Good on you.Ack wrote:I do this too, though because it's not generally as cold down here, I'll often get them a bottle of water and a candybar.
It's been in the thirties lately, and the locals haven't acclimated to temperatures in the fifties yet. The volunteers really seem overly appreciative of such a small gesture of kindness, and when I mention "I'd like to get a cup of coffee for the bell ringer" usually the coffee is on the house.
And if it isn't on the house, I only end up spending between thirty to forty clams a year. My wife says I should just carry a pot of coffee around with me when I run my errands.
Speaking of:
Smile: Most of my X-Mas shopping is done and without hassle. I also sort of kinda finagled a free robe from Ulta.
The deal was "Free robe with any $40 fragrance purchase". I spent well over that (A shot glass of shampoo there will run you twenty five bucks) and asked about the promotion. Luck not being on my side, there was a bit of a line and I ended up getting checked out by the store manager. I cloyingly asked about the free robe promotion, and was told "I'm sorry, but it's only valid with a forty dollar purchase on fragrances".
I popped open the top of one of the bottles of conditioner I bought and with a cheshire grin said "Tell me this doesn't have a fragrance", and lo and behold she laughed and gave me a free robe.
I snapped my ankle pretty bad. I was moving my grandmas dog kennel out of her house and came down with all my weight on my ankle sideways. 
Getting messed with at school sucks.
My laptop took a dump. A couple of weeks ago the backlight started flickering intermittently, then went out completely. Hooked it to a VGA monitor. Worked fine for about a week, now the computer won't boot. Oh, and my daughter broke the screen hinges too - that was my fault, I let her play with it.