This Reminds Me

We were soooo close.

The trickle of Play Station 3 consoles into the U.S. market has created a frenzy of buying activities for gaming fanatics.  Of which we’re not.  But we’re smart enough to know that a $700 PS3 bundle from Costco can be turned around and sold on e-Bay for $2,000.  That $1300 increment could have made a very merry Christmas.

So when we found out Costco was selling a “limited number” online yesterday, Keith and I parked ourselves at different computers, attempting to snag that magic  ”one per family.”

The site traffic was unreal.  It would take minutes for a page to paint - if it didn’t time out first.

Keith and I attacked with three windows each.  We each (eventually) made it this far – to the product page;

Keith actually got a bundle to add to cart.  We were yelling encouragement to each other.  I thought – Omigosh, he’s got one!  He’s actually got one.

False hope.  (big sigh)

Even though he got the bundle to add to cart, the check-out was hosed.  In fact, the site itself crashed almost immediately thereafter, and stayed down for hours.  He called later, hoping a friendly Costco rep would gurgle, “Oh yes, Mr. Woodworth – it’s in your cart, it’s yours.  Feel free to check out just as soon as our lame technicians who sure should have anticipated the traffic load manage to resuscitate our site.”

Instead, he heard a canned response about “limited number” and “first come, first serve,” blah blah blah.

Well, darn.

We’ve had a PS2 since Christmas 2000, when it hit the market.  To get it here, Santa used a 6’5″ bearded helper.  This unnamed Santa’s helper had broken his foot the month before, tripping on one of Hannah’s sippy cups.   He was on crutches, and in pain.  And it was drizzling as he spent the night – all night – with several dozen newly-made friends on the sidewalk outside of Best Buy, clutching his coveted number and awaiting the door opening.  I drove by on the way to work and delivered two fried egg sandwiches and a Diet Coke to sustain him those last few hours.

Christmas 2000 – PS 2 Arrives at Casa Woodworth

PS2 is a focal point of our game room.  Two-mat Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is the favorite game of slumber parties.  Lois and her friends compete at Kingdom Hearts.  When we have the middle school boys over for a weekend of Disciple Now each spring, we always tell them to bring their favorite PS2 games.

Julia is very into “Spyro” and “Cool Boarders.”  It didn’t take her much time to learn the controller.  If it’s got a screen, she’s in love with it.

So, no extra $1300 for us this holiday season.  Guess we’ll have to switch to Plan B…..ski masks, convenience stores……

But boy, we were close.  Sooooo close.

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