This Year's Model

Here's this year's Xmas tree; we can call it the "Bondage Tree". But don't worry, both Bob and I were forced to "liberate" it as guilt over its possible suffering caused us to cut the string...
I went to Walmart a week ago. Yes, I confess to occasionally visiting Walmart (despite those pangs of knowing we're supporting exploited child labor and grisly conditions to produce our pukey cheesy goods at ridiculous rock bottom prices). Anyway, on my way into Walmart, I spotted actual real live Xmas trees, bound up and ready to thrust into the hatchback of our (temporarily) running car. And- can't beat this!- there was a sign reading $5.50. I went in and inquired at the courtesy desk to make sure I wasn't misreading the sign. I then called Bob to get his approval for this remarkably affordable transaction. I enjoy his input.
After smelling and fingering each available tree (for freshness and vigor) I loaded the selected tree into the shopping cart where it projected like a harpoon. Thus armed, I made my other purchases and was greeted with other shoppers exclamations of approval. In truth, as the trees were strictly bundled, there was no way to ascertain whether this tree was a lovely desirable pyramidal spruce, or a homely lop sided individual. It didn't matter anyway- cheap is good.
It was Bob that had the clever idea of leaving the tree all strung up. He even prefaced his idea by saying, "This is an idea more typical of you..." He was right! And for a couple of days, we lighted it and left it bound.
We almost used the above image as our Xmas card, but it just didn't translate all that well. Instead,
we freed it and were pleasantly surprised to find a perfectly shapely five foot tree. We'll officially decorate it tonight, before watching the Democratic debates. Go Team Bernie!