Always order the floor mat in August

 

My desk is set up in a room with carpeting. So, when we were moving things around and setting up that office, Terry and I agreed that a floor mat would be needed. You know, one of those three or four foot squarish sheets of plastic you put under a chair to protect the floor from the chair’s wheels.

Now, the crazy part we didn’t know at the time was that it shipped rolled up in a tube. Makes sense, of course. A small tube, maybe three-feet long, with the mat inside, instead of a thin but huge rectangle kind of thing. But there is a dilemma.

Plastic doesn’t like to reform itself that easily. So, when you get a rolled-up sheet of plastic in a tube and try to flatten it, it likes to pull back into that roll.

The best solution for such an issue is a sunny, 90-plus degree day. Start rolling it out, check on it occasionally, and the plastic warms right up and after a short time will be flat.

Needed to consider getting a new mat recently, and decided that rather than putting it off for a couple of months, I’d be better off doing it now. Because if I wait until I need it, the weather might be such that it could be months before I get the thing flattened out.

And that’s the funny thing that has my mind wandering today. The stuff we buy and order at a specific time, because it either makes sense or we wouldn’t need it at some other point.

Now, we need to step to the side for a moment here. I’m not looking to explore taking advantage of situations. Also not looking to try to explain amazingly bonkers decisions by businesses. (But I will give an example.)

A few years ago, Terry and I decided to set up a snow fence in our yard. The winter before had been especially windy, and we learned some valuable lessons. One of which was that our driveway was a bit exposed, so the snow was swept along the yards in our neighborhood and filled things in. Things like, say, a perfectly cleaned out driveway.

It was not at all unusual that winter to wake up after a night with clear skies and no snow falling to find the driveway had four or five inches of snow covering it. The wind had just swept it along and dumped it in the driveway.

So, snow fence.

I was able to get the fencing easy enough, but needed a few metal posts that I could pound into place so I could attach the fence to it. And I got told… not kidding… that fence posts were a seasonal item.

Fence posts. Seasonal.

Seriously. Metal posts for fencing—such as ones called t-posts and u-channel designs—were classified as seasonal. And, for that store chain, it meant keeping the inventory only available for spring and a few weeks of summer. After that, it was packed up and shipped to the company’s warehouses until the next year. I needed them. Our store had none.

I am not looking to explore that stuff. Don’t need to know how great it is to look for clothes when they’re discounted at the end of a season so you can find real bargains. Not even looking to ask about the return of pumpkin spice and limited availability windows for things.

Nope. Just wondering about the things you might order on one date instead of another just because that is the very best time to get them.

One of my friends will only order things on the internet after checking the weather forecast, and rarely places any orders between October and March. Her reason? Rain and snow. She’s looking at potential delivery timing and making sure it’s not going to rain. But even rain she can accept as possible, and it has to be something fairly extraordinary for her to risk having it sent to her house to sit in some snow.

Another friend orders firewood for his home, but insists on doing so only in April. His main reason is so that if the wood hasn’t truly been seasoned, he’ll have at least six or seven months until he’s using it. He also prefers that time because it gives him a stretch of days to stack it before the lawn has truly come in, and as a result he can move things around and take some time to get it placed to his liking without damaging the grass too greatly.

I imagine all of us have our preferences for certain things. Might be office floor mats, and it could be plants for the garden. But whatever our personal views may be, one thing is certain: there is a time and a place for everything, with some things having a very best time.

 

If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at Bob@inmybackpack.com