Alrighty, now, get ready to rant aloong with me!  Here's a very short list of things that just aren't/weren't RIGHT the first time!!

We ordered solar window screens.  The guys came out & measured.  Twice.  We waited & waited, and waited some more.  Made a couple of calls, too.  FINALLY, they came in & the guys came out to install.  When they GOT HERE, they noticed that the large, half-round for over the door is bent badly & they cannot install it.  OK - so, WHY did it even leave the factory that way?  And WHY didn't they notice it when they received it at the installer's??  Soooo, we waited some more, till it got re-manufactured.  Today, it arrived.  Almost two full months after the order was placed.

Our new car.  We purchased the car & asked them to change out the seats to leather coverings.  Simple, they told us.  Drove *our new car* to San Antonio - heck, WE didn't even put that many miles on it.  Came back with a rattle in the door.  What's up with that?  Every time we closed "my" door, it sounded as if something inside was loose.  Took it back to the shop, and they spent the day trying to track down the source of the rattle.  Turns out, there was a loose adhesive strip from the leather insert on the door.  WHY was that not discovered at the time of installation?

Dick purchased a yard implement.  I don't know what you call it, but basically, it's a motor to which you can attach a weed eater, a blower, an edger & probably a lot of other things I don't know about.  But, those are what WE purchased.  Used it once.  Used it again.  No problems.  Used it a third time.  Hard to start & oil leaking out of engine case.  What's up with THAT?  Took it back to the store & had to get a whole new engine part.  Argh.

Washer & dryer.  OK, when you spend $1800 (AND wait for a month for them!!) for a washer & dryer you expect them to be right.  And work.  All the time.  Not some of the time, ALL the time.  And you DON'T expect the installers to put a big ole footprint in the middle of the front panel.  But, seeing as how the washer didn't always dispense the Clorox II, and if you know us, you know THAT's a MUST, and yes, there was a big ole footprint where someone man-handled the dryer into position.  Another phone call & another month later, the new ones arrive.  THESE, so far, are right.

Dining room table and chairs.  From a reputable store, too...not the one going out of business down the road.  This store has warehouses all over the state!  AND, the owner of the local store lives ACROSS THE STREET AND 2 DOORS DOWN from us.  Bring the set home, all fully padded & boxed up.....open it up to put together.  TWO out of SIX chairs have gashes (I mean, cut thru, down to the wood!!) in the upholstery of the seats.  The store was good about it and exchanged them, but geez, SOMEONE at packing, should have noticed that!!!  WE did, immediately!

TV stand.  We had originally purchased a set of 3 tables for the living room.  A coffee table, and end table and a sofa table (long, skinny thing) that we were going to use if/when we purchased a TV.  Well, we got around to buying the TV and set it on this long skinny table.  For the record, Jose never liked it, nor did he want it.  Yes, I insisted, and he gave in.  OK, so he was right.  It makes for a rotten TV stand.  No room for any peripherals, and you can see all the dangling wires down the back.  Yes, he was right.  Sooo, we go out & price a real TV desk at the furniture store who sold us all our stuff.  WAAAAAY out of our league now.  So, we go back to the store that sold us the dining room.  Got a decent deal, saved about $300 over the other store's product.  Open it up & put it together, and what's that on the door?  A scuff mark on the edge.  And a scratch on one of the shelves.  And yet another bunged up edge.  ARG.  Got out my trusty pecan and hopefully, colored 'em up some so they're not so noticeable.  WHY was it packed like that??

Fabric wardrobe.  Purchased one of those put-together wall units for all my fabric.  Paid good money for it, too.  Came to Wally-world, and 4 days later, got the email that it was there.  Ugh - why not on the day it arrived?  Anyway, we were having thunderstorms, and it looked like we would for the next few days, so we took a chance & in between showers went & picked it up.  Nicely packed, fully padded & boxed, etc.  Whily laying out all the pieces, we noticed there's a gouge in one of the doors.  WHY was that not noticed at packing???  WE noticed it right away!

And finally (and there are probably other things I've forgotten about!), my glasses.  I guess I should say our glasses, since it took Jose 6 months to get his pair right.  We ordered THREE pairs of glasses from Sears.  Of the 3 pairs, only one is correct.  Mine, neither were right.   My clear ones were ok, but they couldn't get 'em adjusted right - kept on being cockeyed.  As if I'm not already cockeyed enough.  And my shades, oh, my, they were just WRONG.  I kept having to turn my head to see out the tiny little "sweet" spot, and they gave me monstrous headaches.  So, back we go!  Got 'em adjusted and spent another day trying to get used to them.  Still not right after 3 more days.  So, back to the eye dr to see if she has a machine that can read 'em, since we know Sears doesn't.  Oh, yes, she has one all right, and guess what!  NEITHER of the pairs is what she prescribed.  ARGH....Back we go to Sears, now, armed with this paper that tells them to recheck & remake.  The nice lady there rechecks my measurements, and guess what!  My shades?  Well, some reading is supposed to be 25 (mm??) and it's not - it's daggum 28!!  Apparently, that puts the wavy part of the bifocals right smack dab in my normal vision spot, making it very hard to focus and probably giving me headaches.  Geez, ya think!?  And the clear lenses, well, they're just not the right prescription, but they're not far off.  And the tinted lenses I'd ordered LAST week?  They came in, and I can't even SEE out of one of 'em - it's WAY off on script; I didn't even bother having her switch 'em out with the ones I'm wearing.  I'll deal with the squints from the sun instead for a while longer.  GEEZ, they have a certain set of measurements, WHY can they not produce a product using those measurements.  And WHY are their products not checked for accuracy prior to leaving the manufacturer??

For the most part (furniture excepted), all these products were manufactured here in the gool ole US of A.  I'm sure that SOMEone should have been looking, testing, measuring, SOMEthing, to make sure everything was right prior to shipment, or at receipt or something.  To have this much crap just wrong IS just wrong.  In MY humble opinion, anyway.

So, thanks for reading along...here's a funny little story I grabbed off another blog (thanks, Joanna!).  Maybe I'll give her method of anger management a shot.  What have I got to lose??

When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone. Don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know, but you know deserves it.

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make. I found the number and dialed it.

A man answered, saying 'Hello.'
I politely said, 'This is Chris. Could I please speak with Robyn Carter?'

Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear 'Get the right effing number!' And the phone was slammed down on me.

I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude.

When I tracked down Robyn's correct number to call her, I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits. After hanging up with her, I decided to call the 'wrong' number again.

When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled 'You're an *sshole!' And hung up.

I wrote his number down with the word '*sshole' next to it, and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, 'You're an *sshole!'

It always cheered me up.

When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic '*sshole' calling would have to stop.
So, I called his number and said, 'Hi, this is John Smith from the telephone company. I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?'
He yelled 'NO!' and slammed down the phone.
I quickly called him back and said, 'That's because you're an *sshole!' And hung up.

One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for. I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me.

I noticed a 'For Sale ' sign in his back window, so I wrote down his number.

A couple of days later, right after calling the first *sshole (I had his number on speed dial,) I thought that I'd better call the BMW *sshole, too.

I said, 'Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?'
He said, 'Yes, it is.'
I then asked, 'Can you tell me where I can see it?'
He said, 'Yes, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd, in Fairfax. It's a yellow ranch style house and the car's parked right out in front.'
I asked, 'What's your name?'
He said, 'My name is Don Hansen,'
I asked, 'When's a good time to catch you, Don?'
He said, 'I'm home every evening after five.'
I said, 'Listen, Don, can I tell you something?'
He said, 'Yes?'
I said, 'Don, you're an *sshole!'

Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too. Now, when I had a problem, I had two *ssholes to call.

Then I came up with an idea...

I called *sshole #1.
He said, 'Hello.'
I said, 'You're an *sshole!' (But I didn't hang up.)
He asked, 'Are you still there?'
I said, 'Yeah!'
He screamed, 'Stop calling me,'
I said, 'Make me.'
He asked, 'Who are you?'
I said, 'My name is Don Hansen.'
He said, 'Yeah? Where do you live?'
I said, '*sshole, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd, in Fairfax. A yellow ranch style home and I have a black Beamer parked in front.'
He said, 'I'm coming over right now, Don. And you had better start saying your prayers.'
I said, 'Yeah, like I'm really scared, *sshole,' And hung up.

Then I called *sshole #2.

He said, 'Hello?'
I said, 'Hello, *sshole,'
He yelled, 'If I ever find out who you are...'
I said, 'You'll what?'
He exclaimed, 'I'll kick your *ss,'
I answered, 'Well, *sshole, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now.'

Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at 34 Oaktree Blvd, in Fairfax and that I was on my way over there to kill my gay lover.

Then I called Channel 7 News about the gang war going down in Oaktree Blvd in Fairfax

I quickly got into my car and headed over to Fairfax. I got there just in time to watch two *ssholes beating the crap out of each other in front of six cop cars, an overhead news helicopter and surrounded by a news crew.

NOW I feel much better. This anger management stuff works great!

Thanks for sharing my day!  Till next time!  Oh, wait - I almost forgot!!  THE GOOD NEWS!!  Guess what I've won - I entered a contest for some really cool giveaways on another column I read (all about sewing stuff - nothing you'd want to see) - I was hoping for some cool rulers or patterns or something.  Oh, no, I won a book on how to spend money!  Well, not really, but the opportunity is there.  It's a travel guide, listing fabric shops in various cities throughout the US and their addresses and phone numbers.  YES, it's cool that I won it, and I surely don't mean to sound like a poor loser, but poor Jose - that's not really something he needs me to have, ya know what I mean?  He's already dragged around to more fabric stores than he cares to see (ONE would be more, much less the 2 or 3 I subject him to weekly!!), in more cities than he cares to visit!  Oh well, *I* think it's a cool book, and I can't wait to crack it open when it arrives.  First stop, ummm......I dunno, we'll just have to see!  I'm sure Jose will accept donations of sympathy, dollars, Steven King paperbacks, whatever you have on hand you think he could use while waiting for me to check out all the goodies I'm sure to find! 

Well, that's it for now (WTF??  GREEN AGAIN??  All I did was hit enter, enter!!)....so, till next time, carry on & keep smilin'!  Much love, k