No wonder the economy's gone bust

Alright, I've got a bone to pick with Dick's Sporting Goods.

Ignoring for a moment the fact that it's approximately no degrees here in Pittsburgh today, this week marks the first snowfall of any substance this winter. Until now, the winter landscape consisted primarily of dead grass and that mud bog next to the front mailbox where my wife's minivan tires seemed to miss the driveway by about a foot while pulling out. But this week we had ACTUAL snow. Sure, it was only about 3 or 4 inches, but that's enough to make it worth pulling out the old sled.

Except that we don't own a decent sled.

With global warming being the controversial and somehow prevalent phenomenon that it is, I didn't do much to prepare for winter this year. I didn't gas up the snowblower until this past tuesday. I never replaced the ratty old sled with the gouge in the underside which causes it to turn left into the bushes immediately after takeoff. But during our first snow day, our neighbor and his kids came over to our house, and we discovered that with just the right amount of iciness, this week's snowfall created the ultimate sledding conditions in our backyard. We found that with just the right angle we could careen down our back yard hillside, across one neighbor's yard, across another's, down that neighbor's side yard, and into the street about 400 yards away at a speed of 30mph. Sweet. And this was with my neighbor's cheap plastic sled.

So today I decided to stop at Dick's Sporting Goods to pick one up myself. But lo and behold, there wasn't a sled to be found. I asked an attendant, who told me that they sold out of sleds almost a month ago.

WHAT???

Why on earth do retail stores do this? Go to a clothing store right now, and there won't be a sweater to be found, except perhaps in the clearance section. Don't they realize that people buy sweaters when they are COLD? Don't the grasp the idea that sleds should be purchased during WINTER? I blame the retails for the state of the economy we're in. Americans want to save gas, and all that's available are Hummers. We want warm flannel nighties for those chilly Saturday nights, and all we can get are Speedos. We're thrilled to finally have snow, and yet for some reason all we can buy are water skiis.

Pitt