Personal news, commentary and ramblings
Bedtime: 2130
Awoke: 0430
Target Store: Fred Meyer, 164th Ave, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0530
Place in line: 3
Wiis Available: 0
Target Store: Fred Meyer, Mill Plain, Vancouver WA
Arrival: 0615
Place in line: 3
Wiis Available: 0
I could have waited in line at Circuit City until their 1000 opening time, but Tina had physical therapy at 0800. Tomorrow is going to be Part 4 repeated.
Today was freight day for Portland Fred Meyer stores.
Bedtime: 2100
Awoke: 0350 (20 minutes before alarm)
Target Store: Wood Village Fred Meyer
Arrived: 0430
The trucks arrived at about 0530 and left an hour later. At about 0630 I called the Glisan Fred Meyer to get directions in case I needed it as an alternative. Expecting to get the phone system, I was surprised when a real person answered and put me through to Electronics. They told me they had no Wii’s, but I now had a great idea. I called Electronics at the Fred Meyer where I was waiting and asked if they had any Wii’s. They did not. Next I called two more to find the nearest and to get the lowdown on their inventory.
The nearest at 148th and Division said they would not complete freight until after 0800, so I motored over there where I waited with a small crowd of about 10 people. There were six in line when I arrived, but there were others that later got out of their cars. There was no orderly line and I could see that it had the potential to turn out badly. At 0700 the store manager let us in and gave us the lowdown. They did not expect to have freight completed until 0830. They would not hand out numbers (which has been customary in all my experience with this) until they knew if they had any. If they did have any, they would award them based on a lottery system. Needless to say, the woman who was first in line at 0500 was more than a little upset.
Fast-forward to 0815 after extensive browsing of the very small electronics department. The inventory clerk informed us that they had received no units.
Tomorrow is Circuit City freight day and Fred Meyer will have another freight day on Friday. If nothing else, I was able to figure out a better plan for Friday based on today’s experience.
I awoke shortly after 6:00 am with two stores on the agenda for the morning:
Arrival: 7:00 (opening)
Wiis Available: 3
Wiis Sold Before Me: 3
Arrival time for first in line: 5:00 am (with no guarantee there would be any in stock)
Arrival: 7:20 (40 minutes before open)
Place in line: 1st
Wiis Available: 0
Arrival: 8:10
Wiis Available: 0
I hit the last Target on the way home. I drove 23 miles altogether. Tomorrow is a big day as it’s a stocking day for the all the Portland Fred Meyers.
A few weeks ago we stopped by the Gresham Best Buy to ask about their Wii availability. I was informed that they were holding back inventory until the 17th when they would put them all on sale. I marked the date on my calendar.
Last week I learned that Target would also be offering another round of Wii’s on the 17th. With that knowledge, I committed to “camping out” in order to get one for the boys. Since the Wii had already been out a month at that point, I figured that most of the hard-core buyers had already gotten theirs and I wouldn’t have to camp out for more than a few hours.
I arrived at the Best Buy in Gresham at about 3:30 am. I quickly counted 15-20 people already there and decided to move on to the Best Buy in Vancouver. On the way there I swung by the Airport Way store where there over 20 people in line including 3 tents. I was happy to see two fathers within the first ten people.
I arrived at the Vancouver Best Buy at almost exactly 4:00. When I arrived, the rumor was that they had 17 units. I was informed that I was 7 back from unit #17. Having explored the other options, I decided to stick it out anyway and hope for the best.
I have learned that after the store manager arrives, he will, in an attempt to preserve order and perhaps to bestow mercy upon the faithful, often hand out numbers to those in line so that they can warm themselves for an hour or so before the store opens for them to buy their item. Both Target and Best Buy were slated to open at 8:00 and would likely hand out numbers at 7:00.
Some after I arrived, a guy arrived who “guaranteed” that there would be 40 units. This was encouraging to all around me. More and more people arrived to shiver with us in the 27º cold as it got later and later. By 6:40, there were approximately 60-70 people in line when the manager came out to tell us that he only had 18 units. I hopped back in the car and sped off to Portland in the hope that I might be able to catch a shorter line at one of the Targets.
I arrived at the Target at 122nd and Glisan at about 6:55. There were about 20 people in line and they told me that the manager had already told them that there were only 15 units. I decided to move on.
After stopping for a gallon of gas, my next stop was the Fairview Target on Halsey, where there was nobody in line when I got there at 7:05. However, the parking lot was quite full of idling cars, so I approached one to find out the story. The manager had handed out numbers five minutes ago and there were none left. My source advised trying EB Games in Wood Village, which was only another five minutes away.
Five minutes later I found 10 people in line for 6 units. By that time, I’d had enough and headed home.
Thus, this week I will be calling stores every day and perhaps camping out for a few hours some mornings. If that fails, I would like to give the boys an empty box with an IOU inside, but I’m not sure Tina is down with that. The whole time I waited in line I kept picturing the looks on their faces when they opened it up. It would be an absolute surprise because we have told them repeatedly they have to earn the money to buy one. I want this to be the best Christmas they ever had.
The wind was blowing very hard last night when I came home. So hard that it caused Max service disruptions throughout my ride home, causing my hour ride home to take an hour and a half. While I waited downtown for the train to arrive, the wind was blowing hard enough that I had to hold my bike in place. Never mind trying to read while waiting!
Graham had his holiday program at school last night and shortly after we got home last night all the lights went out. Graham was scared at first but we declared the situation “cool” and “fun” and he was soon at ease. We played Name That Tune (Christmas edition) with my iPod and the Boomtube. The boys and Tina went to bed around 9:30. I stayed up and played Brain Age on Thomas’ DS. Just as I finished my Sudoku puzzle the lights blinked on at about 10:15.
The aftermath this morning is lots of downed trees and branches across the Portland area. Winds on the coast gusted over 100 mph. Power outages are still prevalent throughout the area. Most schools were delayed two hours, but not ours. Here’s some links:
This morning I visited four Walmarts in an attempt to get a certain Christmas present. In each case they only had enough units for the lucky 28 (or 15 or 12 or 9) people that had arrived before me. Hopefully, this item will become available at other stores soon. Interesting factoid: it takes only 45 minutes to drive to three Walmarts from our house. I could have added the fourth for another 10 minutes probably, but they made their items available at 12:01 this morning. The others all started selling at 7:00 or 8:00 this morning.
My shoulder is till sore and pops with certain hand movements. I’ve been trying to keep Nietzsche off it at night, but that’s his favorite shoulder. My other arm is also sore now because we did some garage cleaning over the weekend. The slow healing part of getting old really, really sucks.
On Friday we journeyed to Coos Bay to attend the memorial service for Tina’s grandmother, Ruth, who died a couple of months ago. Ruth had Alzheimer’s disease during her last years, so her passing brought about mixed emotions. Although it probably sounds weird, the funeral was one of the best I have ever attended. You can read all about it on Tina’s blog.
While we were there, we stayed at The Mill Casino (mentioned in Vital Statistics a few days ago). I considered playing some no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em but never really got the chance. I did spend about 5 minutes playing a penny slot machine called Mr. Cashman. After I read the help screen and switched to playing all three lines, I put myself in the black quickly and not long after that won big. I walked away with a 480% profit on my $1 investment.
The drive back yesterday was long and rainy. I noticed my left shoulder popping with even the slightest hand/finger movements so I had to do most of the steering with my right arm, a practice to which I am not accustomed. I thought I might have slept on it wrong and made a note to call my doctor today to get to the bottom of the problem. However, when I walked from the parking garage to my office this morning I realized the cause of my pain – I have been lugging about 15 lbs of laptop around on that shoulder intermittently throughout the weekend. I brought two laptops home for the boys to use in the hotel room. I guess that’s the last time I do that.
Tina’s mom’s surgery to reattach her right index finger was successful. The accident also cut off the tip of her right middle finger, but they were unable to save it, but they contacted a injury lawyer from https://www.fieldinglaw.com/dallas/personal-injury-attorney/ to help with this. Tina really wanted to drive down to NM for Thanksgiving, but fate conspired to keep that from happening.
After Graham served his suspension Wednesday morning, he returned to school that afternoon. However, that night Tina woke to the sound of him vomiting in the bathroom. He stayed home sick Thursday, vomited that night and then stayed home from school Friday, too. Because it was very cold and windy, he also had to miss football practice and his last possible game yesterday. His team has another game next week, but we’ll be out of town at Tina’s Grandma Ruth’s funeral. He’s feeling much better today, but they don’t have school all of this week.
Tina got sick Friday night and has been resting and puking since then. She’s starting to recover and eat today, but she’s still weak. There’s no way we could manage a trip to NM now.
Thomas and I have not gotten sick yet. We both braved the wind and cold yesterday for his last football Saturday until next season. It was trying, but we both made it through. I was chilled all day after we got home, though. Winter in Oregon sucks!
Graham’s school has a Zero Tolerance policy for fighting, which will go a long way in explaining his suspension. His referral (at left) describes the incident as:
Student on top of Graham. Witnessed Graham slug student in face.
Evidently, Graham and his friend Garett were playing a game that they had made up. Garett became frustrated with the game and tackled Graham somewhat playfully. Graham asked him to get off but he didn’t so Graham punched him somewhat gently. This is when the teacher pulled them apart and sent them to the principal’s office with a referral.
When Tina received the call from the principal Graham was sobbing uncontrollably. He was afraid of getting in further trouble and ashamed of what had happened. Because of the zero tolerance policy, the principal had no choice but to suspend Graham and Garett from school. She showed a little bit of mercy by suspending them only for the next morning.
The whole incident reminded me of something that happened to me when I was in fifth or sixth grade. My sometime best friend, Gretchen Eastman, had undergone a growth spurt that made her bigger than most of her peers. Kids are cruel and we were no exception as we continually taunted her by calling her “Grape Ape”. Eventually, she grew tired of the name-calling but I was slow to pick up on that fact. One day on the playground she simply decided that she had had enough. When I continued calling her “Grape Ape,” she reared back and decked me right in the face. I don’t recall if I fought back, but I do recall both of us being sent to the principal’s office for the “fight”.
I remember sobbing uncontrollably myself both at the prospect of having been sent to the principal’s office and by the fact that I had my clock cleaned by a girl. It’s hard to say which was more humiliating, but I can tell you that my visits to the principal’s office were rare by that time. I remember that my hands and arms felt very wet from all the tears. I’m not sure what the end result of the fight was, but I’m quite sure that I was not suspended. Our principal (and neighbor), Mr. Harnack, had mercy on us and probably felt that I had undergone punishment enough.
This incident with Graham, much like many other things that happen in my boys’ lives, makes me long for the simplicity of 1970s small-town Iowa.
Today’s lone news was going to be about fixing the long-plugged toilet in the boys’ bathroom with my new closet auger last night, but that pales in comparison to the news from this morning and this afternoon.
Tina’s mom cut off one of her fingers in a table-saw accident. She’s scheduled for surgery on another finger tomorrow or the next day. We may drive down to NM next week to visit them and help out.
Graham was suspended from school today. He and a football teammate received a half-day suspension for fighting during recess. Details are still forthcoming, but the suspension will be served tomorrow morning.