time traveling...

... but not in the usual science fiction/made for movies sense. It happened due to celebrating the holiday on the 24, instead of the 25 like everyone else does... Oh, really? Didn't you hear: celebrating on the 25 is so last year!

I did not plan any of this, and was as surprised by the sudden relocation of Christmas as anyone who has long been calendar conscious and obedient to the hard and fast Laws of Commerce. Especially those of us plodding away in the retail world, at the mercy of the customer demanding goods and service. Punching the clock, giving our hours and days in a reciprocal agreement for funds to support all our bad habits.

They decided amongst themselves that they would rather be together on Sunday, and have Monday free. Some will have to be back at work on Tuesday, and would feel more like they have had a weekend if they did not feel exhausted and frazzled from traveling on Monday. Time to do laundry, put things away, take a deep breath or two before getting back in the groove. As long as there is an opportunity for sitting on the couch adjacent to each other, anything suits me.

In reality it did not much matter to me, as I had no intention of fisticuff-ing with all the other aggressive shoppers demanding consumer goods, crazy drivers whipping through parking lots and caution lights. My scheme, as it played out over the past six months, was to purchase a $50 gas gift card for $40 (with a grocery purchase and coupon from the weekly sale flyer). That ten bucks off coupon shows up once a month in the newspaper ad. I had been planning all along that the people I gift annually would receive free gas (not the kind you get from eating chili) as a present.

Especially after The Man Who Lives Here reported getting a discount with a Shell rewards card I brought him. He recently went to the curb store where he usually stops to fill up, and due to being a frequent flyer/buyer had gotten up to a serious discount: ten cents off a gallon by using the rewards card. Then he used a Shell gift card and proceeded to get a ten percent discount off  'Free!' How's that for saving money?! Yeah, that's what I thought: pretty strange....