Mayhem and Moose

I arrived for the grand opening of the Goodwill in Longmont about 9:30 a.m.  Customers were parked and double parked everywhere, including the lot next door, and others were driving around looking for spaces.  I lucked out and got one within a few steps of the front door after making only one loop around.

Inside was controlled mayhem.  There were so many customers it was difficult to move through the throng with a cart.  It also was difficult to see the merchandise on the shelves because there was a constant, densely-packed line of customers going in each direction in all of the aisles.  Any time a customer stopped to look at an item, everyone in line had to stop as well.  When you were ready to check out, you had to get in another line.  One employee had the job of holding a sign so customers would know where the end of the regular check-out line was...

...and it reminded me of those cartoons with the man in sackcloth holding a sign announcing "The End of the World Is Near," but it got the message across and the message was that the end of the line was a long way from the front of the store and the registers.

It moved fairly quickly and I had fun talking to some of the others customers who were in line near me.  I observed that so many of the men customers looked as if they'd been dropped onto an alien planet.  Another woman said they were "out of their element" and the woman in front of me commented she wished she had one, like some women did, who were cart sitting, enabling their wives or girlfriends to "ninja shop," maneuver deftly, move swiftly, grab what they liked quickly and bring it back to the waiting cart being guarded by their man.  I thought the prices were high, perhaps intentionally since they were going to be 50% off.  I spent $44, but I'm not sure I got $88 worth of  merchandise.  I did get several items that probably qualify as antiques or at least collectibles and I plan to take them to Wild Bill's or Wild West or whatever in Rollinsville to see if they are more to his liking than were perhaps the last few things I took in.

I'll take some photos, but right now I'm tired.  I drove from Longmont back to Boulder and went to my regular Goodwill and they had absolutely nothing.  Then I drove out to Lafayette, not much there either, back to Boulder to Savers and then on to Salvation Army.  None of them had much and were pretty empty...everyone was in Longmont.  I put about 100 miles on my car.  That will have to do it for thrifting for this month!

I did want to post a photo of some moose I saw yesterday afternoon coming back from Nederland.  Trying to get photos of the moose, which are still rare here, is a local pastime.  These photos aren't great, but the first moose was very far away and the two that were closer were adept at blending in with their surroundings.

I'm determined to get a shot of a moose I can use for next year's Christmas card.  Even though I am really good about taking my camera almost every time I leave the house, they seem to know when I've forgotten and that's when they are close to the road. The day will come when I will prevail!

What are you looking forward to?  Teddee