I'm so not the demographic

Once upon a time we used to like shopping at IKEA. Do you remember the old store on 36 St? I knew my way around it blindfolded. I knew all the shortcuts, and could tell you the fastest way to get to anything starting from anywhere. Then a few months ago they opened the store in Deerfoot Meadows. Maybe it was a few years ago; I lose track of time so easily now. It's all becoming a blur.

(I just looked it up. The "new" location opened in 2004. They are doing a huge renovation and expansion this year.)

The confusing part of the story is that although I've been in the new store any number of times, I've no idea where anything is. The shortcuts confuse me. I wander along, always surprised by what's around the next corner. The only thing for sure is there will be more stuff. More and more stuff.

We used to be there, so it seemed, every other weekend getting stuff for the house. This computer is sitting on an IKEA desk. The storage cabinet beside it is the famous IVAR and there's a ton of it downstairs. Everywhere you look in our house there is IKEA stuff. Plus stuff sitting on the IKEA stuff. And stuff on that stuff. I digress, in a stuffy sort of way.

Today we were in there again, looking at spending a coupon Linda got when she did the Christmas tree bough thing back about the time the ground froze. We wanted a little cabinet for the media room to put more DVDs in, to tidy up the space.

Along the way we were also looked at floor lamps, though I'd looked them over a few weeks ago, and knew I wasn't likely to find anything I liked. All of them looked cheap and sort of retro-60's in a tacky way. The real lighting places are closed on Sunday, so I'll check them out tomorrow.

At the same time as we were wandering through looking for an appropriate cabinet, I was people watching. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in the store. Oldest by quite a bit. Lots of young parents pushing strollers, and pausing in awkward spots to do something, I'm not sure what. Some of the IKEA stuff is durable and well made, some is, well, much less so. I was listening to one couple talking about how well made something looked, but I would have taken bets it would fall apart within the week. How standards have changed.

To make a long story short we didn't see anything we liked. It's sort of a peculiar little space we had in mind and nothing would fit. As I think of it now, going there was a somewhat depressing experience. I'm in the mood to buy less stuff now. The things I do buy are likely to be carefully chosen and much better quality than low cost consumer fare.

As I write this, it occurs to me that today might be the last time I'm ever in IKEA. We don't often know about last times for anything. We think there will be more, then life intervenes. Shit happens.

The best part of the trip was stopping at the farmer's market on the way home and having lunch at Big T's. So yummy! The people watching there is much better, people of all ages. I love the vibe, and we strolled around a little just to enjoy. Of course we picked up a treat at Yum; I don't think I've ever walked past it empty handed.

I've had several photo trips down into Fish Creek this winter, and was sort of thinking today might be another one. It might yet, but the light has been kind of crappy. I spent a bit of time going back through older photos trying to improve the keywording, and discovered it's tough to tell which bridge is which.

This is just upstream of bridge 1. I couldn't quite get to where I wanted to go without putting my feet in freezing water just a bit deeper than my boots. The ice was just thick enough to be tempting, so I didn't.