I'm officially discounting any previous claim that I am "gearhead." If you throw out my minimal knowledge of NASCAR and truckin', I am as befuddled as the next princess when it comes to finding my way around a home improvement store.
Each Christmas, we draw names in Jim's family. There are only 6 of us adults so by the laws of averages, I should have gotten each person at least once, right? Instead, this is at least the fourth year I have drawn my brother-in-law ... proud to be a true gearhead (as in former racecar driver and now the crew chief/mechanic for his 13-year-old racing son).
On his list were two items with very specific names -- even model numbers. Alas, that didn't tell me anything. They might as well have been written in Japanese or Greek because I was clueless what they were. All I knew is that I could find them at Menards. Well that was a start.
Since I didn't want to look foolish walking into the store, I searched for the items on the Internet. I did not find an exact match but because they mentioned "retractable cords," I had it all figured out: Power tools.
I walked into the store, armed with my list and a semi-confident speculation of where I needed to go. I did walk up and down several aisles and nothing looked/sounded familiar. I got frustrated just enough I knew it was time to ask for help. (What is it -- I'm in a guy's store so I can't ask for directions?)
I walked up to the help desk and a woman was working behind it (no more stereotyping). I explained my conundrum and showed her the list. "That would be in electrical," she said. "Oh, at the other side of the store?" I asked. "Yep, right where you came in." Oh yes, I was definitely out of my element here. It would be like Jim walking into a scrapbooking store and trying to find what's on my list!
No surprise, once I trekked back to my starting point, I did find the two items exactly matching the words on the list. I still don't know what they are, but my brother-in-law will be happy to open them on Christmas Eve.
What did I learn from this? Some people are easy to buy for -- but hard to shop for. If you don't know what they want, ask. If they tell you and you still don't know, ask. If you don't want to ask, you can't go wrong with gift cards.
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1 comment:
Bite me! I had your name last year and got you plenty of scrapbooking stuff - and it was all stuff you wanted. I know it was stuff you wanted because the lady who feeds your scrapbooking fix has a checklist of things you said you "needed." I'm smart enough not to try and find my way around a scrapbook store - and what does that say about our society if we have scrapbook stores?
love - your darling husband
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