PATRICK, SAY IT AIN'T SO.

I just had to copy this article written by the man who preached for us at Memorial Drive last Sunday, Patrick Mead. He eBayed again!


Ah, Jeeze, I did it again. Over the weekend in Tulsa there were times I retreated to my hotel room, soaked to the skin, freezing, and swearing I would not emerge again until Spring… or until I had to speak again.
The wireless connection at Courtyard wasn’t the fastest… and excuse me while I go on a rant, here. I recently stayed at Embassy Suites in Dublin, OH, an upscale suburb of Columbus. The company that brought me in paid $165 for my one night stay in a standard room. However, to connect to the internet, I had to pay $14.95 per day. The TV was nice but the cable had only 15 channels. Why is it that I consistently find that the higher upscale the hotel is — and the more you pay to stay there — the more they nickel and dime you for internet, breakfast, etc.? Courtyard’s breakfast was free for those who stayed there and it was great… but I was put in a Hilton — yes, a Hilton — where the internet was $10 a day, very slow, and available only via ethernet cable and the breakfast was NOT included. It cost a flat rate $9 a day to eat breakfast whether you had fifteen waffles or a single yogurt.
At a small no-name hotel in the sticks, I get free, fast internet and 40+ channels on the TV. For one fourth the price. What is going on here?
Anyway… back to Courtyard. The hotel was very nice, the internet was free (if rather slow), and I was thrilled to be out of the pounding snow outside. After I got done with my work, I surfed over to eBay “just to look” at the guitars for sale. I have sold a ton of guitars on eBay (and a few ukuleles, a banjo, and a six string banjitar) over the last year and I didn’t have any desire to buy any more (really, officer, I was just standing here) but what could it hurt to look, right?
I saw a few that I threw lowball bids on, knowing they would be trumped immediately and I was right. Almost. The Martin and the Traveler EG-1 were quickly bid up out of the basement level so I abandoned them but an Alvarez AD70S was sitting there for just over a hundred. It is a $450 guitar, easy. I am a sucker for Alvarez when they get up into the 70 series and higher. Lower priced Alvarez’s aren’t really great, but the 70 series up to the Yairis are incredible. The 70 has a solid spruce top and… here is my weakness… rosewood back and sides. I am a BIG fan of rosewood. For fingerstyling, it just makes the guitar sound like bells. It can bring tears to the eyes (and I often bring tears to the eyes of those who hear me play).
I knew better… but I had time. I was bored. I threw in a lowball bid just a tad over a hundred… and got the guitar. It should arrive this week. With shipping, it is still a long way from $200 for a nearly new Alvarez.
Father, forgive me, for I have eBayed again. Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to be out unsupervised. Or in, for that matter.