The Other Side Of The Mountain

Around here they have elevation issues - how much snow you get depends on what side of the mountain you live on. In Terra Alta they can have a foot of snow and by the time you hit Masontown about 20 miles away, it's springtime. I guess it's sort of like the lake effect upstate. My side of the mountain has become a giant mudhole, my lawn squishes in a most gross (and funny) way when I got trolloping around with the dogs. It's supposed to warm up for a few days, then get cold then back to warm. The other nurse is done on Friday but we have two part timers starting today - I'm doing the orientation class!! which I'm a little nervous about. The boss was supposed to be doing it with me watching but she's got to go to the other office today so I will be winging it. I finally got everything caught up yesterday and am now auditing and organizing the charts. I'm not on call this weekend and I'm hoping it warms up so I can go hiking up on Cooper's rock with Jackson. Miss Thing of course will have to stay home despite the fact that would make the hike more exciting. At some time this spring I want to go to the Catherdral Forest out in Aurora which is an entire forest of hemlocks but that would be a full day trip as it's 60 miles away. I'm having a little bit of a problem adjusting to this full time thing - realistically it's only 2 half days more a week but things like getting my oil changed, etc all have to wait until the weekend now and when the weekend comes around I don't feel like doing anything like that. I guess I'll get used to it.

Do I Smell Jelly Beans?

I have so far managed to keep off all the weight I lost - I've weighed between 135 and 140 for about 4 months now. That's not a bad weight for me actually, I would like to weight 112 but as I'm about 5'7" I know that's unrealistic. A friend of mine once told me we weigh ourselves when we're 17 and spend the rest of our lives thinking that's our "ideal" weight, spending disappointing years trying to get back there. But in reality at that age you're not done growing are you? So this weight is middle of the road, I do have to work at it a bit, but it's not impossible. HOWEVER my favoritie food holiday is looming on the horizon which would be Easter. And YES I know I don't believe in the christian god but I do believe in Easter Baskets. My record one year was 5 pounds of jelly beans in under 2 weeks and that's not including the chocolate bunnies, the coconut cream eggs or the acres upon acres of Peeps I consumed when I thought no one was watching. CVS has become an exercise in restraint as I walk by the aisles of little Peep bunnies with thier tiny chocolate eyes trained on me. I picked up an eight ounce bag of jelly  beans yesterday and for the first time in my life - looked at the calories per serving. The good news is it's only 100 calories - the bad news is there were NINE servings per bag. That would be almost a thousand calories per bag so if I eat nothing but two bags of jelly beans per day that would be ok. Hmm. There might be something wrong with that kind of thinking as it doesn't include Peeps. So there is a plan B which is I drastically cut my caloric intake now, up my exercise schedule thereby creating a buffer weight so I can eat like a loon at the appropriate time. We will see. In other news Pearl is in heat and I was informed the other day in the comments that this will go on for at least a few more weeks. I guess there's nothing I can do about it but continue deflecting the Trick or Treaters and keeping Miss Thing on a leash.

And Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Program

Well, I did not have the greatest of all weekends I must admit. First off  is the Thing That Must Not Be Mentioned as a certain Crabby Pants had threatened to open a "whole can of rotten worms!" and her sidekick seems to think I have a lot of nerve and so forth. Whatever. Moving On. In other news, Pearl has gone into heat finally - and now we wish she hadn't. We had some Trick or Treaters in the yard and I didn't spot them right away - but Miss Thing certainly did and I just had to just about carry her disobedient self back into the house. I did very patiently explain they were not her Kind but she was being very base about the whole business and didn't appear to care. I'm not really sure how long this is supposed to last so I'll write to Kathy the dog breeder and ask her, hopefully no longer than another day or two. I'm not enjoying the yard today at any rate, the snow melted and then it rained so there's mud as far as the eye can see. Running after Trick or Treaters is a slippery and slidey operation so Pearl will be on a leash until this whole business is over. David's had his hands full - the good news is his Dad's biopsy came back negative - it's just a polyp or benign tumor in his nasal cavity that ruptured a bit and he'll be having it removed soon. Then yesterday his mom started bleeding so it was off to the hospital - they took her off of her Plavix and Aspirin for now. Then David's sister called later as his mom was now having black spots in front of her eyes so back they went to the hospital and they treated her high blood pressure. I've been busy doing some paper work today and reading up on the next seminar I'm scheduled for - work has gotten a bit out of hand as I'm transitioning from visit nurse to supervisor to Home Health Agency Manager all in the space of about 6 weeks. The day in Pittsburgh set me back a day last week so I had to push the office work over to this week and I STILL have visits and infusions and I'm going to be there during the orientation of the new nurses because pretty soon I'm going to be doing it. But I'm looking foward to it despite feeling a bit overwhelmed - and I get to hang out in Bridgeport a couple of days a week eventually which will be really fun.

This Is My Journal

It was pointed out to me that there were a couple of comments on my journal from when I 'd written about a relative trying to contact me again, although she'd made it quite clear at the time that she didn't like me. I went  back to the entry and sure enough - there the actual party was - and her daughter too. Don't bother looking for them, they've been deleted, after all this is my journal and it is a free country. I think I was more mystified as to why they're reading my journal  and both felt the need to continue the "feud" as my father likes to call it even though it's a bit one sided. I can almost feel them reading this right now formulating thier response and next move. Ready to cast that next barb despite thier claims they wish to have nothing to do with me- they've made it clear they think I've done them some horrible wrong - and perhaps I have - but I had said to them back when this all happened that maybe it was better if we didn't have any contact at all. After all just because there is some small blood connection doesn't mean you have to get along or even like each other. The whole thing was strange as my best friend and I were talking on that subject today - about how sometimes you have to cut yourself off or be cut off - and physical distance isn't always the answer. So if you two are reading this (or three if my soon to be EX sister in law is peeping also) I am sorry. For what ever it was I did or you think I did - I'm sorry. Now, here is the fun thing - if you don't contact me EVER AGAIN I will have nothing to mention in blog! Is that like totally fair or what! Now to paraphrase my favorite song  - Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away.

I Was Wrong, I Would Rather Not Be In Pittsburgh

I left yesterday morning at 6:45 am - I had to be there by 9, but it's only 77 miles so I figured that would give me more than enough time, especially if I wanted to take pictures. I got to 10 miles within my destination in about an hour or so - then I hit Pittsburgh. I sat on route 276 for almost 45 minutes, it was nightmarish at best. Thank goodness I had the GPS - getting lost in heavy traffic makes me so upset. It's not the getting lost, it's the fact that if you get on the wrong road it can take forever to get turned back around and back on the right road. But I was on the right road and arrived 10 minutes before it started. I saw a couple of people I knew and the seminar was over by noon. At lunch the President of the Pittsburgh office came and sat at our table, eek! I hate eating in front of people I don't know and it didn't make it any easier that it was someone in charge of the whole kaboodle. So I got through lunch, hopefully not babbling too much and then off to the main office that I forgot to take a picture of. I met the rep from the insurance company and did another training session and then off for home. I hit some traffic, but since it was only 3 pm it wasn't too bad and was back home by 5pm. I do have to admit I do like the tunnels, they're fun to drive in and for some reason the second you hit the tunnels, the traffic breaks up. I'm still working on my latest project but I'm not sure if I like it or not. The yarn might be a bit too big or busy or something and the pattern isn't showing up quite as much as I would like it to. So I have to decide whether to continue or frog it, hmm. I've put a lot of work into it so far and I think I probably have to do another rep at least to get a better idea of how it will look. But I might sneaky order that yarn I'd wanted just in case.

All Things Considered, I'd Rather Be In Pittsburgh

So I'm off to Pittsburgh this morning for a coding class - and yes I know I took one, but this is specific to home health care. I drank a cup of coffee early - and then snuck another one down by the pot, I'm sure I'll be sitting in traffic later being VERY sorry about doing that. Work is busy reshuffling itself, there are two new visit nurses who are going to work part time so I'm sitting in on the orientation class as I will be eventually teaching it. It is fun being in the office though, I abuse my email daily by emailing my coworkers - the boss gets questions about The List which I keep posted by my computer so I can refer to it if I get bored. We have a list of offenses that if you do one, you will be Terminated. There's the usual stuff - apparently I cannot boost cars or terminate another person in any way shape or form - but then there's the odd ones. I cannot Traffic In Infants (are older children ok??), I can be fired for Stealing An Unpublished Drama or Musical, and my absolute favorite - there will be NO Involuntary Deviante Sexual Intercourse which will probably never happen as so far  no one has been able to figure out what that entails. I kind of think that it means if you're walking along and accidently have a sexual encounter with a cow or something that would qualify. This theory made everyone really laugh as I recieved a CowBear from David for Valentine's Day,sent to the office. And the kicker -this list only pertains to Pennsylvania, in West Virginia anything goes!

Can You Feel Me Dancing?

When I went into work yesterday as my boss walked by me she told me she needed to talk to me. I had a slight moment of panic as she didn't say why - and being a secretly Very Paranoid Person ran over events of the past few days. I've only been at my new job for a short period of time, not long enough to create too much mayhem but you never know. Had I known what she was going to discuss with me I would've put my shoes on. Instead I was forced to accept ANOTHER PROMOTION wearing pink kitten socks. Yep - another promotion!! That would be with ANOTHER RAISE.  I was rocked. They did another interview for the director position, Delia, one of the big bosses came down to do it. Apparently after I left Tammy and Delia decided to stop looking for a director and called off the headhunter. I'm not the director - haha, that would be scary but they've decided I can run both the visit ends in Morgantown and Bridgeport. That looks like a lot more responsibility written down, doesn't it? They still have to hire nurses to fill my position so I'll be doing visits for at least a few more months which is fine with me - I'll probably keep a few as I would hate to be out of that end entirely. But I am so excited! I'm heading out to Pittsburgh for training and will start taking managing seminars, I'll also be getting incentive pay which Susan says is 1% of our gross I think, but as the agency gets bigger(and it is daily) the incentive will be growing along with that. Whoo hoo!

Enough Already, Bring On The Sunshine

On Sunday I had to do an admission on a patient and of course it started snowing first thing in the morning. When I'd called for directions the patient's family asked if I had 4 wheel drive before anything else, I wilted a bit as there's only one reason anyone around here asks THAT question. HIPPA regulations prohibited me from taking a picture of that spectacular driveway that thankfully had been plowed, but I did indeed take a "running start" at it so the momentem would carry me up and over the hill, as opposed to down and in a ditch. I do enjoy the snow, but it feels likes it's time for it to go, doesn't it? Last night after I got home I took the dogs out and noticed - it's not quite so cold. The snow had melted a little during the day and here and there were patches of grass. The Crack Weather team has predicted it to be up in the 50's!! this weekend, wouldn't that be nice? David could use a little sunshine, he's not a cold weather person and this has been quite wearing on him this year. He's been worried about his dad too, a couple of days ago Bob woke up bleeding profusely from his mouth. David's mom called 911 and they ended up removing  a growth and cauterizing it in the back of his throat. The biopsy isn't back yet and Bob has to follow up with the doctor - apparently the growth is in the back of his nasal passage and needs further attention. It's not like David can "do" anything and his brother and sister are there, but this is when the distance gets very hard for him and the cold weather certainly isn't helping. So I'm hurrying spring along and hopefully, it'll be here this weekend!

The Quiet Days Of Winter

We certainly didn't do much yesterday, I did paperwork first thing in the morning but after that it was tv and knitting. Jackson went to Becky's so we dropped him off and went to the bookstore. David was harrassing me about my dorky outfit - if I don't plan on going anywhere I have a few old pairs of sweatpants that are way too big. I don't really care, they're faded and don't stay up too well, but David would prefer I throw them out. I suppose the ones I had on yesterday I might, I don't even like them anymore.They used to a deep red and now they're a funky pinky-red with bleach stains and big stretched out seat. Anyhoo, David and I have recently been discussing where we would like to end up someday - I wish he would stop as it always ends up in a big arguement. When he speaks of the perfect place it has a moderate to large amount of people, on the coast, etc. When I envision what I consider perfect it's sort of like where we are now, just a lot less populated. As  I get older the urge to move further and further out west gets stronger - I've always been drawn to open plains and farmland - why I haven't the slightest idea. If I won the lottery tomorrow I'd be heading out to Missouri to Reeds Springs or to Eureka Arkansas without a second thought. My ideal home would be a huge log cabin with lots of windows and a fieldstone fireplace, I would like to have cows but as we all know  I find them terrifying if they move around so I might just get a couple little sheep. I of course would have them declawed and defanged just to be on the safe side. But this is just the cabin fever talking, isn't it? David is still vacilltating about the two acres in the front and goes back and forth - but he's much more leaning towards keeping them as spring approaches. We've been burning the wood all winter from what he's cleared and we still have tons.

Sigh. Winter Goes On And On

The temps have remained down in the teens for days, it wouldn't be too bad if it snowed more or something, but it's just icky, draggy cold. Jackson was in school a total of 2 1/2  days this week which was way more than Preston County which has been closed for going on 3 weeks now. We're expecting snow on Sunday, I have no idea how much. In other news, the other visit nurse at work has decided after all to quit and gave her two weeks notice. I'm not overly worried, if you're a nurse for more than 5 minutes you get to experience the special delights of "turnover" so I had my moment of panic followed by I'll deal with it. There's already two RNs lined up for interview for part time and the other manager will help me out, it's nothing out of the ordinary. Actually over the years I've learned to be wary of large sign on bonuses and higher than average salaries, in some professions this would be considered a good thing. In nursing  what it generally means is they can't keep staff and once they have you under thier thumb every shift will be like a combat zone. I took a job once in Scranton that was the highest paying in the area and after 2 nights on the floor I realized nothing could pay me enough to want to come back. 12  cardiac patients, some on cardiac drips (my favorite was the dopamine drip without a monitor because the manager didn't feel he needed one!!) - when we were short it was 18 patients per RN with one aide for the entire floor. We were supposed to have an LPN, "supposed to" being the operative words - you get the idea. I worked there for 4 months and will never forget it - I became very cautious after that about what I will, and more importantly will NOT do - mainly because you're bound to screw up with that size patient load and in the end it's your license that comes under fire, not the management's. Speaking of management I'm still having fun at my job and I'm still abusing my email daily.

The Never Ending Saga Of Best Buy

I've recieved yet another letter from the corporate headquarters, apparently someone felt that perhaps complete inaction was not the best way to handle it -

Thank you for contacting Best Buy about product repairs. I'm Michael
with Customer Care.
At Best Buy, we understand the importance of good service, as well as
how frustrating poor service can be. I apologize that your experience
with our Granville location Geek Squad has been unpleasant. I would also
like to apologize if the level of service you received did not meet the
expectations you have come to expect from Best Buy. Best Buy strives to
provide our customers with the highest level of service, convenience and
selection. We value receiving your comments so we may use this feedback
to improve the shopping and service experience for all our customers.
A formal complaint has been filed on your behalf. Your concerns will be
provided to the management team for review. While formal complaints are
handled internally, please be assured that your concerns have been
registered and any appropriate action(s) will be taken to resolve this
issue.
Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not
hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concern

I suppose I should be glad, but I'm not - at this point I think it's just a little too late, don't you? Jackson is home for the day, the temps have dipped down again. They had school yesterday which made someone a true Grumpy Guppy as Morgantown High was one of the few open. I was surprised as the roads were horrifying at best yesterday, it rained first thing in the morning, then turned to snow and then the temperture really plummetted.  I started to go to PA to do some visits but ended up turning back. It took me an hour to drive 10 miles due to all the people that had slid off the road or into the middle and got stuck. The other nurse was in the office so we got a ton of paperwork done and everything caught up and finished moving the last of the furniture. I was glad Jackson doesn't ride the school bus as they were really having a time of it. David had a Vermont Teddy Bear sent to my office yesterday, I got the Cow Bear which was very cute. It's now occupying my desk where Evil Pearl cannot lay claim to it.

Happy Valentine's Day

To celebrate today, we are "putting on the dog", haha. She's such a goose, isn't she? Anyhoo, there were all sorts of dire predictions weather wise, 6 to 8 inches of snow, yada, yada, yada. We got about an inch of snow followed by rain which in turn made the roads Very Disgusting. As we all know, they use cinders around here instead of salt which creates the BBQ Effect (what's in your BBQ after it rains is what it looks like on the road) so my car is all drippy black. Jackson had his day off from school and I even got a late start because they didn't plow our road and there was no way I could get by without slinging down the hill and bouncing off the trailers below. So I hung around the house until 10-ish and then headed out. Yesterday was an odd day at work, I was very at loose ends and distracted. But I did get my desk switched - the other party was supposed to switch desks with me a few weeks ago and has come up with one excuse after another as to why she doesn't have time. Although she has been busy I've been getting the distinct feeling she had no intentions at all and I would be living out of a box forever. She wasn't in yesterday and since I had time, I grabbed one of my co-workers and we moved her - it took maybe 30 minutes and it's all done. It wasn't that big of a deal - we just swopped out the drawers and switched the stuff on top. So I am now sitting by the door at the end and the private duty people are sitting together which should make things easier - my main complaint has been since they work in the same venue they talk very loudly to each other across my desk when they're not walking back and forth and it's very distracting. Hopefully there'll be no fireworks over it.

School? What Is That?

Yep, cancelled again. Jackson attended school 2 and a half days last week, one day this week and I'm sure tomorrow will be cancelled too. David's job has been delayed til Thursday as the materials have been delayed...it's all a ripple effect from the snow. Please note MY job continues on, snow or no snow. But thank goodness I got new tires with treads. They're predicting 6 to 8 inches and given the Crack Weather Team's record it could be anything from rain to a full out blizzard. Valentine's Day is tomorrow as we all know, I don't think we're doing too much. I've always considered it a dorky and somewhat awkward sort of a day, nobody ever gets it right and you end up throwing out most of the candy heart due to the caramels which are brick like at best, dentist inducing at worst. Jackson is the easiest, he gets an industrial size box of Ferre Roche and plows through it in about 30 minutes and then skulks about the house looking to see if you got anything good. He and David continue to work out nightly with the exercise equipment and David has taught him to box which I always found a bit weird, but it's served both of our boys well. Neither of our kids are bullies but both can defend themselves rather impressively if needed. And they both enjoy boxing with Dad. I do not box, don't ask me to. And as you can see I finally figured out the hit counter thing - you can get free ones off the internet and can set it before you install it so I'm back to being accurate. Too bad I didn't think about it harder, I would've set it at a million billion and made myself look Very Popular.

Monday.

Well, as you can see we got our computer back as promised by Herb at Staples. They did a bang up job and after we send in the rebate for the software, it'll cost about $20 LESS than the estimate we got from Best Buy. Speaking of which, here's a copy of the email I got the other day after writing to Best Buy's  corporate office about how we had our computer down there for over a week and no one even looked at it:

Julia,
I am Ma. Ailee with Best Buy Customer Care.
At Best Buy, we understand the importance of good service, as well as
how frustrating poor service can be.  I apologize that your experience
with your repair has been unpleasant.

Best Buy strives to make each experience you have with us positive and
as fun as possible, and we are disappointed if we don?t live up to that
expectation.  Best Buy relies on feedback, both positive and negative,
to help us find areas for improvement.

I appreciate you taking the time to express your concern.

Sincerely,

Ma. Ailee
Best Buy Customer Care Team

As you can see, they appreciate the time I took to express my concern but they're apparently not taking any time to correct it.  Oh well at least I feel appreciated! I posted a couple of pictures of Mr. Lee who is looking much better these days, the hair is starting to grow back and her eye is getting back to it's normal shape. I've started another knitting project without finishing the first one - it's just that kind of a month. My next project is a shawl with a pretty complicated diamond lace pattern so it's interesting. I made a hat too as you can see but no one is willing to wear it even though it's fairly attractive. Pearl has started her modeling career but she's not overly cooperative and insists on payment. I noticed my hit counter on the side of my journal has reset itself AGAIN - it should be up around 10,000 by now and it reads 14. I suppose I shouldn't care but I like to keep track.

A Watched Pot Doesn't Boil

And a hamster driven modem doesn't load either. Jackson was laughing the other day because this computer actually encourages reading and other activities that you can do while waiting for it to load. I don't think there's anything different except we've gotten so used to DSL and our Dell that we just forgot how slow the computers used to be. This weekend has been fairly quiet, the temps are hovering in the single digits and teens and the snow is thin, hard and old, not enough to play in and just enough to lose your balance on. I got my tires the other day, the front two were half price and the back was full so we got some of our money back at least. Jackson was over Becky's yesterday and they went to the movies, he's such a goose. Every night at six we yell Jackson and he yells What and we yell Dinner - you would think after 17 years he would get the connection between dinner and six wouldn't you? But it's very selective - he was in the shower upstairs yesterday and I heard him yell Do I Smell Cupcakes! Hmm. So I suppose if I started serving cupcakes for dinner I could save myself some time. David's been working on his bathroom, Jackson now has a full waterproof wall behind his tub and a medicine cabinet with a mirror over the sink - David hasn't finished hooking up the tub yet as he's afraid if we do that, he'll have no reason to come out of his room and we won't see him until graduation. They're predicting more snow and low temps for next week so I'm not sure how much time Jackson will be spending in school. The bad thing about all the cancelled school is either they'll cancel spring vacation or tack it onto the end, both of which will incur Endless Complaining And Whining by the participant.

The Fighting Irish

My car is at the shop this morning getting 3 new tires - the front ones are indeed covered under warranty despite the initial information to the contraray. David and I told them that if they weren't going to honor the warranty we would be getting in contact with Good Year to find out why not and we'd be taking our business elsewhere. My tires were inspected again, Good Year was called and they'll only cost $117 after deducting normal wear and tear. Our computer is supposed to be done this evening but we're picking it sometime tomorrow or Monday - probably tomorrow so I can go to the mall. I did hear from Best Buy Corporate Office: I would post the letter I got but am unable to as the hamster computer cannot figure out the "cut and paste" - anyhoo the letter that arrived 2 or 3 days after I wrote pretty much sympathized with me about the frustration of poor service and let me know they depended on customer feedback for improving the quality of thier service. That was it. I have to say I was not impressed as I would have preferred they at least make an attempt to make it right rather than just letting me know they felt sorry for me! I'll still buy CDs there and games but I think I'll stick with Dell and Staples for anything major. The weather still remains brutally cold - Jackson only had one full day of school (Friday was a 2 hour delay) and Preston school has remained closed for the past two weeks. Pearl doesn't mind the weather, she's still teasing the St. Bernard on the other side of the fence - everytime she sees it she races down there and they run back and forth along thier side of the fence - she can do that for hours if we let her. I told David if that St. Bernard ever gets out  it will probably just come over and eat her.

 

Jackson Will Never Go To School Again

That's right, they cancelled school AGAIN today - the temp is up but we got snow. I found out from a friend of mine at work that grew up here that when the tempeture gets to a certain point they do cancel school. She said the kids in the outlying areas are out at the busstops as early as 6 am and it's too cold. Our computer is heading off for another adventure in Clarksburg today, so I'll be back to Hamster Modem for a few days. I asked David to drop it off today so that we can pick it up Saturday and I can go to the mall that way. At least the weather has warmed up a bit, I had Pearl out this morning and she was romping all over the place. Vincent was pretending to want to go out but we all know he's a big Fairy Cat and won't be going out until spring. I have no idea how he was stray given his high standards to food, weather, and where he'll sleep.

Best Buy Sucks Too!

Well, the good news is we got our computer back. The bad news is it was never even looked at, even after a week of sitting down at Best Buy. David called yesterday and spoke with Brian who once again gave him the Vista Speech followed by The Run Around. David told him he'd be down to get it and a refund of the money we'd paid upfront - Brian wanted to know if he wanted to speak to the manager! David told him since there were no plans of fixing the computer he didn't see where speaking to the manager (again) would make any difference. We're going to take it to Staples in Clarksburg later in the week, they guarentee 3 days - it's a bit farther and more expensive but after this experience with Best Buy I'd rather do that. In other news the weather has been warmer than usual, I've been thinking of getting my spring clothes out. Haha. It's been about 3 in the morning, then reaching a height of 12 during the day. School is cancelled again today so Jackson will be keeping company with Vincent the Cat, his roommate and general trouble maker. Here they cancel school if the temp goes below 2 - I think it has something to do with the school buses. David starts his next job Friday, it's been pushed back a couple of times but he's been using his free time to get some of the projects on the house further along. I have to get new tires, David's duking it out with the garage as I'm 55,000 miles under the warrenty and my front tires are pretty much shot so he'll be back down there this weekend. They're claiming they aren't bald! I'm getting so tired of having to fight everyone to honor thier service - just like Best Buy, why offer something you can't(or won't) deliver?

LOL - I wrote a letter to the corporate office and here's my reply:

Best Buy Customer,

This is an auto-acknowledgement indicating we have received your
inquiry.

Due to our higher than normal volumes, we will respond to your inquiry
within 48 to 72 hours. We apologize for the delay. Not to worry, orders
are still being processed and will be completed as soon as possible. We
will also continue to send out any order status updates via email.

Thank you for your patience.

Best wishes from Best Buy,
Your Customer Care Team

Apparently the Best Buy in Granville is just following company policy.

Monday Sucks.

What is it about Monday that makes it seem the worst day of the week? I know part of it is the weekend is over and it's back to work but it also seems that anything bad or inconvienent will make it's debut on Monday. My back tire on  my car is going flat which means David will be following me to work and getting it repaired. We're not worrying about getting Jackson to school as all the schools around here are closed today due to the extreme drop in tempetures. My squirrel and hamster driven computer appears to have hit an all time level of slowness and in an effort to blow off some stress I got on my treadmill. Pearl also decided to get on the treadmill thereby setting off the emergency stop and I can't get it to start again. And it's not even 7 o'clock. The temps predicted today are in the single digits and it's not supposed to get into the 30's until the end of the week. At least we have water - the watermains in the neighboring county broke last week so they've had homes without water for days, how miserable would that be? Around here because of the distance when a watermain breaks they turn off the water for quite awhile - and it can be disconcerting if you're not used to it happening. We had a break down here a couple of months ago and I went to turn on the water and it dribbled out. A couple of years ago I would've panicked, now I just call and sigh. David's next job is starting sometime this week, he's been working on the house for the past couple of weeks but I think he's getting a bit antsy being home so much. We're definately going to be selling it when Jackson graduates but he jumped the gun and made inquiries so now we're fighting off a hoard of real estate agents. At least it gives us something to do!

Best Buy - I Think NOT

Yes, I am in a bit of a mood this morning, thank you for asking. Being on the "emergency" computer isn't helping at all - our Dell was running a bit slow so David brought it to Best Buy to have a diagnostic run and also to have a new antivirus program installed - he was told 2 days, 5 for worst case - that would be a week ago. He called Wednesday and was told that since they had to install Vista to all the computers they'd sold ours was being moved to the back of the line. That  was the opposite of what he'd been told Monday which was first come first serve. In the meantime I've reconfigured the old modem so we can at least retrieve email and so forth, you forget how even a few years ago how slow computers were and how easily you forget. (I could just about go take a nap in the time it took to load up my journal!) This one actually makes cranking and whirling noises everytime you ask it to do anything - sometimes it goes on for so long it forgets what it's doing and then you have to restart it. So we are limping along until Monday and hopefully we'll get ours back - we were going to just cancel but that puts us back to having to start all over again so we're toughing it out.We also stopped in on Saturday and talked to the manager instead of calling, hopefully they'll scurry a bit faster just to get rid of us. In other news my first week as Visit Case Manager went pretty well - the boss actually told me she was impressed with my performance which I appreciated a great deal as it's hard to tell how you're doing. I feel like I'm doing a balancing act most days - and my bargain hunting skills are becoming quite useful in an odd sort of way. I haggle away most days on visit payment, supplies, etc - I figure I can always go work in a flea market if this doesn't pan out.  I got pictures from my sister this morning and am a bit grumpy about the whole thing - one of the downsides of moving away is being left out of family plans - the whole family is in Florida and I didn't even know. I knew my sister and mom were going down but apparently there's a whole family reunion and only family was invited. Whatever, I'll get over it.