REI Garage Sale and my OCD

                         Saturday it was go time for the REI garage sale. I usually only get to one of these a year and it's probably a god thing that I don't go more often. I always have a list of what it is that I'm going to look for, but inevitably, there is always a find or two that I can't pass up. This year was no exception. The sale starts at 9am in the parking lot. I got there just before 830, and had plenty of time to wonder around the outside of the sale area (they have it blocked off with the orange snow fencing) to see what was potentially available. First thing I noticed was a pink bike. This is one of the balance bikes that has become popular for the kids. It's basically a bike without the crank and pedals. It allows the younger kids to push themselves on the bike and learn how to balance. Then when it's time for a "real" bike, the transition is super smooth and no training wheels are required. How can I NOT go for that bike? The little girl will be turning 2 in another month, plus Christmas is right around the corner. I NEEDED THAT BIKE! I also saw a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer and a Cylceops wind trainer. I already have a trainer, and I get a killer deal on the Kinetic fluid trainers anyways, so they were further down the list. My new list was the bike, and then a Garmin GPS watch.
                           REI's method for letting people in is designed to prevent people from camping out the night before. It used to be a first come, first serve, so people would camp out the day before to score the best deals. Now, it's a lottery system based on your member ID number. They tell you to look at either the last or second to last digit, and then they start drawing numbers from a hat. The luckier you are, the sooner you're called. Last time, I was in the first round thanks to my buddy Jeff who had the right number. Each person can bring one friend in. The way to play the game, and maximize your chances though is to get the member cards of friends that can't make it, and therefore increase you're chances of getting in early. I had 2 other cards with me besides my own.
                           The first number was called and it wasn't mine! BUT, it did belong to my friend Randy. Randy grabbed Jeff and started toward the door. I told Jeff to grab the pink bike and he looked at me like "are you serious?" Yeah, grab the bike! Off they went in, and Randy grabbed the bike as he went to look for other stuff. One of my 3 numbers was called next, so off Shawna and I went to go shopping. I saw Randy walking around with the pink bike and thought that he looked so cute I shouldn't take the bike from him so soon. But then he saw me, and handed over the bike. The bike was VERY popular, as Shawna and I had multiple people come up to us and ask if we were going to buy it. One lady even followed Shawna around for 10 min just in case.

                        With the bike in hand, it was time to get back on track with what was really on the list, and that was a Garmin. Searching through the bin, there was a ton of electronic stuff, mostly just heart rate monitors, and other cycling computers. I thought that I just might not luck out, but then Shawna pointed out another table. At that table, I found a Timex GPS run trainer watch with a heart rate monitor. Later in the morning, Shawna pointed out a Motorola GPS watch that had an 8Gb MP3 player built in. I thought that was pretty cool, and now I needed to make a decision. I almost went with the Motorola until I realized that I was going to have to pay extra for the heart rate feature on the unit. A heart rate monitor was way more important to me than the MP3 player. After all, I already have a music player. So I went with the Timex one. The only small problem is that it has some pink on it. A small pink ring around the face, and then the buttons are also this pink/purple color. Seeing how I was getting this for more than 1/2 off, I could really care less that it has a little bit of pink. The reason for the return, according to the label was than it was bought new, but looked used. The previous owner also returned it a week earlier, so I'm thinking that they returned it in hopes of re-buying it for cheaper. All in all, it was a fairly successful trip to REI.

                      Later that night, I had a bought of OCD strike. Now I think that everyone has some sort of OCD, it's just a matter of how it wants to manifest itself. For me, my normal OCD is every night I need to go down stairs and make sure that every door is locked. Open the garage door, ensure that it's closed, then lock the door from the garage to the kitchen. Check the back, slider door. Check the front door. This includes making sure that all the child locks are locked on each of those doors as well. Well Saturday night my OCD got the best of me. I had to move the fridge to retrieve a picture of my Grandfather and I (it's the last picture that was taken of the two of us before he died)  and when I did that, I noticed that the back of the fridge was dusty. Holy crap was it ever dusty and linty. I then spent the next 30+ minutes dusting and cleaning the back of the fridge. It was only midnight by the time I got done. I wasn't expecting to do that, but once I saw the all the lint I couldn't leave it alone. There was no way I could leave it alone. But now, it's all clean, and I have my picture back so everything is as it should be.