled out in the past. Now I can look them up … and even learn some NEW tricks!

Add to that a birthday present for my buddy and business partner, Hyrum, a bottle of 5 Hour Energy (for the next time I’m running late on a deadline), and a little something to nosh on as I do my drawing this evening, and suddenly my $5 intended purchase had ballooned to $50 worth of stuff I had to schlep back to the car.

Honestly, THIS is why I don’t go into Fry’s more often.

At least I didn’t buy and DVDs that I don’t really need (though if they’d had a copy of Valley of Gwangi, I’d have bought that, too)!