That old, familiar thrill is back

Back in the old days when I had plenty of income for me, myself, and I, as well as Bruno, Mountain Bike, Road Bike, Subaru Dream Car, Vacations Galore, Unlimited Marathons and Triathlons, Retirement Accounts, and Just About Anything I Wanted, I LOVED winning ebay auctions. That thrill of winning at the last second was so exciting!! I would watch the auction for days and then swoop in at the last second and win, much to the other bidders' surprise. A glorious victory! Even after Marriage and Medical School Applications came on the scene, I still enjoyed my little ebay victories. But Medical School kind of squelched all that, because that's when the income went away. And the student loans began piling up.

Four years. That's how long I went without buying myself a single pair of new shoes. Even running shoes. I had fortunately found a few pairs on clearance right before D started school, and thanks to REALLY decreasing my mileage during school (and the hand of the Lord), the shoes lasted all the way through--what a miracle! But the last pair was worn all the way through the tread, and if you know anything about joints and running shoes, you know that it's a lot cheaper (and better) to replace your shoes than your joints. I thought I might find some new shoes on clearance at a sports store around here. My searching proved fruitless. I thought about ordering from my favorite online running store, Roadrunner Sports. Too expensive! Then I remembered my old friend. So I hopped on ebay and found multiple pairs of my favorite shoe (Nike Pegasus) for about half of retail price."I'm in!" I thought.

D sat there and watched me as the auction came to a close. My heart was racing. I had my watch timer ticking so I knew exactly how many seconds were left. I put in my bid, clicked once. Just one more click to "confirm bid." But I waited. And waited. Just three seconds left. I clicked to confirm my bid. "You are the current high bidder." And then, "Auction has ended." And I was the winner!!!! I had won the auction by eight cents. Ah, that glorious, sweet victory! I felt like a hero!

Then D looked through the bidding history and noticed that the other high bidder's last bid had been placed eight hours before. "A hollow victory!" he proclaimed. Nobody else was sitting on the edge of their seat to witness my victory. A slight let-down. But, hey, I still got the shoes!