This Friday I got off work at 2:00, which is about 3 hours earlier than when I would usually get off on a day that I come in at 8:00.  After I ate lunch, I went to the bank with my paycheck just like I do every Friday.  Unfortunately my bank is by the mall.  From the extreme amount of traffic throughout the city and especially at the mall, I would assume that Lafayette is full of total morons who wait until 3 days before Christmas to go buy presents.

I'm not the pot calling the kettle black; I've done my Christmas shopping.  (I even have most things wrapped, which is different from most years.)  Anyway, I've been checking Toys R Us every few days to see if they have the new Star Wars sets.  The TRU here in Lafayette is just across the street from the bank, so I often go straight there after getting a pocket full of cash on payday.  I thought to myself today that it just might be worthwhile to try and spend 15 minutes to cross the street and get to the TRU, because if I didn't, and they'd just gotten the SW sets in, then all those parents hunting down LEGOs would buy them this weekend, and I'd have to wait until they got another shipment before I could buy my own new SW sets.  Then something occured to me.

I probably have more LEGOs than 99.9% of the people on the planet.  [gets out calculator, checks to see how many people 0.1% of the planet is, sees it's about 600,000 people]  OK, I guess I probably have more LEGOs that 99.999% of the people on the planet.  If you're here reading David's Block Blog on indylug.org (and you are), then you most likely fall into that same statistic.

Seein' as how my LEGO collection would dwarf a kid's collection, I don't really need those new Star Wars sets...yet.  If TRU did have those new SW sets, then I'm sure many parents would buy them for their kids as Christmas presents.  In fact I'm quite sure that they would all be snatched up by parents during this weekend.  (I assume this because even Wal-Mart, which hasn't had any BOGO sales, is wiped out of LEGO sets except for about 6 feet's worth on a single shelf.)  That means that every SW set I buy before December 25th is one more kid who doesn't get a super sweet new 2007 Star Wars set on Christmas morning.  Since the sets are new, I'm sure that there will be many more to come.  I'll have my chance to get those clone troopers and battle droids this winter when toy sales have taken a nosedive.  I skipped the TRU run today and just went home...which took about 35 minutes as opposed to the 5-10 that it usually takes.

Don't think that I'm not going to buy those SW sets.  Besides my love for Star Wars, the brand-loyal part of me feels the obligation to continue pulling LEGO out of its economic slump.  But I don't want my LEGO hobby to become buying binges fueled by blind greed instead of something fun.  If Christmas Day comes to an end, and I don't own any 2007 SW sets, I won't feel empty and incomplete.  A kid, however, could feel all down and out if he doesn't get any LEGO for Christmas.  As for me, I can wait.