2012-366 Day 350 – O Christmas Tree

As you might have seen on Facebook yesterday, Jess and I went and picked up a tree from OSH due to their low, low prices. Little did we realize that perhaps we should have invested the extra money to make our lives a bit easier. Bargain prices don’t get you much in the way of service, as we had to secure the tree to our car with only a couple feet of provided twine (and I’m no Boy Scout . . . okay, not officially at least) and didn’t get a stand included.

At least we were provided a sheet of plastic to put on the roof of the car. I managed to loop the twine over the middle and through the rear windows, back up to the stump, and down again to the top. I made the conscious decision to drive very carefully, as I’ve seen the Mayhem commercial from Allstate. Which one, you ask?

I did not want to worry about that. Of course, that seemed less likely as we had only driven a half mile before we started to see the tree trying to peek into Jess’ window. We pulled over quickly and adjusted, but it was become apparent that we didn’t have enough twine. Fortunately, it was a straight shot down Devonshire for the rest of the drive, so I could take it slow and keep an eye on the tree. A few more stops for straightening, and we managed to get the tree back safely. It got hustled up the stairs and then placed on the balcony.

What we didn’t have was a way to stand the tree up in our living room. Thus began my quest to find a reasonably priced Christmas tree stand a little over two weeks before Christmas. Turns out they don’t exist. Lowes . . . No. Target . . . No. Walmart . . . No(!). OSH and Home Depot had thirty dollar plus cast iron stands which we really didn’t want to store for the eleven and a half months that we didn’t have a Christmas tree up. After a couple hours driving around in the rain, we decided to wait until the next day. Jess observed that we should have bought a tree stand on Halloween when they were actually available. We wound up borrowing one from Jess’ parents, so thanks!

And despite this next paragraph, we’re still thankful. When we picked it up, it was pointed out to us that the SwivelStraight Christmas tree stand had to be a quality product, it was “As seen on TV!” It bills itself as “One person setup” and “The one minute Christmas tree stand.” Well, there are lies, d@#* lies, and statistics . . . er, I mean “As seen on TV” boxes. It took us a couple hours and a trip to Lowes for a handsaw to get the tree into the base, which included a half hour of trying to get the adjustment pedal back out of its “storage” spot (the pedal has not returned to its storage spot since). We finally got it secured and balanced, but Jess is too afraid to decorate it, so we are currently enjoying the natural, rustic look of a plain Christmas tree.

Weight: 222 Loss: 18 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 360.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 26 ID: disciplev1