Labor Day Weekend

was a little busy. Kathryn came home from UW on the train. Saturday my wife and I drove to Eugene to help Ross move into a new apartment. Sunday all the kids are at home so we cooked some steaks. Would have grilled them, but we were out of charcoal. (!?!?!) Monday Kathryn left for Seattle, Tuesday Ross left on an automobile tour of the lower 48 states, and John started back to High School on Wednesday.

Eugene Apartment

Ross moved out of a shared duplex into his own compartment. The place is a bit nicer than the old one, but it is still in an old building. The wood in the door frame around the latch is mostly gone. The screws in the striker plate are only held in place by wishful thinking. There is a bolt on the door, so it is semi-secure.

Moving

Ross has already moved most of his small stuff, so we only need to make two trips with the pickup truck. One to move his bed, and the other to move the remains, including a small desk. We move the desk onto the tailgate prior to unloading it. I lean on it while stepping over and around to the rear bumper. The leg under the corner I am leaning on is exactly over the gap between the bed of the truck and the tailgate, and when I put my weight on it, it drops down throwing me off balance and something whaps me in the leg. Didn't feel like much at the time, and I never did figure out what is was that bit me, but a week later and I still have a big knot and yellowish bruise just above my left ankle. Grrr.

Hirons

The apartment is unfinished and being as we have certain standards to maintain (harrumph), it needs curtains. In order to buy curtains, it might be a good idea to take a few measurements. Off to the local strip mall to get a tape measure. We find one in Hirons Pharmacy. Actually I asked a clerk and she pointed me in the right direction. I don't think I would have found it otherwise. I have never seen a store packed so full of so much stuff, and not useful stuff either. Cheap, gimcrack decorations of every kind. I could not believe it. It was like waking into a fairy tale, or a nightmare. But they did have a small section of tools and we got our tape measure.

Target

So off we go to Tarchez. We don't have a map, but we have a vague idea where it is so off we go. And go, and go. I think we ended up circumnavigating Eugene before we finally find a Tarjai on the West side. Two hours later we emerge with a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff. We filled two shopping carts and we didn't even make a dent in the stores stock. How much inventory do you think they must have in there? It has got to be big. Ten million dollars, maybe? More? You can fill a single shipping container with a million dollars worth of goods easily. Could a single Target have a hundred million dollars worth of inventory? That would be impressive.

Home

The curtains are full length, they go all the way to floor, more like drapes. When we get back to the apartment we discover that there are baseboard heaters under the windows. Not a good idea to have drapes covering those up, so it looks like they are going to have to be trimmed. It's getting late and there is a football game today, so if we want to beat the mass exodus, we should go, and we do.