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old man electronics operation
Thursday, December 10 1998
Santa Ana winds blew in from the eastern deserts, bringing a return to typical San Diego weather: clear skies and temperature highs in the 70s.
After I got off work, Kim wanted to drive to La Mesa (on the east end of San Diego) to buy a used television and maybe a VCR she'd seen advertised in the newspaper. She'd gone out and bought cable access today, figuring that we'd need to be playing "the game" (whatever that is) for the sports enthusiasts who come to our Sunday afternoon holiday housewarming party. I was weary and just wanted to sit down and maybe write, but I agreed to come along on the television-purchasing mission despite myself.
The severely wrinkled old man selling the televisions obviously had a little "operation" going. He had four or five televisions set up in his living room, all marked with prices (for example, $69 dollars, not exactly a typical yard sale price). He also had a touching story to go along with them. He said that he had a son who'd moved off to Oregon and left these units and now they needed to be sold at certain semi-unnegotiable prices. These prices were kind of high, especially given that the units all looked to be at least ten years old. But the old man was doing his best to overcome our reticence, delivering a non-stop stream of marketing. He babbled on and on about the good pictures, the ease of connection to a cable, and the inherent value of the various name brands. I looked in dismay at the VCR, an older RCA model that was clearly only a 2-head unit whose remote control had long ago been misplaced. It wasn't worth anywhere near the $75 being asked, especially after I saw a new 4 head VCR being advertised at Circuit City for $89 on one of his teevees ironically in the midst of his pitch. When Kim offered him a lower price on one of the smaller teevees, he tried to appeal to our sympathies with more references to his "boy" off in Oregon. But I knew better; this wrinkled old man was probably fencing merchandise obtained by a burglar friend. Still, time is money, and we'd already wasted 40 minutes on this excursion, so we ended up buying a small 13 inch colour teevee for $60.
Rory is out somewhere tonight, but he'll probably end up crashing here later on.
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