Just in Time

This past October I went to Best Buy and brought some computer supplies. At the check-out counter the clerk handed me a "Scratch and Score" card. I obligingly scratched the card, and voila! I won One Million Points or $330.00 worth of store coupons. The store employees in the vicinity of my aurora were excited. Phone calls were made to the manager. Assistants (the one who wore black ties and shirtsleeves) were looking over the details of the award on the back of the card. As it turned out, there were only 80 such scratch-and-play prize cards available throughout the Best Buy chain. I had won one of them. To claim the reward I needed to mail in the card along with some personal information.

This was the biggest store promotion ever from anywhere I'd won. I didn't get too worked up over the prize though. There had to be a catch somewhere. When I got home I read the fine prints several times. No conditions. Hmm. So, I did win something without requirements afterall. For the price of a 37-cent stamp, I could receive $330.00 worth of stuff. So I stapled the winning card on a 3x5 card with my personal data and sent it to the Best Buy HQ somewhere in the U.S. That was two months ago.

I have almost forgotten about the award until a special UPS delivery early this morning. The $330.00 coupons arrived. The reward nothwitstanding, I was running out of excuses procrastinating over shopping for Christmas presents. Since I am on a long weekend holiday beginning today, I set my internal navigational system on a beeline course to the Best Buy store.

The Christmas shopping is done. There will be some happy friends and relatives this Christmas. They are a resourceful bunch, mind you. For this reason, what I bought them for this year's presents will not be disclosed on this blog.