I have a chair mat void in my life and it’s getting to me.

The last one I bought was so long ago that I can’t remember any of the details surrounding the purchase.

Oh, I think I may have bought it in an office supply place, but I’m really not sure.

It survived a move across the country and after six years here and at least half that many in the place I lived previously, I came to take its durability for granted.

Recently the mat began developing cracks and small chunks have come apart from it.

The wheels of my office chair began hitting and sinking into the ruts that were the holes of exposed carpet segments under the mat. I periodically had to stop my chair rolling around and pick it up out of the ruts in order to secure spots on the now dwindling good surface areas of the mat.

I started thinking I could use the mat as a metaphor for something. It was once brand new with no signs of ever failing. But fail it did, yet not before delivering a good many years of faithful service.

If I lived alone I probably would have utilized some duct tape at the first signs of cracking. My goal would have been to tape the cracks before they became full-blown pot holes so as to make the mat last a bit longer.

But when your living arrangement is other than just being with yourself, aesthetics and the sensibilities of others must be considered. So, duct tape use, in my case, is out of the question.

By now it dawned on me I would have to break down and see about getting a new chair mat. Probably the last straw was stepping on and cutting my foot slightly where a jagged little pill of a rut clipped me in motivation.

Since the mat had presently crossed over into full-blown safety violation it was now time to hop on Amazon and peruse the myriad of chair mat possibilities that have burst on the scene since my last one.

I try not to read too many reviews but I always end up reading too many reviews. I get exhausted reading reviews as if you practice over-reading reviews you will come away with a mind so fogged as to not be in your right mind to make a coherent purchasing selection.

Too many mats

What I was not prepared for was the sheer quantity of mat choices available–and all with their sundry pros and cons.

This one cracks, so does this one, this one didn’t crack, but it split and ended up completely separating from the mat. You get the picture.

What’s a person to do?

This is precisely the reason Amazon introduced 1-click ordering.

It’s like throwing darts on a world map to decide a vacation destination. You click the 1-click and then bam! You’re done and much like a dart that lands on Detroit in the dart vacay destination game, you’re well on your way to quality rolling time that’s well spent–provided it’s everything ol’ cracky was before it became, well, ol’ cracky.

It’s arriving soon, but not before this one last blog post featuring a bumpy ride to this point.

I’ll keep you posted as time permits.