BMM again; also tents (cheap) and groceries (cheap); also farewell to North Face and G3
Looks like the next BMM practice won't be until April 2.
I went to Binghamton early Saturday to go to the annual tent sale at the Eureka Camping Center factory outlet store. I bought a tent made by Eureka for Galyan's, a chain which has since bought out by Dick's Sporting Goods leaving the Galyan's tents orphaned. The tent I bought was not entirely dissimilar to the Eureka Apex 2XT which I've seen with fiberglass poles for about $80 and up... I got the Galyan's version with aluminum poles as a B-class second for about $40. That'll be Kenny's tent at Old Songs this year, and maybe mine on some occasions if I ever need a lighter weight tent than the Eureka Equinox I bought last year. And I guess this is the end of the line for my two old North Face tents, which served me well for some years but are past their Best By dates.
I also bought a stake mallet/puller -- the old claw hammer with the screw hook in the handle was OK but flawed -- and some stakes and parachute cord. All for under $65.
Then on to BMM practice, attended not only by Dave Sullivan from Vermont, but by John Bromka for the first time in, he says, about ten years. We did one more Ducklington style dance -- Saturday Night -- and reviewed several others before retiring to Frank and Roberta's for homemade pizza and video of the Bampton and Chipping Campden teams.
Yesterday's highlight: Grocery shopping at P&C. I'm as aware as the next guy what a scam the "shopper's card discounts" usually are, but the fact is P&C is the best grocery store near us so either you use their card or you pay too much or you go to an inferior store. Anyway, this week they have some pretty remarkable sale prices including 2-for-1 deals on a lot of meat and seafood; I ended up spending about $195, way over the usual groceries budget, but on paper I saved $91. Freezer's restocked!
And we did some cleaning in the back room. I discovered my old old beige G3 Mac which has sat mostly unused for two and a half years no longer turns on. Maybe someone will want it free for parts. Or maybe I'll have to learn how to dispose of computers in Oswego County.
I went to Binghamton early Saturday to go to the annual tent sale at the Eureka Camping Center factory outlet store. I bought a tent made by Eureka for Galyan's, a chain which has since bought out by Dick's Sporting Goods leaving the Galyan's tents orphaned. The tent I bought was not entirely dissimilar to the Eureka Apex 2XT which I've seen with fiberglass poles for about $80 and up... I got the Galyan's version with aluminum poles as a B-class second for about $40. That'll be Kenny's tent at Old Songs this year, and maybe mine on some occasions if I ever need a lighter weight tent than the Eureka Equinox I bought last year. And I guess this is the end of the line for my two old North Face tents, which served me well for some years but are past their Best By dates.
I also bought a stake mallet/puller -- the old claw hammer with the screw hook in the handle was OK but flawed -- and some stakes and parachute cord. All for under $65.
Then on to BMM practice, attended not only by Dave Sullivan from Vermont, but by John Bromka for the first time in, he says, about ten years. We did one more Ducklington style dance -- Saturday Night -- and reviewed several others before retiring to Frank and Roberta's for homemade pizza and video of the Bampton and Chipping Campden teams.
Yesterday's highlight: Grocery shopping at P&C. I'm as aware as the next guy what a scam the "shopper's card discounts" usually are, but the fact is P&C is the best grocery store near us so either you use their card or you pay too much or you go to an inferior store. Anyway, this week they have some pretty remarkable sale prices including 2-for-1 deals on a lot of meat and seafood; I ended up spending about $195, way over the usual groceries budget, but on paper I saved $91. Freezer's restocked!
And we did some cleaning in the back room. I discovered my old old beige G3 Mac which has sat mostly unused for two and a half years no longer turns on. Maybe someone will want it free for parts. Or maybe I'll have to learn how to dispose of computers in Oswego County.