Merchants

all over the country are trying their best to lure shoppers for the holiday season.

That's including opening stores at 5:00 a.m. Yours truly dragged herself out of bed at about 6, got dressed, and headed to town.

It was crowded, naturally, even at that godawful hour. I went over to Shopko, which is folding at the end of the year, unfortunately, and picked up some Christmas decorations, as if I needed more of them. They did have some outdoor lights on sale for about half-price. Unfortunately, the cuter one of the two, the train, was already sold out by the time I arrived at 6:30. I did pick up the snowman family, though.

Shopko has the cutest Christmas ornaments out there, with the possible exception of Gottschalk's. But Shopko is closing down here, no doubt feeling pressure from Wal-Mart and especially Target, which is just down the block.

Anyway, I picked up my stuff and went over to Target, which was even MORE packed. I picked up a few things, and I had to stand in line for a good half-hour in the so-called "express line." I think there was a new cashier in that line, for it was slow. Then somebody else took over, and the line flew.

Anyway, that's been my day so far. As I've said a couple of days ago, it feels damned good to have a real paycheck again.