Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was Originally Posted on November 27, 2004 by lavarock

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The food was great, the night was long.

After a fantastic dinner with friends up in Waimea, I watched a movie and then, about 11pm, headed down for a long night at Wal-Mart with a couple hundred of my “closest” neighbors

The other day, my TV tuner gave up. I noticed a TV sale at WalMart for the “Friday – Day After Thanksgiving Sale”. Last year I was many hundreds of people from the door and decided that this year I would get there a bit earlier.

As I drove down from the mountain (and within sight of Mauna Kea), the sprinkles I had been in, turned into heavier rain. However, just before COSTCO, the rain stopped. I got to Wal-Mart at about 11:30pm and parked. I would be #16 in line, just 6 and a half hours until the doors opened! I was also the first of the group to have not brought a chair to sit in… I thought about a chair, but you know how it is, I put it off and never followed through.

Still, it was not too bad. I sat on the ground some and walked around a bit, my fellow waiters holding my spot.

As door opening neared, the line got longer and the chatting became more animated. Finally at about 6am the doors opened and we headed in amidst comments from some of us to not push. I have to admit that the Kona people are very well behaved and except for a few people hoping to sneak into line, I have no qualms hanging out with these neighbors anytime someone comes up with a reason to stand outside all night Besides, with such great weather all night, who can complain?

A few hours before opening, the store distributed store maps so that we could plan out attack. Mine turned out to be a simple sweep. I needed a 27″ TV, a couple DVD players, a couple of electrical can openers and a flat electrical grill pan. In my case, it was in the door, 1/3 of the way towards the back of the store (grabbing a cart on the way), then a sharp left-hand turn and grab the pickup slip for the TV (which was outside in the container trucks). Then I popped two DVD players into the cart, made a short jog past the photo department and down to small appliances. I had a slight problem finding the griddle, but was soon off to the checkout area. I made one last scan of the flier to ensure I didn’t forget something and was 1st through the checkout! As I headed out the door it took a minute or two to get the cart thought he crowd (which was still going into the store).

Total time in the store… 6 minutes or less. So by 6:12 I had picked up the TV and was on my way to the Royal Kona Resort, where I dropped off a DVD for someone who could not stand all night outside

Now if only Christmas shopping had been as quick and simple as this!

I have to admit that based upon the lists people had while we chatted in line, retailers have nothing to worry about this year!

In other news, I’ll be finishing up figuring out what gift baskets I’ll be offering this year. I also have to perform a full court press on advertising the website well before Christmas and I have a few extra domain names to set up. They will all point to the same site in the hopes it will raise me a bit up in the rankings.

Recently I purchased containers for growing my new coffee plants and am about ready to start the nursery. I am clearing an area near the house and will soon lay down the weed mat and put up a fence and water lines.

The weather has been great and I’m glad to be here