- 6/22/2007 10:00:00 PMFireworks - Day 1Our fireworks were delivered today. We were expecting the delivery truck to arrive around 1PM so we planned to get there around noon. Chris brought over a generator that he got from his friend Shawn. It is 1500 watts and very old. It has some issues with leaking gas but it runs. We loaded up the truck and headed out for the tent. As it turns out, the driver was way ahead of schedule and had been waiting since around 10 AM. He was ok with that but we felt bad. Grandma arrived shortly after we did and together with Aunt Lori and Drew, we all unloaded the truck. There were 4 skids of product - each one was stacked about six feet high. As boxes came off the truck we set them in the tent on pallets according to their type (assorted packages, fountains, novelties). We set out a donation can by the front counter and the delivery driver put in some seed money. That was very nice of him and we are thankful for it.
While we were taking inventory, people came in and began to browse the product. The cash register was not even setup and we sold one $49.99 package minutes after it came out of the box. Roger the area TNT manager stopped by and said we were well on our way to having a nice tent display setup. We officially opened for business sometime around dinner time. It became very apparent that Peggy and Grandma have a knack for helping customers. They both seem to enjoy it. Everyone is working hard - especially Grandma. She acts like she is tired (and probably is since she is nearly 70 years old). I think she is more like the Energizer Bunny than she realizes.
We started up the generator around 8:00 and it ran out of gas around 9:30. It is L O U D !!
Drew and I spend the first night at the tent. I slept inside the tent on a lawn chair and he stayed awake all night. Apparently while I was sleeping, some interesting things happened in WalMart's parking lot. Here is what Drew relayed to me in the morning...
The street racers like to congregate under the parking lot lights (and in full view of the store cameras) to plan their races. The rev their engines and squeal the tires when the come in and out of the parking lot. They came and went from around 10 PM until 1:30-ish. One of the kids drives a small Honda and had put $30,000 into the engine. I would guess he doesn't have any other bills and lives at home with his mom.
Around 2:30 AM, some guy in a jeep pulled up to the tent, got out and started walking towards it. Drew started walking towards him and when the guy saw Drew, he turned around, got in his jeep and left. SCARY!
A lady of the evening operated her mobile services in some other guy's van. The van had tinted windows on the sides and back but not the front (which was facing Drew and the tent). The driver of the van turned the van around to face the other direction while the services were being rendered. Shortly afterward, the lady got out of the van with a large wad of cash in her hand.
Around 3:30ish, the police stopped by and asked Drew what he was doing out in parking lot. He told them he was guarding the tent.
By 4 AM, it was finally quiet. I woke up around 5:30 and my back was killing me. In today's Our Daily Bread, I read from Mark 10:17-27 (The rich young man). The story was about downsizing and how when we are "pinching" and cutting back in our lives, we cut away the useless things and cling to the important things from yesterday. My life is currently not like that. It is an adventure where I am dreaming new dreams and living some kind of strange adventure. I am living in a tent in WalMart's parking lot surrounded by very strange events during the night and selling explosives so I can adopt a boy from Russia who has nothing to call his own. When this is all done, I will have some stories to tell...
