Aaron Giesler
Aaron is the youth pastor at Grace Church in Abq, NM. He passionately loves Jesus and ministering to teens. Also, he has a couple of degrees from different schools that only means he is able to pass tests. Aaron has a lovely wife Heather and three great kids who put up with his crazy schedule. Sports, outdoors, guns, reading, and Applied Math are his other interests.
Surprised by Shopping!
- By Aaron Giesler
- Published 06/2/2008
Well, I did it. Two things I never thought I would do in my entire
life. Both of them were purchases. Both of them shook my core when I bought them. I guess it is a lie to say that I
never though I would buy these two things my entire life, b/c the
reality is that I've really only been in a capacity where buying things
was a concept since around high school. But, in all my years as a
conscience consumer I was stunned at both of these purchases.
The first purchase shocked me b/c of the sheer "kid"ness of it. When we moved to Abq, NM we moved from a house with one living room to a house with two. We've only ever had one living room so, needless to say, we only had furniture for one of them. The first living room is very nicely decorated thanks to my lovely wife but the second one (which is also very nicely decorated, thanks again little wifey) looked sparse in the area of furniture. It is the larger of the two and only had a little bench, a glider rocker, TV stand, a large interactive football game, and a bookcase. Despite us changing the name of the room to "the playroom" it still needed seating. So, we bought a big pillow. Now the kids could lay down, problem still not solved. So, we took our economic stimulus check and went looking for furniture. With 3 kids under 10 years old we needed something cheap and indestructible. We looked at couches, chairs, love seats, all the traditional furniture. All of it too expensive or it looked like it would fall apart after our kids had one afternoon with it. Next, we looked at some super-centers at their gaming rockers, little seats, and all kinds of other alt furniture. Alas, we had nothin. So, we went to the mall. On the top floor was the LoveSac store. Intriguing... But, if you've ever priced one of them you know they are VERY proud of them. The cheapest one is almost $250, plus the accessories! And by accessories I mean a cover. Those can run you another $40-$200. I thought to myself, who would buy a $300+ bean bag? Not this guy, that's reeeeeeee-diculous. (did I mention I'm 11/13's redneck?) But I saw two things that got me thinking otherwise. First, a double lifetime guarantee. Really, a single lifetime guarantee would have done for me b/c I really don't care what happens to it after I'm dead and gone. The second thing was that I was able to sit on and have room for at least two other people, albeit snuggly. So I said to myself, "Self, would you buy a a three person couch with a double lifetime guarantee for $300?" "Yes I would," I exclaimed! (by this time the salesman looked like he was about to call the cops) On top of that, I would also buy a couch that had a cover I could take off and throw in the washing machine any time I felt like it. So, I bought it. They were having a sale and throwing in covers for $10 and salesman even promised me a free goodie. For $300 I got a Sac for 3, a black micro-suede cover, and a water resistant nylon cover (it was free and the salesman said it's great to take it camping with the nylon camping...). We later discovered that the black micro-suede cover we got for $10 had originally been $130. But, when we brought it home we understood why they were not such great sellers. Black micro-suede is basically a vacuum indicator with very low tolerance. But, we are happy with it. We can move it into the other living room when we need more seating and all three kids can use it at one time without too much fighting. Overall, I'm very pleased.
The second purchase comes from Sears. Let me preface this by saying that besides college and the 2.5 years I lived in an apartment I've always had a large lawn. Back home, my parent's house was on two lots and much of the second lot was simply grass. Grass that I had to mow. In Celina I lived on almost 1 acre for 2 years and had to mow that as well. When we moved into town we still had a decent sized yard that needed mowing. Seeing the pattern here? It's all about mowing. Moving to Albuquerque changed my perspective. We have a nice rent house with about as much grass as my living room has carpet. Also, while we were packing the moving truck we ran out of room and some things had to be left. One of those things was my lawnmower. Fast-forward to me looking around at Sears, paying special attention to the lawnmower section, I saw something that I had previously laughed at. It was an old-fashion push mower. One WITHOUT the engine. I used to ask myself why they still even made them. Now I know. I considered my rug sized lawn, that fact that a mower with an engine was $150+, gas is $3.80 per gallon and climbing, I needed the exercise, and that the little push mower was only $78. Assessing the situation I can now say I'm the proud owner of a old-fashion push mower. I haven't used it yet, but I will sometime this week. It ain't the easiest thing to push but I'm pretty sure I've pushed powered mowers that were harder to push.
There it is, two things I never thought I would want, need, much less actually purchase. But amazing things happen as you get older and wiser... maybe.
Who knows? Is there anything you have bought lately that has surprised you? I would love to know what.
God Bless,
Gies
The first purchase shocked me b/c of the sheer "kid"ness of it. When we moved to Abq, NM we moved from a house with one living room to a house with two. We've only ever had one living room so, needless to say, we only had furniture for one of them. The first living room is very nicely decorated thanks to my lovely wife but the second one (which is also very nicely decorated, thanks again little wifey) looked sparse in the area of furniture. It is the larger of the two and only had a little bench, a glider rocker, TV stand, a large interactive football game, and a bookcase. Despite us changing the name of the room to "the playroom" it still needed seating. So, we bought a big pillow. Now the kids could lay down, problem still not solved. So, we took our economic stimulus check and went looking for furniture. With 3 kids under 10 years old we needed something cheap and indestructible. We looked at couches, chairs, love seats, all the traditional furniture. All of it too expensive or it looked like it would fall apart after our kids had one afternoon with it. Next, we looked at some super-centers at their gaming rockers, little seats, and all kinds of other alt furniture. Alas, we had nothin. So, we went to the mall. On the top floor was the LoveSac store. Intriguing... But, if you've ever priced one of them you know they are VERY proud of them. The cheapest one is almost $250, plus the accessories! And by accessories I mean a cover. Those can run you another $40-$200. I thought to myself, who would buy a $300+ bean bag? Not this guy, that's reeeeeeee-diculous. (did I mention I'm 11/13's redneck?) But I saw two things that got me thinking otherwise. First, a double lifetime guarantee. Really, a single lifetime guarantee would have done for me b/c I really don't care what happens to it after I'm dead and gone. The second thing was that I was able to sit on and have room for at least two other people, albeit snuggly. So I said to myself, "Self, would you buy a a three person couch with a double lifetime guarantee for $300?" "Yes I would," I exclaimed! (by this time the salesman looked like he was about to call the cops) On top of that, I would also buy a couch that had a cover I could take off and throw in the washing machine any time I felt like it. So, I bought it. They were having a sale and throwing in covers for $10 and salesman even promised me a free goodie. For $300 I got a Sac for 3, a black micro-suede cover, and a water resistant nylon cover (it was free and the salesman said it's great to take it camping with the nylon camping...). We later discovered that the black micro-suede cover we got for $10 had originally been $130. But, when we brought it home we understood why they were not such great sellers. Black micro-suede is basically a vacuum indicator with very low tolerance. But, we are happy with it. We can move it into the other living room when we need more seating and all three kids can use it at one time without too much fighting. Overall, I'm very pleased.
The second purchase comes from Sears. Let me preface this by saying that besides college and the 2.5 years I lived in an apartment I've always had a large lawn. Back home, my parent's house was on two lots and much of the second lot was simply grass. Grass that I had to mow. In Celina I lived on almost 1 acre for 2 years and had to mow that as well. When we moved into town we still had a decent sized yard that needed mowing. Seeing the pattern here? It's all about mowing. Moving to Albuquerque changed my perspective. We have a nice rent house with about as much grass as my living room has carpet. Also, while we were packing the moving truck we ran out of room and some things had to be left. One of those things was my lawnmower. Fast-forward to me looking around at Sears, paying special attention to the lawnmower section, I saw something that I had previously laughed at. It was an old-fashion push mower. One WITHOUT the engine. I used to ask myself why they still even made them. Now I know. I considered my rug sized lawn, that fact that a mower with an engine was $150+, gas is $3.80 per gallon and climbing, I needed the exercise, and that the little push mower was only $78. Assessing the situation I can now say I'm the proud owner of a old-fashion push mower. I haven't used it yet, but I will sometime this week. It ain't the easiest thing to push but I'm pretty sure I've pushed powered mowers that were harder to push.
There it is, two things I never thought I would want, need, much less actually purchase. But amazing things happen as you get older and wiser... maybe.
Who knows? Is there anything you have bought lately that has surprised you? I would love to know what.
God Bless,
Gies
Spread The Word
Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by Will Penner)
Aaron, I love that you're using an engine-less lawn mower. Given the price of gas, I'm trying to figure out how to do a foot-powered car for my family--Flintstones style.
