Living out in the wilds of far west Texas, major shopping (for me) has been curtailed… not that I mind though, I’m not a big shopper in the first place. I think that’s why I have not gone crazy since moving from the big city. :)
It’s a 20 mile drive (one way) to the closest town, it has one grocery store, a small one… there is a thrift store and a couple of restaurants, not counting the 2 hotels with their restaurants… I tend not to eat in them, not that they aren’t good, they are very good, BUT they cater to the tourists and tend to be a little more on the spendy side.
Another 20 miles down the road, gets us a slightly bigger town with more shopping, but still nothing like big towns like Dallas, Fort Worth, Odessa and such. To get to a town with malls, WalMarts and such is a 3 hour drive.
So how do we shop out here? We rely on mail order, or shopping online. It’s great, where else can one sit in their underwear and shop till you drop?
I just made, what to me is a major order from Amazon, my favorite and go to shopping local. I have been in need of a new laptop but didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg. My current laptop is a few years old now, it is beginning to show some age, though it will still be a good laptop for years to come (hopefully!), I can’t run the risk of it going down without having another computer… oh and of course, who doesn’t like getting a new laptop?
So the one I am working from now will go to PB, he uses it anyhow, this way he can have the whole thing.
I have Amazon Prime
I am so thankful that laptop prices are coming down, when we first moved off-grid, the last thing I did before quitting my job at Best Buy was to buy a cheap laptop, it served me well, the one I have now is my second one, and the one coming will be my third. The nice thing about laptops is they don’t require as much power as a desktop computer. I used to build my own computers from the motherboard up, if something broke or wore out, I just replaced that part… that isn’t so easy in a laptop, so it’s usually cheaper and easier to go ahead and buy a new one…
Unfortunately I will be out of town when it arrives… :( But I’ll have something to look forward to when I do get home. I’ll be in the town that is 3 hours away, I suspect I’ll not want to linger there but will want to get on home.
It’s funny the things that are important to me, I live with one foot firmly planted in today’s technology, well almost, I still don’t have a smart phone and doubt I will ever have one, and the other foot is firmly planted in the yesteryear, I like to think I could easily live in the pioneer days, but in all honesty, while I COULD, I’m glad I get to choose what parts I live in, I get to choose the best of both worlds.
I’ll write up a review on the laptop after I get it and have a chance to play with it a bit… it’s a Window’s 8 machine, I have only seen pictures of how that works, it appears to be sufficiently different enough that it will take me a bit of time to get into the swing and learn what is under the hood.
For now, I’ll just leave you wondering which one I ordered… patience grasshopper! :)