(Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

It gave me pause recently to wonder how much time we really spend in the heat. If you think about it, we navigate from one air conditioned space to another. To move from the house or office to a car can’t take more than a few minutes. It may even take a few more for the AC in the car to cool things off.

But if your activities are limited to staying in air-conditioned environs, then is it possible we are spending even 20 or 30 minutes in the heat?

For all the complaining about the heat, I have to wonder if it is proportional to the amount of time we actually experience it.

This weekend I got a real bargain.

My youngest needed a new bed for his fall semester housing. I was in Austin and thought I would go to a consignment store to find something.

Naturally I was staying with Bubba. He directed me to craigslist. A new experience for me. I found a bed quickly for $95 with a matching side table.

We drove a bit to find the seller who already had the bed in the front yard. We inspected it and I concluded a good amount of work would be required to make everything work out. The lady told me I could not insult her by offering less. I suggested $65, she countered with $75. We had a deal.

I explained in my negotiating posture that I could do $344 of damage to a $95 bed.

We loaded up and took off. I had a secret weapon. Bubba.

When we got back to Bubba’s we rubbed the bed down with stain and began tightening up loose fittings. The sideboards required new attachments which Bubba fashioned out of an old two-by-four in his woodpile.

He used his table saw and electric drill and several clamps to bring the bed up to Bubba specs. By the time you factor the value of his labor and expertise he had put at least a couple hundred bucks worth of Bubba love into the bed. Having the right tools makes any job easier. Heck, if you have a printing press it’s pretty easy to make a newspaper, for instance.

Without his compassion on my child, the bed would have likely fallen apart under my watch in about 45-60 days.

Now the bed and table are easily worth $169.50.