The Long Awaited Update
12 Sep 2007Holly and I have been having a stretch of bad luck. It all started with when we ordered our new refrigerator, washer and dryer. It seemed like a good day at the time, but then things went swiftly south.
In regards to the appliances, they still aren’t all here; only the refrigerator so far. I received a call from our salesman at Trail Appliances (don’t shop there) telling me that all of the appliances were in and it was time to schedule the delivery. He wanted to have them delivered the day after my vacation ended. Well, that wasn’t an option. So it ended up that we could only get them delivered a week after that.
Then the warehouse called to confirm that they would only be delivering the refrigerator. I argued with them. I almost canceled the order all together, but we had already been waiting a month at this point. The warehouse apologized and was sorry that the salespeople had made a mistake (the current working theory is that they just shipped the washer and dryer to the next people in line who could accept the delivery earlier than us).
The refrigerator is wonderful. It is amazing how much more useful it is to have the freezer on the bottom. In ways that I didn’t even think about when first looking at it. For example, the cats can’t just walk right into it every time you open it. I can only imagine how nice that would be with kids around.
The washer and dryer are still two weeks away…
We also had a problem when we went to get our wedding bands. The woman who told us that she would give us her employee discount on them wasn’t there, and apparently doesn’t work at that location any more. She also didn’t put any notes on our file (as she said she would) about the discount. Eventually the new store manager agreed to give us the discount and we ordered the bands we liked. We didn’t have to pay everything up front and he said he would put a note on the file about the discount so that we could just come in, pay, and leave next time.
A couple of weeks later we went back to pick up the bands; again, no note on our file. So we had to wait and wait for the manager to be available. He recognized us, and agreed we were supposed to get the discount.
We received an early wedding present from Holly’s parents in the form of a portable air conditioner. We hooked it up, and lo and behold it didn’t generate any cold air. It was broken. So we ended up having to return it for an exchange. Thankfully the second one works, and it works wonderfully. It was 18°C in our room last night. I’ve been sleeping almost too well since we got it setup.
I’ve been working toward buying a car. I initially knew exactly what I wanted, and what I was willing to compromise toward. We went to the dealership, said we want X and they said they would look around for it if I left a $500 deposit. So I left the deposit and they “looked”. At one point I had left messages with the salesman for two days in a row waiting for a call back with a status report on the search. The report was always “Oh yes, I’m just waiting to talk to my manager and I’ll have any update for you in a few minutes”. Of course, then he would never bother to call back, as he never actually had an update. The days stretched into weeks, and this “search” which they said would take a couple of days took nearly two weeks.
At the end of the two weeks they said that there weren’t any of X available, but they would be happy to sell me a car that would cost an extra $70 a month. I told them I wasn’t interested in a payment above what we had worked out for the previous car. All along they just didn’t listen when I kept saying that I didn’t want that particular offer unless they could give me a huge discount, but cause all of the extra options it had didn’t have any real value to me; especially the leather seats (Yes. I know. I’m a freak. I hate leather seats.)
They then also told me that they couldn’t refund me the $500 without me going to the dealership in person. This seems ridiculous to me. They should be able to just reverse the charge on my credit card. I suspect that it is a last ditch effort to put the pressure on in person and try to sell me a car. We’re going to go take a look at a different dealership on Sunday. Honestly though, at this point I am considering just not getting a car. The hassle doesn’t seem worth it. We could certainly use the money that would be saved for other things.
I just really, really, really, really, really, really dislike public transit. It takes almost twice as long to get to work if I use it. To add to that, over the last little while it has been pretty consistent that at least once every two weeks it ends up taking me an extra 20-30 minutes to get to work or home because of the Sky Train stopping for prolonged periods, or because of busses just not showing up at all sometimes.
After all of that, my Xbox 360 finally gave up the ghost. It put up a good fight. There was some serious gaming in some very hot weather. I’ve started the RMA process. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next couple of months. Since I couldn’t actually wait for the repairs I went out and bought another one. Who says money can’t buy happiness? Well, it really can’t, but it can sure sometimes help band aid problems.
We’re hoping that the streak of bad luck is almost over.
Work has been a chore lately. Nothing has been going right. I’ve been assigned to research something for a month that just can’t end well. I’ve really started to lose my passion for this job. I know it’s because of all of the forces of management that push and pull you all over the place. The constant conflict is exhausting, demoralizing and depressing. I finally understand why my buddy Rob left here. The management overhead is ridiculous. Their focus isn’t always on making the best game. People hang you out to dry to help themselves.
I’ve been thinking about trying to get into some online writing courses. The last time I looked at them I didn’t have a schedule that allowed me to make the classes. I’m still not sure I do. I think it would be nice to tap into that part of me that has been left unused for a while. I’d like to try my hand at writing the great action epic that my brother-in-law and I have always talked about. I have some ideas floating around in my head. Then I just need to get Michael Bay to direct it and all will be well.
There is one other thing that I feel I should mention; NHL 08 is the greatest hockey game ever made.
That is all.