I had to end my post yesterday rather abruptly to run my Saturday morning errands. During my jaunt around Leavenworth, I stopped in at Wal-Mart for the second time in a week, which is very unusual as I avoid shopping at Wal-Mart. If I can’t get it at Dillons, my only other option in Leavenworth/Lansing is Wal-Mart, outside of places like Dollar General and large pharmacy chains like Walgreens or CVS. K-Mart/Sears closed over a year ago and is now a very large U-Haul dealer next door to Home Depot.
This week they demolished the Payless Shoe Source store that previously resided in the same plot of land as K-Mart. And the biggest development project of the year is wrapping up. Quik Trip is nearly ready to open where the Leavenworth Co-Op was for decades on the northwest corner of Eisenhower and Main Street (US-73/K-7). I’m not looking forward to the traffic headaches that configuration is going to cause especially in the mid-afternoon when all the people on Post head home (to Lansing from Fort Leavenworth).
The other large roadwork improvement project that was causing me inconvenience completed last week as well. My alternate route to Dillons using 4-H Road to DeSoto is now open and the northern half of DeSoto now sports a middle turn lane and wide sidewalks. The intersection of Eisenhower and Desoto (on the south) and Shrine Park Road (on the north) also got a complete makeover including left turn lanes and signals for all directions and right turns lanes in some directions. Traffic should flow better in the mornings and evenings now.
But back to my second trip to Wal-Mart.
My sole purpose was to find a backgammon game to round out my eclectic suite of classic family games (see my previous boggling post). The Family Games aisle was completely picked over. I found only one backgammon game and it was part of a nice wooden box set of ten classic family games. Naturally I bought it. I then got distracted by puzzles (same aisle) – also nearly completely empty. I had less than a dozen varieties to chose from, some of which were too ‘easy’ (children’s puzzles) or just not an appealing subject matter (gardening photos). I found two medium skill level (500 pieces approximately) puzzles – one fantasy themed one and the other featuring a lion. I saved the lion for another weekend.
I waited until early afternoon to start the puzzle, hoping that Terry would get a nap in while we attempted to watch ‘boring’ movies that would lull him to sleep. I chose poorly (for his nap prospects) and we both stayed awake to watch a good (not great) movie called “Clancy.” Terry finally fell asleep late afternoon which left me with nobody to eat dinner with or play another round of classic games to wile away the evening.
I took ninety minutes to make progress on my MongoDB University course, which I need to complete by the 23rd. I should be able to take the final exam later today with another hour long study session. I watched a movie after studying and then returned to the puzzle. I’ve made good progress but now the real fun begins.
The largest portion of the puzzle is the dragon. And could be the most challenging, other than, maybe, the dark star field surrounding the wizard. I’m taking a break from the puzzle this morning. I need to login and play Aardwolf for a couple of hours so I can catch up on notes and make progress towards finishing my current tier (four of nine and only fifteen years to get that far).
Then for this afternoon, depending on how Terry feels, we’ll think about celebrating Father’s Day.
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!
Including my own father and my son, father of my grandson who will turn two years old in just eleven days on July 2nd.
