The day finally arrived. My wife and I had been so good at paying our bills in a timely manner and living within our means for years that the opportunity finally presented itself.

The chance to make the last mortgage or car payment you ask?

I wish.

No, because of our hard work we were finally able to upgrade the 32″ gigantic tube television that has been sitting in our living room for ten years with a new state of the art high-definition model. Strangely, the television we were looking at (a 51″ plasma) was actually $200 cheaper than what we had paid for the now ancient 32″ model we currently own. You’ve gotta love technology.

An excursion to our local Best Buy was in order and so Saturday night, off we went.

Upon arriving at the store we stared in awe at the enormity and clarity of the televisions that adorned the back wall. LCD, LED, Plasma, Smart TV’s, man this place had them all. I even saw a 75″ unit mounted on the wall with deluxe surround sound. “Wow, Ultraman would sure look good on THAT”, I thought to myself.

The model we were looking at was a 51″ Samsung plasma unit that would not only be an excellent replacement for the old tube model we had but would also look awesome mounted above our fireplace. It seems like hanging a television above the mantel is all the rage these days and who am I to argue?

As is almost always the case when I purchase a big ticketed item, when the Best Buy employee checked his inventory he quickly determined that the model we wanted was not in stock. Fortunately though, there was one available at another store 20 miles away that we could go pick up. Although the hour was late we decided to make the purchase anyway with the intention of going to the other store first thing in the morning.

The next day I got a late start, as is typical for a Sunday, and didn’t get moving until well into the afternoon. I drove the twenty miles to retrieve our new television. It was all boxed up and fit perfectly in my car. The sales associate had informed me to travel with it in an upright position and not flat so I took the necessary steps to ensure this was done.

After arriving home we quickly began dismantling the old beast of a television that had sat there since the turn of the century. Cables and dust flew everywhere but I didn’t mind. The thrill of actually seeing something in high-definition made any mess made well worth it.

Having cleaned up the area we began to un-box the 51″ Samsung Plasma. I started peeling off all of the sticky plastic stuff surrounding the unit and that’s when I noticed something…..

Uh oh.

There seemed to be a scratch on the screen. At first I thought it might have been the way the plastic covering was stretching but as we pulled the television out of the box more my worst fear was confirmed. It wasn’t a scratch at all. Half of the screen was cracked. It looked as if it had been hit by a baseball.

So in addition to having a 51″ television that’s useless I also now have a 32″ disassembled boulder sitting on my living room floor with DVD’s and cables lying all over the place. But come hell or high water there was no way I was putting the old TV system back together. This busted plasma was going back for something else… TODAY!

I packed up the unit as best (haha “best”, get it?) I could, made my way out into the cold winter’s night and took it back to the store nearest my home. The salesman sure got a good laugh at my expense. Apparently, he had never seen a plasma busted like that. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

Ironically, it was at this point that fate stepped in.

There happened to be an LG plasma television sitting boxed up right next to the counter where the sales guy had been chuckling at my misfortune. This model by coincidence had just gone on sale and was actually $20 cheaper than the one that had originally given me angina.

Much to the chagrin of the store clerk, before purchasing it I made certain we opened the box first and took a peek inside. I just wanted to make sure that Babe Ruth didn’t use this one for target practice too. No cracks….SOLD!

This morning, in addition to having a new 50″ plasma television sitting in my living room there’s an extra $20 in my wallet for about ten Grande Starbucks. And Ultraman never looked so good. Thanks Best Buy!

So… anyone interested in a humongous 32″ tee-vee?