{"id":153,"date":"2006-09-30T23:23:26","date_gmt":"2006-09-30T23:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.gregbueno.com\/wp\/sakufu\/2006\/09\/30\/oh_dear\/"},"modified":"2006-09-30T23:23:26","modified_gmt":"2006-09-30T23:23:26","slug":"oh_dear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/2006\/09\/30\/oh_dear\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh dear"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brook Mays music store around the corner from my apartment is closing<\/a>, and this week, it was advertising up to 70 percent off everything in the store.<\/p>\n

"What would it hurt just to look?" I asked myself. Perhaps I can get a pair of monitor speakers I’ve been meaning to acquire.<\/p>\n

The only monitor speaker I found was a Roland model I had passed over back in December. Instead, I found a copy of Finale sitting next to the speaker. I asked a sales clerk about it, and he asked his supervisor. It turned out to be 40 percent off $179, which totalled $110 with tax. So I got it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to the Finale web site<\/a>, the version I got would have normally cost between $350 to $600.<\/p>\n

Then I walked around the store, checking out the sheet music. I didn’t see anything that caught my attention.<\/p>\n

I walked down another aisle and found some band and orchestra instruments. I had wanted to take up violin this past Christmas, but I failed to get my hands on a violin my grandfather owned. (My mom gave it to my uncle.)<\/p>\n

I looked at the prices of the violins — some were going as cheap as $107. I flagged another salesperson and told him I was interested in a violin, and he gave me a run down on which ones were the best deals.<\/p>\n

One violin was marked down to $282, and it was a beauty. It was originally going for $800, but I had just blew cash on a full version of Finale. I opted instead to get a $499 violin for $167.<\/p>\n

In a single hour, I managed to blow $277.<\/p>\n

And here I’ve been hemming and hawing over getting a $75 stick of RAM for a computer I barely use.<\/p>\n

Big difference, though — I can use Finale and the violin, and after the initial shock and immediate buyer’s guilt, I realized both of these items at full price would have cost around $1,100. To have spent a quarter of that total is very good deal.<\/p>\n

I didn’t ask when the store is closing for good because I didn’t want to be tempted with a return visit. I would have put down money for a cello if I had.<\/p>\n

I did overhear someone mention the Brook Mays store in another part of town had already closed down, so I’m sure the south location — Ben White and South Lamar, in the Lakehills Shopping Plaza with Target and Strait Music Co. — won’t stay open for much longer.<\/p>\n

I saw some guitars, some amplifiers, maybe a drum set and a piano or two still remaining. Quite a number of band and orchestra instruments are still available.<\/p>\n

Maybe I will go back again — for cords. I already have too many, but I keep discovering I never have enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brook Mays music store around the corner from my apartment is closing, and this week, it was advertising up to 70 percent off everything in the store. "What would it hurt just to look?" I asked myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vital-signs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4Bkjq-oh_dear","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregbueno.com\/sakufu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}