Helmet? Priceless.

On Saturday, a week after someone doored me, The BF took me to Sports Authority to buy me a bike helmet. This was actually something he wanted to buy me a month ago on my birthday - the accident just seemed to make it more prevalent. So we took a trip to our local store and I chose the Slant helmet by Bell in blue and silver (left). It's a sharp looking helmet, and because it looks more like a ballcap, I don't feel so dorky wearing it (vanity is a horrible thing).

The helmet was priced at $54.99, and while I wasn't crazy about The BF spending that on a helmet for me, it was something he really wanted to do. I noticed that the first one we chose didn't have a UPC tag on it, so to keep them from having to go through all the motions of looking it up and getting a price check, I selected another one.

We got to the counter and the SA clerk dude scanned it. He then made a curious face. He looked at the register display, then looked at the price tag. Then he scanned it again. Then again. At this point, I was getting ready for a fight of some kind, like him telling us it was scanning at $80 and we'd have to pay that. But instead, he almost giggled, and said:

I'm sorry guys. I've scanned this three times and every time it comes up 47 cents. And since that's basically our mistake and I don't want to get a whole bunch of people involved in this, the cost is 47 cents - or, well ... 51 cents with tax.

We couldn't believe it. Obviously, the item had been mismarked (I'm not sure what a "Scuffle Light" is but that's what comes up on the receipt). But if we had walked to the counter with the first one I had in-hand that did NOT have a tag on it, they would have looked it up and charged us the correct price - not that we knew any of this. But since the clerk seemed very comfortable to sell the helmet to us at less than 1% of its actual price, The BF was very comfortable paying as much for it. We gave the clerk 55 cents and in all the giddyness, he closed the register drawer before he could give us our 4 cents change - and he apologized for it. We donated the amount as a tip.

I think The BF and I are still both in shock that it all happened this way. First of all, it was a helmet that I actually liked, given that I was originally against the idea of even wearing one. Also, it's odd that something stopped us from just taking the first one and getting another instead. And third, the salesman was so absolutely cool about the whole thing.

And I really like the helmet.

Oh, and thanks to all who sent emails of concern about my accident. My leg is healing nicely (the picture at left was taken one week after the accident). The bruising ended up getting out of control as it began to heal. I'm also bruised around my left ankle, heel, and over the top of my left foot. I also have a large hematoma on my left calf that is about the size of a golf ball and is pretty painful. But after a trip to my doctor, I found out that is will be slow in healing and will eventually be reabsorbed into my system, which could take another week or two.

And hey, let's be careful out there.
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