The various collections available at the Siouxland Spring Feast often included a bottle of wine, but not all did. Many included a pass for this or that venue in the area (archery, axe throwing[1], escape room{!?}) which might be interesting were we closer or more likely to travel to the area on the rare occasions that off time coincides that isn’t for some event. There were collections with more appeal to those skilled, or wishing to be, with needle and thread, and various.. interests. I dropped a ticket in the one or two that had some appeal, but one stood out. Not for myself, but $HOUSEMATE had reason to try for the “gaming chair” and Amazon Firestick – and not for the Firestick.

$HOUSEMATE has been doing the Work-From-Home thing for some time. And has told recruiters that, yes, he really means he is NOT interested in moving, get it through your neutronium dense skull, you speck-o-dust brained idiot – though not quite in those words. Yet. The office, as such, is the non-work space. It’s for relaxing and dealing with some mainframe stuff and such. Not work. The work space is elsewhere. That elsewhere has involved a simple wooden chair. Now, there’s nothing wrong with said chair. It’s fine for the duration of a meal or more. But for a workday? Let alone an extended workday (they happen) that goes from dawn to well after dusk? Not so much. Thus the interest in the gaming chair.

I’d known, but not fully realized, if that makes any sense, that the wooden chair was there. It’s not like I’d not been seeing it for all this time. And, generally, $HOUSEMATE just goes off and buys whatever he figures he needs or desires if it’s reasonably affordable. Well, I took a proper look that night. Alright early the next morning after a long post-Event nap. Wooden chair. Not even a cushion on it.

Well, this past year was… Bidenomic. So we didn’t really do the Birthday or Christmas present thing at all. I didn’t even get him a bottle of bourbon. And thus an idea hit (ouch!) and I started looking at office and gaming chairs in the early AM. I found a few possibilities, in a range of prices and arrival dates for shipping. I was willing to go with any of them, but wanted him to look the choices over. The least expensive one had an advantage: It was in stock at the local Walmart. “Let’s go look at that one, later.”

After coffee, and maybe more coffee, we headed to Walmart and found the chair on display. It could be moved to the floor and tried. It was, and found acceptable. Even had an unexpected but useful feature. Problem: All the boxes nearby were for other models. Was this the last? Could we buy it, if it was?

We got the attention of a gal who explained that due to liability issues, they didn’t sell the displays (What becomes of them, I wonder?). She scanned the shelf tag and supposedly there were seven in stock, but where? She called someone else, who I think also scanned the shelf tag. He noticed something… there was a different location description. Sure enough, at the opposite end of the aisle, on the opposite side of the aisle, on the top shelf, were a stack of cases of what we were after. After a bit to fetch a ladder to get one down safely, we finally got the right box to a register and took care of things.

On the way home there was a stop to pick up a Grab & Go breakfast, so when we got home it was “Leave it in the car. I’ll deal with it later.” Breakfast was had, and eventually I went to bed for the day. When I woke up, the box had been brought in, the chair had been assembled and put into place. The wooden chair was in the living room, displacing a folding chair that had been folded back up.

I am writing this on Monday morning, some time before $HOUSEMATE’s workday starts. I know he is in for a busy day for other reasons (get mixed up in local politics, it happens). But I suspect he might have a rather more comfortable regular workday than in some time. At least there’ll be one less pain in the tuchus.

Hrm, maybe I should see about a cushion for that wooden chair as well. It’s in front of the IBM Multiprise 3000 and that… well… some time is spent at console there, too.

[1] LET GO of the axe?! Madness.