Amazon Wish List v. Needs

Photo Credit: Amazon.com

Don’t you love the concept of the Amazon wish list? You add stuff you feel guilty about purchasing because you don’t actually need it – in hopes that some kind soul, typically a close family member, will get you for a birthday or holiday gift.This works nicely for the parents of toddlers who can share the list when grandparents inquire about the little darling might enjoy.

Yet all that exists on my own Amazon wish list is James Patterson’s NYPD Red 4. It’s the next book in a trashy but gripping detective series based in my hometown, but it won’t be released until March 2016.

There’s a Mephisto Women's Elenor Fashion Sneaker -- priced at a low, low $375 -- that pops up whenever I go online. It’s available in chestnut or wine, but sadly not in a size 8. My desire for this particular item reminds me of the $140 Hunter rain boots a friend told me she really wanted. That was before the Head of the Charles Regatta weekend, and she thought that if she had them, and if it were raining, she’d look really chic strutting up and down the banks of the river, officiating as a volunteer. She ended up believing that $140 could be better spent on something else, and besides the weather that weekend was lovely.

In truth, I’m thinking that Elenor Fashion Sneaker might be perfect for going on walks with my grandchildren in California next month. Of course it wouldn’t kill me to wear the Nike running shoes I already own, or for a touch of style, the Thierry Rabotin black suede walking shoes also in my closet.

And then there are things not even available on Amazon. That would include a gift card redeemable for a Boston rowing season that ends just before the first heavy snowfall. Last spring, summer and fall provided rowers with unusually beautiful weather for getting onto the Charles nearly every day. Yours truly logged in well over 700 miles, but knows she’s now on borrowed time.

Frost on the dock be damned! I’m going rowing later today, even if the predictions of 21 mile an hour winds come true. But that email from the rowing committee at Cambridge Boat Club saying it’s too cold to go out in my skinny carbon fiber shell could come any day now.

That imaginary Amazon gift card could close the gap between the time it’s too cold to row, and the conditions are just right for snowshoeing. Were I to find a hiking partner for those “gap” months, I suppose I’d be happy for the opportunity to exercise outdoors, and the opportunity to get extra wear out of the new high visibility green, Mammut weatherproof windbreaker with underarm breathing vents. Okay, that was an item I wanted more than I needed.

At the risk of sounding greedy, there’s one more item I would put on an Amazon wish list if only I could. That’s a pair of Concept 2 oars with Skinny Shaft at a modest $640. According to the promotional materials, “The Skinny shaft debuted at its first Olympics in the 2012 London Olympics. 19% of all medalists were rowing with the Skinny shaft.”

A world-class rower at Cambridge Boat Club put the bee in my bonnet, suggesting I’d be faster if I got these new blades. On the other hand, my coach Boris Kusturic has told me the blades I already own are perfectly adequate. In any case, he has strongly advised me against ordering something I haven’t even tried.

Listen! If you were expecting a post about bridging the income inequality gap, providing free civil legal aid to every low-income family in need, or giving all of America’s children an outstanding education, regardless of means, I apologize for being self-absorbed.