"We're a store...we have to mark it up..."

Friday, March 25, 2011

I’ve had this Canon digital video camera for a number of years, but haven’t used it much. I’d decided that I had a couple of projects I wanted to shoot, and needed to get it out, dust the cobwebs from my brain on how to use it, and figure out how to get the data from the camera to my computer. My next door neighbor teaches that stuff to his kids at Cuyahoga Heights High School, so I just go to him with any questions. He loves seeing me and is happy to share his wisdom…kind of like me…though his actually has a foundation in reality.

“Pat…how do I get this taped stuff on to my computer so I can turn it into a DVD?”

“It’s pretty simple, John, but you need a fire wire…which I think I’ve got and you can borrow,” he said. I like the sound of the word ‘borrow’ since I’m cheap and didn’t want to actually have to go out and buy something. He searched through his mess of an office…I can say that because mine is too…but couldn’t find one, so he went to Amazon.com and found what I needed for $5. “You can have it delivered for free if you’ve got some other stuff you need and get your bill over $25 and there’s no state tax,” he said. “Amazon’s the bomb,” I said and he looked at me warily. “Sure John…they’re the bomb.”

I figured it would take until the middle of next week to get it that way though, so I made plans to go get it the old fashioned way…in a store. “Just write down those particulars and I’ll go to Dodd’s tomorrow and pick one up,” I said. He looked at me like I had a couple of fire wires protruding from my nostrils. “John…if you go to Dodd’s, they charge you about five times as much for the thing. Go up to Best Buy unless you just like to throw money away,” he said.

I don’t and so I went to Best Buy with the specs for the fire wire in hand and asked a young lady working there to assist me in my purchase. She took me right to it and reached for the item hanging on hook under a price tag that read $36 and some change. “Umm…I saw that very same thing on Amazon for five bucks. Is that priced right?” I asked. She physically cringed at the word ‘Amazon’ and put the fire wire back, knowing where this was going. “Amazon? Yeah…well…we’re a store and we kinda’ need to mark things up to make a profit,” she said.

And I get that…but they aren’t making 700% mark up on me…not today anyway. I thanked her…I can be polite at times…and headed for Pat’s to make sure we were talking apples to apples. “I’m a little surprised they were that steep,” he said as he again searched his office until…”hey…here it is!”

Things were going my way now. I headed home, attached the fire wire to my camera and the other end to the computer, opened IMovie on my IBook and began downloading.

The bad news is that I kind of got caught up in the downloading thing and didn’t budge from the office until Holly called me to go to Petti’s for dinner. I had managed a hike before I’d come home, but was planning to do a ride, as well. It never happened and I managed to eat too much fat at Petti’s…fried Pollack and a chocolate shake. I’m going to have to be careful, too. I could really get into this IMovie stuff and forget all about working out.

Hike duration: 90 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 75 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 350.