Real Research

For some reason, when I get into something I get a bit obsessed.  My Dad's the same way, except worse.  Far worse.

Some people just sit in their jammies and buy stuff on ebay implicitly trusting sellers with stars of their favorite color and "Top Rated Seller" wrapped in Olympic laurels next to their names.

Others like Amazon because it reminds them of the lovely, peaceful rain forest in Brasil where dread diseases, crocodiles, and piranha thrive.

We all have our favorite sellers.  Mine happen to be thrift stores.  Or dumpsters, but that's a story for another day.

Dad, however, does research before every purchase

One day he decided that he needed a chain saw.  So he did research.  He read articles in magazines and "took out" books from a place he called the "lieberry."  It was all a bit much for me.  And a bit much, I believe, for him also.

I didn't realize how bad it was until he was cleaning out one of his sheds and I saw his chain saw collection laid out on the uncut, clover-filled lawn.  There was the first one - I recognized it well.  It was a small Craftsman electric chain saw that I was required to use to chop wood and learn how not to accidentally amputate my foot.  The axe used for the same training purpose was on the lawn right next to it.

Then there was another one - a monster Stihl clearly meant for felling redwoods.  And another with an itty bitty cutting blade that seemed to perform the same function as the average weed whacker.  And everything in between.  Two were electric and the rest were gas.  The really fun things about electric chainsaws and electric lawn mowers is figuring out how not to cut the 250' extension cord - after repairing it about five times.

OK, maybe there were only seven chainsaws, but that's enough.  Maybe Dad should just find some ebay marketeer with a blue star and stick with whatever they sell.  It'd be easier.  Maybe even cheaper.

But nowhere near as much fun.