After the desert heat and winds of this past summer I didn't think it would ever be cold again. This morning I woke up to frost on the windshield and chunks of ice growing on the top of my driver's door. I really am not into Black Friday in a huge way. Oh, every year I go out for a token sale item, but I'm not someone who plans it with all the seriousness of a military campaign. I do not go out into the dark at 4am to stand in lines outside department stores. I barely skim over most sale papers.

But.

Last night my mom pointed out to me The Chair. It was on sale nearby, an early bird special, and I figured that hey, since it was the big present I wanted to get the Boy for Christmas this year I might as well go out today and pick it up for that low, low price. We tentatively agreed to go halfsies on it. We also sorta thought that since this was Hanford the store wouldn't be that crowded at the crack of opening this morning (6) and they surely wouldn't sell every last one in the first couple hours of the day in any case.

When did my retail sense of reality die? No, I mean that. When did I lose touch with the consumer sense of urgency? It's a decent price, and a very good sale price, and with all the big name and big brand things out there I honestly did think that this quiet little town would not lose it's mind. I woke up this morning and clicked on the tv in the bleary pre-dawn darkness to check in on the world/national/local news while regaining slow consciousness. As I did this, I saw the reporters standing in dark parking lots outside similar stores to the one I needed to visit this morning, showing wide angle views of the customers who showed up with rental vans.

Eep, I thought. Better get dressed and out to the store. It's 6:15 now. It'll be 6:30 when I get there. There will be plenty of these chairs left and I will feel silly to have gotten there this early on my own for that, but I'll get the chair I want for that low price. At 6:30 this morning when I arrived I got the last chair available, the floor model. I got that price. I got that last chair in the store of that model, half an hour after opening.

Sign me up as one of the crazy people today.