Too high-tech for my own good

With the weather getting warmer here in Nashville, I decided that it was time to go out and buy one of those window sunshades (those cardboard or shiny bubble-wrap accordion things you see in people's front windshields) for my car. I wasn't really worried about my dashboard cracking (one of the big reasons advertised on sunshade packaging), but I was worried about getting third degree burns on my hands from the black steering wheel of my car, which seems to have the ability to heat up to temperatures upwards of 100 degrees.

The problem was I couldn't remember where I had ever seen one of those things for sale. Quite a few people seemed to have them, but where did they get them? I decided that, instead of driving around to 10 different stores, trying to find a place that sells them, I would just go to amazon.com and buy one there.

Amazon had about 500 different sun shades, most of which were customized for different types of cars. I spent half an hour narrowing down the search to find the generic and cheap sunshades, before finally just sorting the amazon.com results "least to most expensive" (duh!).

After finding a few that were under $10, I suddenly got cold feet and spent another 30 minutes researching sunshades, just to make sure that they're not a big scam and a waste of money. I found a research project done by an MIT student involving a box, a piece of glass, a light bulb, and different sunshade materials, which proved that using a sunshade can keep the interior of your car up to 30 degrees cooler. The research project also found that the silver bubble-wrap material was one of the most effective sunshades, though even cardboard did accomplish some cooling.

An hour's worth of web-browsing later, I was ready to commit and bought a silver sunshade for $6.99 (+ $5.00 S&H) and had it shipped to me at work. To make the shipping more worth while, I bought an additional sunshade for my husband's car. I couldn't wait for them to arrive!

Two days later, my sunshades were delivered to work. My co-workers gathered around, interested to see what would come in such a long box. Someone guessed long-stemmed roses. There was universal disappointment when I pulled out two silver sunshades.

"Where did you buy those from?" a co-worker asked.
"I bought them online," I responded, proudly.
My co-workers looked at me incredulously.
"Online?" a few of them said.
"I didn't know where to buy them," I said, quietly.
"Why didn't you ask us?"
"I didn't think of it," I said, more quietly still.
"Well, you should have at least tried an Auto Zone," they said.
"I didn't know where one was."
My co-workers looked at each other and then looked back at me sadly.
"There's an Auto Zone just up the street from here. Look out the window. You can see it from your desk!" one of them said, starting to laugh.
I had nothing to say at that point, and they all went back to their desks, giggling.

Word spread through the company. "That's the girl who actually paid for shipping to buy two sunshades! She didn't even know there was an Auto Zone within eyesight of her office!" I got a lot of questions like, "How are your imported sunshades working out for you?!"

Ironically, the sunshades were shipped from a company in Tennessee.

Yep, I'm sometimes too high-tech for my own good.