Scoring at the Listen Center

As I mentioned earlier, I scored a great deal at the Listen Center, and it all stemmed from a trip over there that involved serendipity and a bit of whim.

I have a jacket from LL Bean that I wear all the time, but the zipper recently failed me. It did one of those things where after you zip it up, the bottom part comes undone and unzips from the bottom up. This, needless to say, presents problems when you're skiing and the wind chill is 10 below zero. It is also a rare example of where an LL Bean product has let me down, because the jacket was only about two years old.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. Take the jacket back, they'll give you a new one. I have two problems with this. First, I've done this several times, with shoes and jackets. I know that LL Bean is a great company that stands by their products, and if I'd gone in, they would most assuredly have replaced the coat.

Which brings me to my second problem, which is that I was not that into that particular style of jacket anymore. It is their most popular style, too. What I don't like about it is that it has an elastic, stretchy waistband, and I'd prefer a straight, more stylish (hip?) inelastic drawstring waist section so I can remain fabulously in fashion.

Either way, I needed a new coat. I was told I could also have the zipper repaired at a laundromat, but that wouldn't solve style issue. I could have bought a new coat, but shopping is painful for me when it involves anything that costs over $20. So I resolved to check out the Listen Center, and my upper limit was, you guessed it, $20. I figured my chances were good.

I slipped off to the Listen when the kids went over to their friends, and did I ever score, sort of. I found a new coat (LL Bean), and not only was it what I was looking for, it was on sale, and cost me $5.00. Hallelujah! The only thing is, it's a little big, but perfect for when I wear a fleece under it, which will work great when it's cold and we're skiing. I would have preferred something that I can wear by itself on a cool Spring day, which I can do with this one, but as I mentioned, it's a little big.

Oh well, when you're being cheap, you get what you pay for, and in most instances, that's just fine, though my Mentor, PR, and JH and his magic bag of tools might disagree.

For the record, I wore my new coat skiing at the Skiway in a freezing cold snowstorm, and it worked like a charm.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.