In 1988, I spotted an art glass perfume bottle in a shop in Blowing Rock, NC and was just blown away by it. But, it was $350 and totally not in my budget. We were back up there about 6 months later and I stopped by just to see it. Not to buy it. Kind of like going to a museum to see your favorite painting. It was marked down to $275 and was still out of my budget.

A couple of months later, Hurricane Hugo came ripping through SC (I lived in Charleston) and I evacuated to my parents’ house in the NC mountains. After the wind and rain blew past, they went to work and I got to entertain myself. I decided to go wander around Blowing Rock and stopped in to see my perfume bottle. They were selling out the collection and it was $125.

I knew several things. One was that it was not going to go down in price any farther. Another was that the power was out in Charleston and there wasn’t going to be any bank access until after I was paid. My paycheck was direct deposit so there WOULD be money in my account in 2 days and any checks I had written in the mean time would clear, no problem.

So, I wrote a check. I have no regrets nor remorse.