So here in the final days I need a few more boxes. I go to the "Packaging Store" up the road and find they have large boxes on sale at $3.50 each-- if you buy 10. Otherwise, they are the usual price: $7.00 each.

Now maybe I am out of the loop here but since when did even large packing boxes reach $7.00 apiece?? I mean, really! So being the good Scotsman I am I went to see if I could get them *gratis* over at BJ's across the street. I discovered that indeed I could, provided I showed up early enough-- say, at 8:00 AM.

Now, those of you who know me fairly well know that a few things get me up early enough to beat northen VA traffic in the morning, seeing me out at 6:00 AM to face the madding crowds on their sleepy way to their miserable cubicle farms. But boxes? No, boxes will not do it. I will pay to avoid sitting in the traffic around where I live just to pick up boxes at 8 AM.

I headed back to the Place of Extortion and forked over the 35 schmackers (plus tax, of course) and gleefully headed home, comforting my depleted-wallet-consciousness by reminding myself that tomorrow would not see me among that crowd of lemmings, packed into their shiny metal boxes, all contesting with one another in their suicidal race toward broken dreams and a desperate, mediocre retirement someplace they can't really afford to be. Instead, I would be in bed, perhaps in the company of a cuddly wee gray kitty or two, softly purring at my feet.

Worth every blessed penny.