Sunday, November 15, 2009

Day Three in NoCal

Weather: sunny (AGAIN) and in the 70's (AGAIN).
Today I mapped out my route to Ikea to find the tiniest bedside tables in the world . The store is up in Palo Alto - a mere 21.4 minutes on the 101 (that's CA lingo for 10 lanes of wacko drivers and lots of big trucks). I wandered through the store with my handy dandy tape measure and was so excited to see "ENTIRE HOME IN 691 SQ FT" "ENTIRE HOME IN 480 SQ FT". So I eagerly wandered through these "homes". The people living there had 3 shirts, 2 pars of shoes and enough dishes and pots/pans to make a meal for 2 not-very-hungry people. And as I continued to wander through the store, I realized that my problem is that I have TOO MUCH STUFF to put into the mini storage units for sale all around me. I need 3000 sq ft of mini storage units to hold it all. Rats! More weeding out is due. I did find the world's smallest bedside tables - 14" wide, 15" deep. So I eagerly wrote down the item number, aisle number, bin number and went down the the furniture-in-boxes-stacked-to-the-ceiling area. I found the aisle - 6 - and bin - 46 - and saw....... nothing. SOLD OUT for the next four weeks and I couldn't even talk them into 2 of the 4 floor models that they had set up. So back home and Target to exchange the wall-mounted paper towel holder for a sit-on-the-counter model (we have tile halfway up the walls in the kitchen and plastic lamenated cabinets). I decided to be daring and take the 87 off of the 101 - more CA lingo.... I got off at a familiar street and turned left... I realized I was going toward the house not Target. So I went "around the block" (about 4 miles) and found that if I had turned LEFT off of the 87, I would have been 1 minute from Target. ARGHH - the learning curve again. As I wandered through Target, I began to feel that I was in a world of aliens. Most people have these black or blue small rectangular boxes attached to an ear and flashing lights. Hmmm...... And I thought I was the only one who communicated with the Mother Ship through artificial attachments in the ears! No, No. I'm in California and it is illegal to use your cell phone while driving unless you have a hands-free set up. So the new CA jewelry is a bluetooth stuck in your ear which you put on in the morning and take off at night. How Special! Another interesting feature I observed while driving to Ikea were large (and I mean REALLY large) domed long buildings sitting in a large open area. Mark says that they are old blimp hangers. It is amazing to think of a giant balloon in those buildings and taking one to some far off city like we take planes today. Mark and I began talking about a plan in case there is an earthquake. The last BIG one occurred 20 years ago so that is on the news alot. Today we are going to Half Moon Bay with another couple from here.

1 comment:

  1. >>Mark and I began talking about a plan in case there is an earthquake. <<

    Eeyup. We have those out here in the People's Paradise of the Pacific, too. Knocked out all of Oahu's electricity for about 14 hours about 4 years ago. We decided it was a good excuse to check out our hurricane preparedness supplies. Not too bad except the lack of three day warning left our collapsible water jugs collapsed and empty. We added a couple of full 5 gal bubbler jugs.

    When you get a big one, you'll need water too, and the ability to decontaminate it. Try the Red Cross website: they have a really good list of things to stock.

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