No Eagles Hat

Been a difficult few days, maybe a bit longer.  Various frustrations with computer failures, car delayed at body shop, an infection running through the family.  I am unable to keep up with housekeeping.  Also losing things.

Went to Shop-Rite, bulk shopping.  Forgot to put my bread into the bag so I had to run to TJ on short notice to replace it, but at least with a better bread.  It being very cold with a coating of grainy sleet on the driveway and car this morning, I dressed in my warmest nylon parka and knit cap.  The cap evaporated somewhere along the way.  I sifted through the clutter of the rooms I had occupied.  It did not appear.  Nobody turned it into Shop-Rite's Lost & Found, nor did I see it as I retraced my path in their parking lot.  Sometimes replacement is the way to go.

I drove onward to Marshall's nearby, intending to come home with a top of the line Eagles knit hat.  They had been displayed by the dozens if not hundreds during the holiday season.  Knit caps galore remained, including one of 80% wool.  Warm was priority.  I got that.  But I saw no Eagles caps.  In my town, everyone wears one, much like all Satmars wear the same black fedoras.  

I brought my purchase to the cashier, offered my credit card, and took the receipt.  I asked her about Eagles caps, having seen the ample supply recently.  She informed me that everyone who came to her register in the past week had something Eagles, either cap, mug, water bottle.  Not much left, and zero caps.

Not believing how popular these were, or how much I would be willing to pay extra to get one, I drove a mile north to their corporate partner TJ Maxx.  Sold out there too.  I had other options.  Target and Dick's in the same shopping complex, Boscov's in the next one.

There is a compulsive me and a practical me.  The price of an Eagles hat will drop very soon.  Maybe after the holidays.  For sure when they lose in the playoffs.  And if they become Super Bowl Champs once again, a real possibility, the price will drop when Eagles Fever stuff has to clear for Phillies merchandise.  I can wait.  The cap I purchased, 80% wool, will keep my scalp warm.  And the missing one might eventually turn up.