Day 147, The Day After

One of the things I usually do the day after Christmas is hit the sales on Christmas lights for the office.  We put up over 300 boxes of lights each year and if we can save 50% that is a significant savings.  I'm not one who likes to shop in crowds, but I figured I could hit WalMart and be done fairly early.  I got WalMart at 8am and the parking lot was empty, with maybe 20 cars.  I was shocked.  I also had to exchange a gift for my nephew and there were no lines at Customer Service.  The lights were a little tricky to find and I had to do a little digging for clear, green wire lights, but I was able to locate 109 boxes.  I went back to Customer Service and asked if they could call the Bend store to see if they still had any.  The Bend store did and they estimated about 150 boxes, but they would not hold them for me, so I jumped in my truck and drove to WalMart in Bend. 

As I arrived in Bend it started to snow and hard.  I got a cart and was able to find exactly 191 boxes.  I thought that it was very strange how I needed 300 boxes and that is exactly what they had left.  By the time I got back to my truck it had snowed 1 inch of new snow.





I ran several errands in Bend and did some post Christmas shopping.  Every where I went the stores were empty.  It seems no one was out shopping, so I had great selections and no hassles at any of the stores.

On my way home my father wanted me to stop of at Lowes to pick up an item he had ordered.  It took them a while to locate the item, so I went to check out their Christmas decor.  To my surprise they had another 129 boxes of lights available at 60% off, so bought them all.  I know have 429 boxes of lights for next year and I saved us a ton of money.

My friend Doug came over to exchange gifts and as it turned out we were both thinking along the same lines.  I got him a Oregon sweatshirt and he got me an Oregon cap, GO DUCKS.  We used to play "dice" with his wife Amy and I hadn't played in over a year, so Doug reminded me how it feels to loose.  It was great to see him and we plan on doing a movie sometime this week.

It started to snow again and it was a perfect night to stay home, watching a movie and enjoy the tree.