Enlightened

I was reminded this morning on reading Anya's rant that it is good to get these things out of our systems. And then, fortuitously, I was on Facebook and saw this wonderful photograph on Art Drescher's page and, well, here we go:

Fewer than ten years ago, Joe bought me a pair of wonderful lamps for the living room. I'd seen them in the Pottery Barn catalog and admired them. I still do. They are wonderful lamps. But the shades haven't held up well (how many years is the typical lifespan of a lampshade, anyway?) and while I'd been putting up with their blot upon the aesthetics of the parlor and hoping to get out and find new ones, the other night in a burst of exuberance, Blackberry scrambled, inadvertently tugged at the cord and sent one of the lamps to the floor, finishing off the shade and making immediate replacement a necessity. I can't say that I minded, really.

So we went off to Manayunk thinking that either Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn would have a nice selection of shades and we could take care of that problem and also replace a shade from a bedroom lamp (black and beautiful and sophisticated but actually blocking the light from the lamp) and perhaps even pick up a shade for that little pottery lamp that has been sitting in the basement for about seven years waiting to be repaired.

For the impatient reader, the story has a happy ending.

But here's the rant: First of all, without giving us any personal notice whatsoever, Restoration Hardware closed its Manayunk store! The nerve! So we went to Pottery Barn, where, I must emphasize, the lamps needing attention had been purchased.  They had shades. Nice ones. In a wide variety of colors and even patterns. And every single one of them had a fitting-configuration (don't really know the words for what I need here) that differed from the lamps we have!  Instead of the shade fitting directly atop the thingie above the bulb and being further topped with a finial (phew, I remembered that terrific word), these shades required some sort of side support gizmos that we lacked. And, no, they did not have any shades that were not of this species. In fewer than ten years, it looked as though I was going to have to buy new lamps for the lack of the fitting style! I was livid.  Planned obsolescence, I muttered practically shouted, inspiring Joe to head directly for the door, dragging me behind him.

Yesterday morning he went over to that terrific hardware store in Chestnut Hill, Kilian's (a real hardware store, not a Lowe's or Home Depot big box of crap place) where he found and purchased new fittings for the living room and bedroom lamps and also bought what was needed to repair the little pottery lamp! Off, then, we went to King of Prussia (with me trembling in terror as previously posted). There at Restoration Hardware with the help of one Very Knowledgeable Ashley, we came home with three new beautiful shades and an order for one more, all on sale, and she waived the postage on the ordered one!

Life is good. Also lighter and brighter.