Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Last weekend Rachelle put me in charge of getting a Christmas tree. She didn't want to go with me because she needed to study for her final in her java class. The fact that she was on the couch under a blanket probably didn't help either.

We saw a group of boy scouts or something selling trees in the parking lot of Pittsford Plaza earlier in the week so I decided to give them a shot. I wasn't looking for anything monstrous, rather something between that and a Charlie Brown tree. When I got to the sale there really weren't that many trees there at all, maybe 10 or 15. Even with the slim pickings I was able to find the perfect tree! It's between 5 and 6 feet tall, green, not too sparse and very tree-like. I told the dude I'd take it and paid him $35. I'm pretty sure I made that groaning noise I make when I feel like I'm being robbed. Then it took 10 minutes for the 12 year old assistant to figure out how to cut the last inch of the tree off so it'll drink water while in the stand. If he got blood on my tree would have had to ask for a discount.

Once the kid figured out how to cut the bottom of the tree, he carried it over to my car (maybe 10 feet away) and threw it on the roof. He then proceeded to stand there looking at me like a puppy on Thanksgiving. Is customary to tip boy scouts who carry Christmas trees to your car? If I had known it was, I would have told him to beat it and carried the damned thing myself. Oh well. He eventually got the point when I started strapping the tree down with ratchet straps instead of digging for singles in my wallet.