Saturday, September 10, 2005

what the....?

an odd thing happened today.

it seems i've won something.

when i wandered home after babysitting last night, SO rolled over long enough to tell me there'd been a love note from fed ex on our door when he'd arrived home from work.

we never have anything delivered by fed ex.

however, since SO's birthday is rapidly approaching, we figured it must've been an early birthday present of some sort.

it was decided that i'd retrieve the package after the birthday party i was heading off to after work. after all, i could just toss it into the car on my way home.

or so i thought.

when i wandered into the leasing office and told the employee that i had been sent to retrieve the package, we looked through all the small packages in the closet. nothing.

so, then we looked at the medium sized boxes...and then i noticed this large white box in the lobby.

yep- you guessed it. my name was on the address label.

i checked the return address. funny, i hadn't ordered anything extra from avon. there must've been some sort of mistake.

since there was no way this big ol' box was going to fit into my little zx2 (as if i was actually going to be able to drag it to my car anyway), i drove back to the apartment in search of SO and his larger vehicle. while he was waking up from his slumber, i grabbed a roll of tape, figuring that there was no point in hauling the box home if its contents were unwanted.....and i could simply tape it back together and leave a note for ups to return the whole happy heap to avon.

i'm still considering it.

i have only won something once before. when i was much younger, i drew a poster promoting the "new" apple IIgs. (i think those were the right letters. at any rate, the machine's obsolete now.) in return for my entry, apple sent me a poster of the computer's keyboard. (i won fifth place, though i preferred the prize for sixth- a hat or t shirt or whatever sort of apparel it was seemed far more useful.)

anyway, since i had no real use for the poster (we were raised on ibms), i donated it to the computer lab at my elementary school.

well, once again it seems i've won something i have no real use for.

i'm still not quite sure how i managed to do it, but i won a tv.

to be a little more specific, i now have a rather large box in my living room. inside that box is another box. inside that box is a 20" sylvania "pure flat screen" color tv/dvd player.

i neither need nor want it.

i hate to sound ungrateful, but i have no use for it. we have two tvs only one of which is even hooked up....and that one gets very little use, because i'm never home to watch it, and when SO is home, he's generally either asleep or in front of the computer.

furthermore, getting rid of one of our tvs in favor of this new one would not exactly be an upgrade.

so, the question has become, "what am i going to do with this thing?"

my first thought was to donate it to the hurricane katrina refugees that are being housed in our complex, but i'm sure tvs have already been provided to them.

my second thought was to hold some sort of raffle and use the tv to drum up a little more avon business.

i am still trying to figure out what to do. in the meantime, i have another horizontal surface in the living room on which to pile my worldly possessions.

right in front of one of the tvs we hardly ever use.

24 comments:

bricotrout said...

ill drive down and take it off your hands!
what do you say?

duff said...

i'll add it to the list of options i'm considering.

i seriously have no use for this thing.

can i send it back and win something else later on instead?

D said...

you are the second person i know very well that has won a t.v. why can't i win something like that????? you could give it to mom since her tv has a green spot in the corner. just a thought.

Anonymous said...

sell it! you hear? Sell it!

duff said...

sibling: it's a sylvania. like i said, not an upgrade for either of us.

mama doesn't want it- i already called and asked.

kunstemaecker:i thought about it....but unless i flat out donate it somewhere, i'll have to pay taxes on it. argh.

motherdear: mama doesn't want it. besides, i'd have to drive it from here to maine, and the gas would probably be more than the tv is worth.

i won a drawing after increasing the number of customers i serve. there were four tvs given away in each district. quite honestly, i have no clue how many districts there are....nor do i really care enough to look.


anyway, thanks.

bricotrout said...

i didnt really hit you up for a free tv did i? sometimes i need to smack myself. can you do a raffle through your school or radio (or both) where the proceedes go to noahs ark? (the organization working around the clock to save the katrina pets)

duff said...

they're doing fundraising efforts through both the radio station and school- both to benefit the red cross. i'm not going to involve the tv in all that, and i don't think i'd be able to get away with conducting my own raffle through either workplace.

*pondering*

jamwall said...

is this the avon equivalent to the pink mary kay car cadillac?

i wonder if there's an ebay bidding process where the money could be donated. i'll be you could do that!

duff said...

no...the cars and trips and stuff like that come after you recruit a bunch of underlings and become one of those professional avon ladies....or something like that.

i'm afraid i'm not that dedicated. (i'm an atypical avon lady- i don't wear makeup more than once a year.)

besides, if i won a caddy, i'd certainly sell it- and throw most of the money into savings and the rest toward a really nice vacation.....and a hybrid (after my current car's demise, of course.)

jamwall said...

makeup is overrated anyway!

i agree with your methods. who wants to drive around in those silly cars anyway?

D said...

your man, agassi's doing well in the open right now.

duff said...

jamwall: not me. i kind of like getting around 30 mpg.

sibling: agassi's playing tennis?

wow. it's like it's 1994 all over again.

where's andy simpson?

jamwall said...

yep, that's why i drive around in a honda civic! hee hee

D said...

agassi lost to federer. but he tried.

madge said...

i have no suggestions for what you can do with a television that you don't want.

but.

this is one excellent post - superb! - a duff random's musing all-time favorite.

duff said...

jamwall: when i had to give up my last car, i eyeballed a few civics, but they were out of my price range.

perhaps i'll be a little more rich by the time i wind up car shopping again.

sibling: damn.

madge: thanks *blushing*

my word verification: agfuehpe

who comes up with this stuff?

D said...

you're slacking on your agassi following. tsk tsk! (you should do a post of your history with agassi.)

duff said...

i should figure out where the heck i put that cardboard standup of agassi- from back when he had hair.

i'm sure it's in daddy's garage.

D said...

oh god. i forgot about that thing. you were slightly obsessed. don't forget about the racket you played on the tennis team with!

duff said...

my expensive head racket.

it's been far too long since i last picked it up.

anyone wanna play tennis with me? it's been at least 5 years, so i'm probably not in finest form.

jamwall said...

i'm too far away, but in a strange way, i'm playing blog comment tennis right now. (i get a point 4 games to 3) and now lead 1-0 in the first set!!!

duff said...

i'm afraid you took that round. after all, i needed to go home and get some sleep sometime.

jamwall said...

you gotta point there duff!

Ren said...

Okay, here's the deal... Put it up for raffle, then send the proceeds to the Red Cross.