I’ve been a good consumer

If there is a category I generally don’t fit into, it’s that of the “consumer”. I don’t feel the need to purchase every new electronic gadget that’s released. I don’t shop at warehouse store and devour large quantities of goods. I buy clothes only when I need them (although I do try to dress decently). We don’t use massive amounts of gasoline, since we rarely make needless trips. On a shopping outing with my wife I’ll most likely end up with nothing more than a magazine. In the past I may have also purchased a CD, being a music fan, but they went ahead and ruined that one joy of life, seeing how purchasing anything more obscure than a Taylor Swift CD is near impossible.

But this year I purchased a new stove, refrigerator, and some furniture for the house. Regrettably, I also bought a new flat screen TV just last week to replace my all of four years old one that went crazy with little color bars all over the screen. It’s been doing that for a few months and we have been living with it until the whole screen decided to go bad right before Christmas. Going on, a couple of new guitar amplifiers and a guitar, which doesn’t really count since it was used. Throw in some miscellaneous larger ticket items such as jewelry, coats, etc., and it’s been a year of me doing my part to help the economy in the good ol’ USA.

I’m not really including my camera gear, since most equipment I buy is so far under the consumer radar it doesn’t matter. I mean most consumers don’t even know Pentax cameras even exist (and I like it that way). Besides, I usually do my camera gear purchasing  on Ebay, and that includes selling one thing to get another.

And finally, I just bought a used SUV today. And while that doesn’t help the economy too much, it does help my friend, the car salesman, and the state of Pennsylvania because they still collect sales tax every time a car is sold. So here’s to the Fiscal Cliff. I’ve done something, let’s see if our government can.

Of course none of this has anything to do with today’s picture and vice versa. Just sticking around the house and I had to shoot something! And it’s my last black and white shot of the month.

© David Guidas