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In Which We Spend the Day at CostCo
I woke up at 6am on my first day living in Kauai. My plan is to maintain a 7am schedule out here, to be somewhere in the same ballpark as the West Coast, but despite the lack of sun, I was up an hour earlier today.
Another plan of mine is to go out and walk the loop trail that immediately adjoins us on the golf course in the morning, so I headed out there pretty quickly, and had a pretty hilarious walk on the trail in the pitch black, with only my iPhone providing illumination. It was cool, I sometimes heard something in the brush next to the trail, and just shrugged: no snakes. (There are wild pigs though.)
I eventually exited the trail onto one of the roads, which wasn't where I expected to be at all, but after a few false starts, I eventually headed in the right direction to bring me to the main parking lot. And out there, hauling her golf clubs from one hole to another was Mary! We chatted for a while, and then each went our own way. (It's going to be so nice living out here so near my dad and Mary.) My goal was the far side of the course, where the pavilion is, but more notably where there's a nice view down to the ocean.
I got there at about 7am, which was a few minutes before sunrise, and though it was too cloudy to see the sun, there were all kinds of beautiful colors in the sky. It was a nice first morning in Kauai (and something that I won't see often, because I'm not going to be getting out there before sunrise like I did today).
After returning home, I met some of our neighbors. Barbara lives just below us, and has all kinds of insight into our backyard slope and what we might grow there and how she might give us an avocado tree and how we need to deal with erosion problems at some point. She seemed very in tune with the locale and has lived here a long time so knows its history too, which is all very cool, even if she is a bit strident in what needs to be done. I also met Cindy, the neighbor past Barbara, but only exchanged a few words with her.
And then our cable-internet installer showed up at just before 10am. He got things going pretty quickly, but I didn't have my mesh routers yet, so we couldn't really make use of the 'net yet. (They were scheduled to show up on Saturday.)
The other task of the morning was some continued unpacking of stuff, but we only got a little bit into that.
And we got our first mail delivery at our house! Our cat tree that was supposed to arrive next Tuesday showed up! As so did the two boxes of junk that I shipped out of Berkeley on the 30th. I can't believe they made it here in three days. (And even more exciting, I discovered those routers were out for delivery, and so should make it to my dad's house before evening, as they were the last thing I had shipped there before I shifted deliveries to our house.)
After we had some sandwiches for lunch, Kimberly and I met up with my dad and Mary for the main event of the day: a trip to CostCo.
It was the longest trip to CostCo ever. Seriously, we were there for 3 or 4 hours.
First, Kimberly and I had to get a membership, a trial that was made even longer by the fact that there were problems processing the gift cards that my dad and I got for him "referring" me. But the woman working with us was nice. Almost everyone in Kauai is almost always nice. And so 45 minutes later or so, we went hunting for furniture.
Our top priorities were a sofa and/or love seat (so we had somewhere comfortable to sit! which had been notably lacking for the previous 24 hours!), a bed (because our mattress on the ground is so we're-still-in-college), a desk (because I need to get back to work in a few days! argh!), and a TV (because we love our nightly media!)
We batted .500.
CostCo had about half-a-dozen sofa-like-things to choose from. Most of them were these L-shaped connect-o-couches, which seem to be very on trend. We scoffed at the ones that had a huge square ottoman which fills the middle of the L like a puzzle piece, but we found a gray one that perhaps won't get too cat-furry.
Then we were delighted to discover that CostCo still had the dining room table that we'd seen in April and loved, but hadn't wanted to leave in my dad and Mary's house for three-quarters of a year.
And we found what looks like a perfectly serviceable TV, that at 55" is almost double the size of our last one.
(I also found a desk, but it was a bit on the small size, and I wasn't in love with it, but it may be something we go back for, because I'd really like to be able to work in my office very soon; at the moment, we're mostly ignoring the downstairs.)
The question was if we could get it all home.
So Mary called a friend with a large pick-up, who we'd pre-arranged to come help us with our furniture. We sent my dad and Kimberly home with the food we'd also purchased, then we waited for Peter to arrive. At this point, we still hadn't bought anything, because we needed to know what would fit.
So, Peter arrived, and I bought the sofas, which we got loaded in his truck, one atop the other. It was a lot of work, but we had a very skilled CostCo worker helping.
Then he said that the TV would fit fine too, next to the sofa boxes, so I went back and got that, and we put that in the truck too.
But at that point we were waiting for my dad to come back, to see if we could fit anything more in Mary's SUV, so Peter and I went back to look at the table. And he said it could definitely fit in his truck instead of the TV, presuming that we could get the TV and chairs into Mary's SUV.
So I went back and bought that, my fourth trip through Costco's line for the day.
And my dad showed up, and everything fit beautifully. And Peter was a total pro: he didn't just have a truck, but he knew how to use it, so he got everything strapped down really securely, even though it was towering over his cab and hanging out the back.
Then our small parade of furniture-laden vehicles went home.
(And the biggest trial was getting it all into the house, just because it was big and heavy, and we didn't have skilled Costco help, but with four of us, we managed. Yep, Peter even helped us with that: what a hero.)
My dad headed home to get some tools and dinner, and when he came back we had our last work of the day: putting stuff together.
The couches were pretty easy, but my dad didn't like the look of the feet, so we're going to get some rubber thingies at Home Depot tomorrow to protect the floor. Meanwhile, our couches are all mounted atop cardboard.
(We in fact have huge piles of cardboard all over the house, so I guess that cardboard is sort of out of the way.)
The table had decent instructions, but took a lot of effort. It's a very nice hardwood table whose only deficit is that it's a little big. We won't get to have a nice square table for gaming like I did in California (but this may not even be the gaming table; we'll see). But we will have plenty of room for eating or gaming, and it's even got some sort of magical pop-up leaf that comes up from under the table. I haven't investigated that much yet.
After two or three hours of work, my dad headed home (again). I finished up the evening putting together two of the chairs (which took about an hour and a half between them) and got two of our three mesh modems working (with the last waiting until I decide where it's most needed), which means that we have internet all over the house now!
And that was pretty much another very full day.
Not done today: the cat tree, the TV, the other four chairs, lots of unpacking and unboxing, and cutting up all that cardboard for recycling.
Tomorrow: Home Depot, with the initial plan being rubber feet for the couches and a wall hanger for the TV, but we'll see what else they have. And a recycling center and maybe a refuse transfer center to get rid of cardboard and packing material, respectively.
And sometime soon I'd like to swim! (Though my dad says the weather doesn't support it: in fact, it's been raining this evening.) And I need to buy a car and start driving it! (My dad says not to just buy the first thing I see, but I started familiarizing myself with what's on offer on Craig's list today. When I cut down my listing to old, but not too old, and miles, but not too many miles, and under $10,000 I did see some that looked acceptable ...
Another plan of mine is to go out and walk the loop trail that immediately adjoins us on the golf course in the morning, so I headed out there pretty quickly, and had a pretty hilarious walk on the trail in the pitch black, with only my iPhone providing illumination. It was cool, I sometimes heard something in the brush next to the trail, and just shrugged: no snakes. (There are wild pigs though.)
I eventually exited the trail onto one of the roads, which wasn't where I expected to be at all, but after a few false starts, I eventually headed in the right direction to bring me to the main parking lot. And out there, hauling her golf clubs from one hole to another was Mary! We chatted for a while, and then each went our own way. (It's going to be so nice living out here so near my dad and Mary.) My goal was the far side of the course, where the pavilion is, but more notably where there's a nice view down to the ocean.
I got there at about 7am, which was a few minutes before sunrise, and though it was too cloudy to see the sun, there were all kinds of beautiful colors in the sky. It was a nice first morning in Kauai (and something that I won't see often, because I'm not going to be getting out there before sunrise like I did today).
After returning home, I met some of our neighbors. Barbara lives just below us, and has all kinds of insight into our backyard slope and what we might grow there and how she might give us an avocado tree and how we need to deal with erosion problems at some point. She seemed very in tune with the locale and has lived here a long time so knows its history too, which is all very cool, even if she is a bit strident in what needs to be done. I also met Cindy, the neighbor past Barbara, but only exchanged a few words with her.
And then our cable-internet installer showed up at just before 10am. He got things going pretty quickly, but I didn't have my mesh routers yet, so we couldn't really make use of the 'net yet. (They were scheduled to show up on Saturday.)
The other task of the morning was some continued unpacking of stuff, but we only got a little bit into that.
And we got our first mail delivery at our house! Our cat tree that was supposed to arrive next Tuesday showed up! As so did the two boxes of junk that I shipped out of Berkeley on the 30th. I can't believe they made it here in three days. (And even more exciting, I discovered those routers were out for delivery, and so should make it to my dad's house before evening, as they were the last thing I had shipped there before I shifted deliveries to our house.)
After we had some sandwiches for lunch, Kimberly and I met up with my dad and Mary for the main event of the day: a trip to CostCo.
It was the longest trip to CostCo ever. Seriously, we were there for 3 or 4 hours.
First, Kimberly and I had to get a membership, a trial that was made even longer by the fact that there were problems processing the gift cards that my dad and I got for him "referring" me. But the woman working with us was nice. Almost everyone in Kauai is almost always nice. And so 45 minutes later or so, we went hunting for furniture.
Our top priorities were a sofa and/or love seat (so we had somewhere comfortable to sit! which had been notably lacking for the previous 24 hours!), a bed (because our mattress on the ground is so we're-still-in-college), a desk (because I need to get back to work in a few days! argh!), and a TV (because we love our nightly media!)
We batted .500.
CostCo had about half-a-dozen sofa-like-things to choose from. Most of them were these L-shaped connect-o-couches, which seem to be very on trend. We scoffed at the ones that had a huge square ottoman which fills the middle of the L like a puzzle piece, but we found a gray one that perhaps won't get too cat-furry.
Then we were delighted to discover that CostCo still had the dining room table that we'd seen in April and loved, but hadn't wanted to leave in my dad and Mary's house for three-quarters of a year.
And we found what looks like a perfectly serviceable TV, that at 55" is almost double the size of our last one.
(I also found a desk, but it was a bit on the small size, and I wasn't in love with it, but it may be something we go back for, because I'd really like to be able to work in my office very soon; at the moment, we're mostly ignoring the downstairs.)
The question was if we could get it all home.
So Mary called a friend with a large pick-up, who we'd pre-arranged to come help us with our furniture. We sent my dad and Kimberly home with the food we'd also purchased, then we waited for Peter to arrive. At this point, we still hadn't bought anything, because we needed to know what would fit.
So, Peter arrived, and I bought the sofas, which we got loaded in his truck, one atop the other. It was a lot of work, but we had a very skilled CostCo worker helping.
Then he said that the TV would fit fine too, next to the sofa boxes, so I went back and got that, and we put that in the truck too.
But at that point we were waiting for my dad to come back, to see if we could fit anything more in Mary's SUV, so Peter and I went back to look at the table. And he said it could definitely fit in his truck instead of the TV, presuming that we could get the TV and chairs into Mary's SUV.
So I went back and bought that, my fourth trip through Costco's line for the day.
And my dad showed up, and everything fit beautifully. And Peter was a total pro: he didn't just have a truck, but he knew how to use it, so he got everything strapped down really securely, even though it was towering over his cab and hanging out the back.
Then our small parade of furniture-laden vehicles went home.
(And the biggest trial was getting it all into the house, just because it was big and heavy, and we didn't have skilled Costco help, but with four of us, we managed. Yep, Peter even helped us with that: what a hero.)
My dad headed home to get some tools and dinner, and when he came back we had our last work of the day: putting stuff together.
The couches were pretty easy, but my dad didn't like the look of the feet, so we're going to get some rubber thingies at Home Depot tomorrow to protect the floor. Meanwhile, our couches are all mounted atop cardboard.
(We in fact have huge piles of cardboard all over the house, so I guess that cardboard is sort of out of the way.)
The table had decent instructions, but took a lot of effort. It's a very nice hardwood table whose only deficit is that it's a little big. We won't get to have a nice square table for gaming like I did in California (but this may not even be the gaming table; we'll see). But we will have plenty of room for eating or gaming, and it's even got some sort of magical pop-up leaf that comes up from under the table. I haven't investigated that much yet.
After two or three hours of work, my dad headed home (again). I finished up the evening putting together two of the chairs (which took about an hour and a half between them) and got two of our three mesh modems working (with the last waiting until I decide where it's most needed), which means that we have internet all over the house now!
And that was pretty much another very full day.
Not done today: the cat tree, the TV, the other four chairs, lots of unpacking and unboxing, and cutting up all that cardboard for recycling.
Tomorrow: Home Depot, with the initial plan being rubber feet for the couches and a wall hanger for the TV, but we'll see what else they have. And a recycling center and maybe a refuse transfer center to get rid of cardboard and packing material, respectively.
And sometime soon I'd like to swim! (Though my dad says the weather doesn't support it: in fact, it's been raining this evening.) And I need to buy a car and start driving it! (My dad says not to just buy the first thing I see, but I started familiarizing myself with what's on offer on Craig's list today. When I cut down my listing to old, but not too old, and miles, but not too many miles, and under $10,000 I did see some that looked acceptable ...