We arrived home last Friday night - much earlier in the evening than usual. It was a combination of exhaustion, the heat, possibility of heavy rain later in the evening, and knowing that we might have to be up and about early on Saturday for the delivery of our new refrigerator. Normally no matter how late it is when we arrive home we clear out all - or just about all - of the stuff in the RV. This time we only brought in what we needed to have for the night and Saturday morning. We did not want more stuff in the house - which was still discombobulated from when the new fridge had been delivered the week before. There was no computer phone call with the time that the delivery would be made the next day as we were suppose to receive and had received the night before the first refrigerator was received. Knowing that the crew also calls about half an hour before they actually come, we went to bed expecting a call the next day.
I was woken by someone ringing our doorbell and pounding on the door at 7:30 am. I was unsure if it was the delivery as no one had called and was physically too exhausted to get up and look out the window. At 9:30 am my alarm went off. I telephoned the store and was told that I was not on the delivery list for the day. (Glad I didn’t force myself out of bed at 7:30.) The delivery manager who told me this seemed to have no memory of who we were and what was going on. He put me through to the appliance manager. She remembered us, but it was as if we had not been told the week before that it would be delivered on Saturday - the day I was calling her. She told me that she had the fridge and it would be delivered the next day - Sunday. (Quite frankly we were surprised that they deliver on Saturday or Sunday - it used to be week days only.)
The time frame for the first refrigerator to be delivered was 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. We figured that there was a delivery time which ended at 11:30 am and one that started at 4:30 pm. We were called and told that the time range was 12 pm to 5 pm. Lunch was problematic - there was food in the basement freezer and some packaged food in the house - but we had not had a properly working fridge in over a week and a half and did not really have food in the house for the lunch, but we figured we could hold out - and what were the chances we would be one of the last deliveries of the time frame?
We woke up before noon and dressed and went into our home office to work on our computers, sort mail that arrived while we were away, catch up email etc. Around 3:00 husband said that he really needed to eat something as his blood sugar had dropped. Crackers were not enough - so I made him a can of pea soup. I had a small individual applesauce. We went back upstairs. Now, I did get work done - I managed to transfer files to a DVD for my annual archiving of last year, caught up on email, etc. At 4:00 the phone rang. It was the delivery company’s computer again - delivery was now to be 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm!
I telephoned the store - they had the same info, but they did give me a phone number for the delivery company. I called same - 3 times as the first two times I was dropped off hold. I got a nice woman named Becky. I explained that entire saga- damaged refrigerator delivered, having to wait a week for a replacement, delivery not set up for the day before as we would be told, the change in time at the last minute, we are both Diabetics and have not eaten and are becoming ill... She went and checked. There had been a problem on an earlier delivery that set the crew back 90 minutes! She also told me that there were 4 deliveries ahead of us so it would be an hour to an hour and a half before they came and we should be able to go out and eat something. I thanked her.
We did not go out for lunch as we did not trust doing so. Glad we did not. We received a call around 5 pm that they would be here within half an hour. Husband went outside to wait. Good thing. The numbering is odd on the houses here plus depending on the GPS it can show us up the street or about 5 + blocks of where we are. Husband saw a truck stop about 2 houses up the street from us with the men in the truck looking confused and he waved them over.
As opposed to the first crew which was just the other side of perfunctory - meaning a little short of same - this was the type of the delivery we expected (other than the time problem). Two friendly delivery men. Robert had explained to them that they were taking back the same model that we had recently received because of damage. They came in and measured the doors again. (The last one came in, so this one had to - they were twins.) The one in charge looked at the damage and shook his head that it had been delivered like that. They took the old one out. They unpacked the new one. The one in charge called husband over - there was a scratch in the freezer door of the new one - he and we had the same idea - the freezer doors were switched. They brought the new fridge in. They removed the plastic wrapping from it. It was plugged in so all knew it was working. They saw that it was not level and leveled it. (The prior crew had told us it could not be leveled when we asked them to do so.) They did not set up the inside, but I had been told by the manager that they are not suppose to do so. If this crew had come with the original fridge and same had not been damaged and had worked right - I would be just as happy with this store as I was after I bought a washing machine from them. (Which is why we bought from them again.) We tipped the two men - husband is not one to tip for deliveries and such, but we agreed that they did that good a job - especially compared to the last crew. After delivery and setup the fridge is suppose to sit set at the middle range for 24 hours without opening and closing the door or putting any food in it. We shut it off and set up the shelves inside, put in the remote thermometer and shut the door. We went out for a much needed dinner at the Asian buffet we go to.
It is more or less working properly. Apparently it is suppose to go up and down more than our older fridge to keep the proper temperature - although not as much as the first one did. It is also suppose to do so less after it is filled - it is suppose to be at least half filled and food added a little at a time. We have put a lot of bottles of water (made by us, not commercial) in it to add food to it as we have not yet been food shopping and even then, do not have a lot of food in the fridge at any one time in hot weather (in case storm takes down the electricity), and not that much in the winter either other than at certain times as there are only two of us.
So Monday afternoon after picking up the mail at our box - from over a week - and lunch out at Wendys, we came home and I was ready to start catching up on work at my computer. Our bank statements, as well as those for our business and for the two clubs of which I am treasurer had all come in and I planned to work on them. ( I had caught up on email on Sunday while we waited for the delivery.)
I turned on my computer. Some message went past too quickly for me to read. I then tried to go to the Win XP virtual machine in my computer to catch up and sync my Organizer entries in my old Palm Centro with Organizer - but the computer would not switch to the XP side. Husband came to figure it out. Unfortunately I have been having problems with my old, analog monitor recently and it decided to die in the middle of this. We managed to turn my computer sideways and hook it up to the monitor from husband’s second computer - hanging on the wall on his side of the office. He fixed the computer problem.
He had been looking for a new monitor for me. I really did not want a digital one, but that it is all there is. The big problem was that unless we were going to rearrange a good part of the office, I needed a small monitor - about 18 inches across - or it would not fit. There were two candidates he had found. One was Walmart and one was from Staples - but the latter had to be ordered. So Walmart it was. We went in to a local Walmart. We found the monitor we had been looking at - on our trip last week we actually had a chance to see it running and it looked okay. We also found one that he had not seen anything about that was smaller. He looked it up online on his cell phone - well rated and only US$60 (plus sales tax). We decided to go with same. It could be returned and at that price if we decided that I should have the other monitor (it can be turned vertically which might be good for me when reading full page things such as IRS manuals), this was cheap enough to keep as a spare emergency monitor around the house. We took it to the electronics desk - it was $90? Husband pointed out that it was $60 online - we were told that we had to ask for a price match (to Walmart’s own online price). He walked away in reference to a call he had taken. Husband checked and he told him that we should take it to customer service and buy it there, asking for the price match.
This Walmart is in the middle of being updated. The entry now has a gate that when closed only lets one into the store, not out, and when open bings when one someone walks out. Plus there is a security device on the box - how do we get to the service desk - without security descending on us? He decided that he would stay inside of the entrance and I should go out, get in line and explain and ask what to do. I walked over to the first register aisle (empty of customers) and walked out and got on the service line. I was 3rd in line. But there were problems with everyone ahead of us. Finally after he watched people walk out the entrance, set off the alarm, and have nothing happen, he met me at the line. We bought it for the online price and started home.
My old monitor sat on a small plastic shelf, which I do not want to get rid of. (I keep my 2 external hard drives for backup under it, as well as it having sections to hold both kinds of paper clips, pencils, pens, etc. ) Apparently the old monitor bent the shelf and the new monitor rocked. We finally got it balanced and working. I then ran to cook dinner and add some items to the refrigerator after shutting off the computer.
Yesterday, Tuesday, we finally went for our annual eye exams. We were due last November - back when husband’s shoulder was in pain and we could not go that far. Since then this and that has happened, so it took until now. (All was good at the appointment - thank you for asking.) We drove home afterwards despite the drops in our eyes.
On arriving home I helped husband set up our portal air conditioner in the living room so he could finish a weaving project on his loom and went upstairs to try to catch up on computer - and pay a bill. I had trouble seeing anything on the screen - it all seemed overwhelming (husband had changed the settings to make the icons larger - something I really did not need or want). Colors were too bright. The white was too bright. I figured it was all related to the eye drops. I managed to work around it - checked email - first time since Sunday, paid the bill, etc. Husband later changed the icon settings back for me.
So today when we came home from a couple of errands I was ready to go to work on my computer and get work done. It was still too bright - the white too bright, the colors too bold - and I am talking about type - not pictures. I ended up switching to my distance glasses (normally use reading glasses - as I am doing now with my laptop - when working on the computer) and pushing my seat back as far as my arms could reach. He spent a good deal of time - dinner was late tonight - trying to get to the colors and white so that they are not too bright/bold for me, but not so that the white is grey either. Not sure if he/we are done with it with yet.
And he does not understand why I say - change is never good.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
For some reason change is easier for some people. There are people who look forward to something new - new clothes, new car, new computer, new household appliance, new house, going someplace new on a trip. Are you one of them? Or are you like me - someone who wants everything to stay as it is and has trouble adjusting to change?
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