Day 65: Thanksgiving Day walk

So it takes me forever to deposit my birthday checks.  What better time than when the sidewalk project is done, and I won't have to walk around heavy equipment and fencing?

The new sidewalk is on the east side of Third Street, clean and clear of debris and other pedestrians. The wind came from the south, and had a bitter chill in it, the sky was grey, but there was no threat of rain.  The lower foothills of the Cascades were dimly visible, and I wondered if the mountains were getting snow or just fog.  There was hardly any traffic, due to the holiday, and the parking lots had few cars.  The Factory Outlet mall's parking lot was completely empty, every store shuttered.  At the shopping center next to it, there was only one red car parked near Ross and Jo Anne's, and those stores were also closed. Both places had restaurants, both closed.  I wondered if this was how North Korea was like on a daily basis.

On my way back from the bank, I stopped at the Butler Market store and got the mail.  There were three or four cars in the lot, but the only person in the store was the clerk.  We wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving.  She was going to celebrate hers tomorrow, as one of her sons was going to his wife's family, and the other was going to his girl friend's; Friday they would all be together.  I felt a twinge of guilt for leaving her alone, but someone else came in as I was leaving.

At Fred Meyer, the store was how it usually is at 3 p.m. Thanksgiving Day--pretty empty.  There was a dad with three boys picking out produce, a woman dressed in black with a white faux fur vest and heavy gold jewelry on her wrists and neck, an old couple, a few singles of various ages, a group of three or four girls.  The fresh fish area was empty and cleaned, as was the hot deli area.  I picked up a couple of turkey baguette sandwiches that were on mark-down. I went to the greeting card area but decided not to go roaming in the as-good-as-empty store. Someone announced every ten minutes that the store would be closing at four, and at three-thirty there was the dire warning that the store would not only close at 4, but that the cash registers would be automatically turning off very soon afterwards--I'm not sure if it was five or ten minutes later.  I visited with the cashier briefly about my time working there, and left before the three-forty announcement.