floater

customer.service

Man. this is gonna be a bitch post.  so, our washer is dying about a year ahead of plans. we want to buy one of those badass Whirpool Calypso washer/dryer (or something similar) sets next year. we know it’s gonna be like $2K for those, and so when this died, we decided to go low-budget. so we went to Sears. we have a Kenmore washer/dryer set we bought in 2000. it’s done damn well considering we bought pretty much bottom-rung sets. i think their second-from-bottom at the time washer and dryer both. like 800.00 for both, maybe even less than that. so we looked, and for 319.00 on sale, they have the bottom-rung washer, which, in actuality has a better feature set than the one we bought 8 years ago. we checked out the others, but, since we want to just turn around and get rid of it next year, we want cheap, but usable. we asked for someone to help, but it seems that the 20 or so people standing around the major appliances don’t actually sell washers, there’s only two people who do, and they were otherwise engaged with customers. the others, even when i said “i know what i want and just want to buy it” wouldn’t help. that’s shitty customer service. didn’t even offer to find another associate that could do so. just stood there. like they’re gonna make any more fucking money if they stand around with their thumb up their asses. i’m sure they’re just not helping because they don’t get a cut of the sale, but fuck that. anyway, we get the female associate to help, and we tell her the one we want. “oh no. that will only last 6 months”. so? and what the fuck is that? that’s the worst fucking salesmanship i’ve ever witnessed. she’s saying that Sears’ brand Kenomore washer is only going to last 6 months? why the fuck are they selling that? i doubt it. our same washer lasted 8 years, and that’s with a family of 5, and last year, we had our father-in-law here doing about 30 loads a fucking day. so we tell her we want it anyway. so she begrudgingly walks away saying “i’ll see if we have any in stock”. about 15 seconds later, she’s back saying they don’t have any in stock. what is she? psychic? it should have taken 2 min or more to walk to her kiosk, look up the item etc. so we just said fuck it and left.

off to lowes, after the most expenisve lunch in a while, getting Panda Express for the kids, and Chipotle for the us. lowes. we find the washer we want immediately. it’s much nicer, and 348.00. Whirlpool. it’s got more wash options, and while they have a lower-end model, we liked this one for the money. and i know i could probably get 150.00 back for it used. again. one person there is talking to the Couple From Hell, who wanted to know each feature of every machine in the area. so we wait. and about 3 min later a girl comes along asking if i’ve been helped. excellent! but no…she doesn’t work in major appliances. but she did go look it up to make sure we could get one. they have 6 in stock. again. awesome. on the right track. so we have to wait for Jeremy to get done with Couple From Hell. 10 min later, his co-worker in the department finally shows up and she takes the number, again looks up to verify that there’s some in stock (we told her they were), and said she would go get it. she leaves, and it’s fucking instant ghost town. jeremy and Couple From Hell are gone, as are any other employees. so we wait. and wait. 20 min, we see a bunch of employees exodus. and still we wait. 5 min later, someone asks if we have been helped. we say we think so, and that she left like 20 min ago to get the washing machine. they said she should be back any min then, and would check for us. 20 min later, we’re STILL waiting, no jeremy and no one else for that matter.

needless to say, we walked out thoroughly pissed and unsatisfied. what the fuck is up with these places? i mean, all the sears lady had to do was go fucking tell the merchandise pick-up people to get that thing out, and take my money. the goddamn unit went on sale TODAY. could they have had someone come in and buy that many all at one time?? and lowes. shame. come on. take my order, print the slip, make me go to checkout and pull out to the pickup area. make me wait after you take my money, i’d probably have been happy to do it. goddamn i’m pissed.

so we still have no new washer. we’ll get one next weekend i guess. i doubt i’ll give my money to lowes for deserting us, and i’m damn well going to a different sears to look. maybe they’ll have a different sale, and i’ll get a better deal. who knows. maybe some force was telling us not to buy one this weekend?

-e

concerto

wow. i actually got to go see Floater. one of the bands that i have loved for years. finally seeing them live was fucking awesome. my sister-in-law goes to their shows all the time when they come to Chico, or anywhere near here, but they actually played Sacramento, and as a birthday present, my wife and sis in law got together and planned for us to go see them. fucking awesome. their opening bands were pretty great too: Martian Puppits and 9 Hours North. both were fucking awesome and I will be definately looking for music from them. I got to talk to Tommy the singer from Martian Puppits and Aaron the bassist from Nine Hours North. Both bands stuck around for Floater and they were real cool about talking with the crowd after playing. anyway, i’m tired as hell, long day, but i am stoked and was surprised by the fact that we went, since i had no idea that there was a plan in place! thanks B and B for planning and setting me up for the show!

-e

listless

It’s hard sitting here on a 3-day weeking with no money and gas prices at 4.15 a gallon or higher! damn… We’ve been trying to make busy work, but the shitty thing is that it rained all day Saturday, which made for a worthless day, couldn’t even have our big 3-family garage sale…that will happen next week. Yesterday we spend what little money I did have on paint, and today we’ll be painting E’s room… or at least trying. We’re pretty much on this lazy, listless, have no money kick. Why did we anticipate that goddamned stimulus rebate, instead of being surprised by it? I would have rather just been surprised by it, but we thought by now we would have it since we thought we did direct deposit (i posted about all this below…)

B’s thinking of going back to group therapy. I didn’t know until yesterday that she was feeling like she needed to go back, and why. She explained it simply that she hates being controlled by medicine. I told her it’s going to be a way of life for a long while if she wants to try to get her disorders under control. It could be a lifelong treatment, and that people do it all the time for other things like high blood pressure or diabetes. If she can look at the medicines in a different light, she might not have such trouble with them. So, going back to therapy to her will help her do that. I’m going to contact them and see if it’s possible, and if my insurance will allow it.

That’s it on the news front, i hope some of you are enjoying the weekend at least!

-e

boulevardier

definately not me. i’m a blue jeans and t-shirt type. i’m almost constantly in jeans and tennis shoes, even when working, since i’m not in an office that is heavily frequented by the corporate employees. i’ve noticed that this has rubbed off on our 2nd child, C, who never wears anything but jeans and t-shirts, preferrably blue. kind of weird. he’s my mini-me.

i’ve never really liked to follow fashion, and the one i did follow was pretty stupid in retrospect…. hyperactive shirts. those t-shirts that changed color with heat. pretty funny when i think back. that and those Big Johnson shirts, which i still think are funny. even then, it was t-shirts with jeans that i wore every day. my Standard Dress Code if you will. ahhh. not much more thought on this. maybe i should change my ways. try to dress more “in fashion”. of course, what’s a more timeless fashion than jeans and a t?

-e

obtrude

i’m still posting. no misery, but still i try to keep up the posts. i guess the world has come to this. good news is not news. i’m putting this post out because i have no news to announce. nothing bad has happened, and i have no need to vent. why is it that it’s easier to post about things that have gone wrong or that i’m worried about than it is to just post that today was a sunny happy day?

well, it was. we had a nice morning, went to a doctor appt for my wife to meet her actual medical doctor for the first time since switching to him almost 8 months ago. she was going to talk to him about gastric bypass, but decided against it, as she thinks more on it, she wants to do it less. either way, i love her however she looks or weighs. me? i’m still stuck at that 285 mark. it’s because i’m not TRYING to lose anymore, just eating whatever. i’m going to start trying again in a couple days, then it will be back to the struggle (and probably more recipe posts!).

relationship? doing well, thank you. i’m not sure if my wife is 100% as far as her feelings, but she’s definately coming back to a married state of mind. i know it’s hard, she decided to take freedom by the horns and try to live it while she was sliding down the manic-depressive road at the same time. i really wonder what life would be like right now if i hadn’t stepped up and done something. we would definately have been seperated. probably on the way to divorce. i would have the kids for now, since she wasn’t and still probably wouldn’t be working full time. i hate to think of what if’s. i don’t want to think of life apart if i can avoid it. it was miserable living that life and thinking of where things will go. i’m just happy living in the now, hoping for the future, but respectful of what could be, and trying to keep a balance between obtrusive and uncaring. i have seen that i can be too loving, and that is a turn off for her, which i don’t understand fully, but respect. i can also be not loving enough, which is hard for me to understand as well, since i always feel love for her, but i’m not always able to show it….and when i do, it’s too much… catch-22.

enough rambling….

-e

good.day

today was probably the best day i’ve had since march. we got up, started getting ready for the garage sale that never happened…which we weren’t even going to be selling at…. it was more for my mother-in-law and one of B’s friends to sell shit. since that didn’t happen, we had plenty of time to get ready for A’s t-ball game. we went there, watched a pretty good game with the kids all playing well. after, we took $20.00 and went around to a few garage sales. we got home around 12:30, put E down for his nap, and started working outside. we cleaned up, mowed and started watering the back, pulled some things out of the garage to clean up that room a bit, and started out front. we didn’t mow out there, i’m going to do that after i write this ( ), but B painted a coffee table with primer, and helped me paint the front side trim of the house, which is about 2 months past due (we painted this house right before the major bombs started going off). we then came inside and made the most heavenly mac n cheese (from scratch, and it’s the fucking bomb. sorry no recipe!) and i made a tri-tip while painting, which turned out awesome (search for my tri-tip recipes). I also picked up a crusty baguette from the store and some broccoli salad. i need to get a recipe for that and make it my own eventually.

anyway, i’m mowing tonight, then it’s bedtime. all told, no drama, no crying, no anger, only smiles and exhaustion from a well-spend sunday. god damn this was a great day.

C comes home from Reno tomorrow, so it’s a whole different ballgame again. the 3 terrors will ride again!

-e

work

made it through the week. thankfully all is going well at home, so work was able to be completed like it should. travel starts soon though, and i’m hoping we’re going to ahve a stable enought environment where i can be gone 3 days at a stretch and not have to worry about my family the entire time. not that i mind thinking about them all the time of course nothing interesting to announce today, so i’m keeping it short. besides its too fucking hot to be on the computer all night!

-e

subfusc

i’m glad the gloomy subfusc clouds are gone from over my head. i’m feeling like the sun is shining constantly (and with near-100-degree days wed, thu, and over 100 degrees today, it IS). I think they have found a combination of meds that work for my wife in the most postive fashion. she’s still tired, but it’s less than it has been, and seems to be something she can work through. the downside, of course with these meds is a lack of sexual desire, which we talked about yesterday. i told her that is doesn’t matter, and i mean that. i do want sex. almost constantly. but i know that if there’s no desire, it’s not going to be something to force upon her. not that it’s that horrible to abstain for a bit, and i know that the desire will come back slowly at first, but will be there.

it’s good to be standing in the light, instead of wondering when the next storm is going to come and you’ll have to make sure you’ve got control of everything. i know that we’re still in the beginning, but the old B is starting to show through, and by that i mean the B of 5 years ago, who wasn’t so upset at being a mommy. i’m hopeful for everything, and luckily, she’s seeing everything i’ve for her as a positive thing now, instead of being mad or resentful. here’s to a weekend of working on the house, and enjoying family!

-e

refreshed

yes, the cymbalta worked. it’s one of those things, almost immediately (well, 6 hours or so) after taking it, she noticed that she was feeling better. I got that long-awaited smile last night, that was there because she was truly not feeling depressed. it was great, and i felt like screaming from the rooftops that she’s back! i can tell she’s feeling better, and even today, she’s posted on her myspace that she feels much better. this morning, i forgot to get things ready for A’s school, like his clothes, and even though she was upset, she didn’t have that breakdown that she’s been having over small things, and just pushed through the frustration. it’s great to see her be able to keep trying and going, where last week, the same situation would have made me come home from work just to get our son to school because she would have been a wreck of emotions.

i’m still not 100% sure how she’s feeling about other issues, but just to see that smile made my heart beat 1000x’s faster.

-e