T - 8: Barbie and Ken(nedy)

That's my last barbie against the wall, It's a wonder, known as the Big Green Egg. That big black thing in the front is our 5-burner gas grill, and if you look closely you may notice the Weber in the background.

As the delivery man said when he brought us our Big Green Egg the other day, "Boy, you sure are into barbecues." He would have been even more impressed had he known about the other Weber around the corner. Some people have sculpture gardens. We have a barbecue garden.

One of the things this blog has taught me is that I don't know myself as well as I thought I did. Writing most days about whatever pops into my head is teaching me that I was probably a lot better off not letting whatever it was that was popping inside my head get outside. The Big Green Egg is a good case in point.

I have for years assumed it was Linda who was our family's overshopper. Well, let me be clear. She is. However, I now admit that she is not the only one.

I don't know what makes me buy things that really are not needed. And I especially don't know what it is that made me buy the Big Green Egg so close to my retirement. I know it's considered a superior barbie, and I have watched with jealousy as it was fired up on the barbecue cooking reality show. (Hmmm, do you think product placement works?) But I really didn't need it, and I am starting to worry that barbie is to Don as crack is to a junkie.

Oh sure, the Big Green Egg is considered the best for smoking food. That's how we justified buying it, perhaps not remembering that we almost never smoke food. But we will, we promise ourselves. No, in the end I don't really know why I decided we needed the Big Green Egg. I have already deleted four or five paragraphs trying to explain it, because they were either untrue or did nothing to explain it. Perhaps in the end it is no more mysterious to collect barbecues than, say, stamps or coins. Or perhaps not.

I know thinking about all this has changed my views on world affairs. I agree with Barack Obama's political positions most of the time, and have disagreed profoundly with many of John McCain's. But now I read he has seven houses and 13 cars, and I can't help feeling that maybe I have more in common with him than I ever realized. I bet he wouldn't wonder why I have four barbecues.