Thunder's Cost Justification Analysis

Delora thinks back to her salad days in New York City selling computers at IBM.  She remembers spending months of rigorous training at IBM school in Atlanta.  Besides dancing nightly at the Lime Light, she remembers learning everything she could about computer components, accounting and how to cost justify just about ANYTHING!  Cost justification at IBM, of course, was all about how to save people money doing things they could do faster (and cheaper) with computers.  Overtime, Delora has modified the meaning of cost justification.  Now she uses this skill to justify spending more money, when alot has already been spent.


With Thunder missing, there is an unspoken question in Delora's household.  The question is:  How much dinero will Delora and her husband spend to find their lost dog?  Delora ponders the variables. She acknowledges that if she had lost a TIMEX watch, with no emotional value, for example, it would be cheaper and easier to buy a new one for $79 than it would be to place an ad and hire a private detective.  Then Delora thinks about how much she would spend if she lost her nice Grandmother.  Then, there would be no stone unturned, no expense spared to find her, right?

Thunder's cost justification analysis falls somewhere in the middle...

It starts like this:

Puppy ($900)

Then you add this:

Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

8 years of medical care from Paul Newman's homeopathic Veteranarian - $$$

And this:

Playmate for Thunder

And this:

8 years of Organic food from Paul Newman's homeopathic Veterinarian -  $$$

And this:

Quarterly dental scrapings from the Homeopathic Veterinarian's

 dog whisperer from California who can clean teeth and improve dog breath without anesthesia.

And this:

Inevitable Dental work with general anesthesia to remove a few teeth - $$$

And this:

Dog Trainer to teach dogs how to sit after 3 months of weekly lessons - $$$

And this:

Halloween costumes - 2006

And these:

Accessories

And this:

Sportswear to commemorate World Series Win (t-shirts, home and away colors, scarves, etc.) -

And one of these: 

Flight to Spain - $


With these sunken costs, Delora believes she can properly cost justify one more ad in the paper!