Tired... but happy... with new laptop

[dsprik]

I left from home at 2:15 this morning driving my Park Avenue and drove 45 miles through a winter storm (not too bad... except for rutted, two track highways... visibility poor in spots) from Alden to Gaylord to get to the Walmart there so I could get a shot at the HP laptop they were offering as a "Loss Leader" for $378. They started their sales at 5:00 AM.

I checked last week after discovering on the internet that this item was going to be available. Gaylord had 23 alloted, Traverse City had 30, and Houghton Lake had 35. Those were the only three stores the clerk had numbers for last week Wed. I am closer to Traverse City, but Gaylord is a Super WalMart, so they are open 24 hrs, meaning you can wait inside. It is running between 8¼ and 18¼ with heavy snow... the wind has died down for the most part. But at my age I am partial to waiting in line INSIDE.

I got there at 3:10 and I was #4 in line. They lined us up at the register to prevent fights. Good Plan. We sat and drank coffee and ate day old doughnuts. The line ended up being around 70 to 80 people. I later talked to #15 and he got there at 3:45. We all put our coats over our box in our carts and headed to the door. Did not want to walk around in there past angry people who didn't get one. How you like to be #24 and be told "Sorry", after getting up at 4 AM or so on what would normally be your day off?

I have to return my current laptop to my school when I retire (soon) and I needed another PC laptop to replace it for FTing. Good timing. Cheryl still needs one. They only allowed one per customer. We'll get one later for her.

My family though I was nuts when I told them what I planned to do. They probably would have been number 70, and wondered what happened...

Cheryl told me I had to have it wrapped to put under the Tree for Christmas. I got out of that one because Walmart has a 15 day store warranty (HP has more), so I told her this morning when I came home, that, as sad as I was about this, I was going to have to set it up and check it out... "just in case". She said, "No Problem. When your done today, just put it back ing the box and I'll wrap it. I took her into work this morning to open the resturaunt, so I have until 3:00 PM to figure a way to extend that, somehow. She thinks she's so smart.... That's what I get for marrying someone smarter than me.