Two Hours Dicking Around In Beaver

I made a whole mess of dice bracelets when I was getting amped up for VLV11. Drilled all the dice, strung them together, put them up on my etsy storefront…

There was one color combo that I really, really liked. Red, with black spacer dice. I decided to take it out of the store and keep it for myself. But, since I had already posted it, I gave it a day. ONE day, and then I’d take it down.

It sold.

Well, okay, that is kind of the point of me, you know, selling them. Fine, I’ll go to my local supply store and buy more of those dice. The fancy, translucent ones. And I’ll make myself a new one, just for me. Red, with black spacers.

My supply store is sold out.

I go back every now and then to check, but they don’t know when (if) they’ll get those fancy dice back in. I make more of the “regular” white dice variety. Which are precisely not flying off the virtual shelves of my store.

I bring my store stock with me to Las Vegas, so my friends and I always have bracelets to coordinate with our outfits. I see a vendor there, selling nearly-identical bracelets for twice the price. Personally, I like mine a little better, because I use mini-dice in between the standard game-play dice, and his just have regular ol’ beads. But I don’t have a vendor booth at VLV, nor do I want to (and be trapped in a booth all day and night, instead of out playing), and I doubt I’d make much money selling $7 bracelets anyway. Coincidentally, a couple of my gals buy from me the bracelets they’d been borrowing. I feel a little funny taking money from friends, but the bracelets do cost me materials and time, so I guess I’d better get used to it.

Waiting for the hotel shuttle one evening, a woman in line asks Alison where she got her bracelet. She indicates me, I pass along my card, a conversation ensues. Eventually, nothing comes of it.

A few weeks later, I get an email. It’s the woman from the shuttle line. She’s still thinking about Alison’s bracelet, and wants to know if I have an online store or anything. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I invite her to have a look, and to ask me if there’s anything she has in mind but doesn’t see. She takes a good look around, even into my sold listings…

She wants the red one.

I checked my local store again: no go. I’ve looked around online before, but now I make a real effort: There are plenty of translucent red dice to be found, but the price point makes it impossible to string an affordable bracelet from them. Unless I buy a block of TWO HUNDRED. Which, with shipping, is a little more than I’d been paying at my local supplier, but still within the realm of a $7 bracelet. Except that these dice don’t have the rounded corners that I like to use. For some reason, I can only find those in blocks that cost twice the price. And so the search continues…

About the title: My pal Nick is driving out from California to visit, and while he was plotting out a route to take, I suggested that he spend the night in Beaver, Utah. Because, you know, that would be funny. To spend the night in Beaver. Ha ha. Anyway, he wound up choosing a different stop along the highway, but I asked him to think of me and laugh heartily when he eventually drives through Beaver. Maybe stop for a coffee or something. He replied with a hypothetical, “Sorry I’m late, but I spent two hours dicking around in Beaver.” … Okay, maybe you had to be there. And also, to have developed the tasteful sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy. But I thought it was hysterical.