Another Sunday

Unfortunately, there's more bad news than good this week. The office furniture arrived. Good news? Um, not exactly. Due to the weight and size of it, it was supposed to be shipped by freight (such as Land Air Express, etc, NOT UPS, FedEx, etc), and we'd opted for the free shipping, which was curbside delivery. Not a problem, we've a good commercial style dolly and had arranged for an extra pair of hands.....the furniture is real wood, prebuilt stuff (not the put together yourself chipboard, pressed board stuff), so the only "assembly" needing to be done is putting the legs on the desks. HOWEVER....it was shipped UPS! AND....it came a day early! My DH was able to get home to help the UPS guy (who expected to unload it into our house all by himself - UPS doesn't do curbside delivery, they do in house). It's a good thing DH was there.....I don't know how this guy would have been able to unload these boxes alone....some of them weighed 140 pounds!! He said he loaded them alone.....which may explain the next part of the story!

The furniture was in boxes clearly marked FURNITURE, FRAGILE, THIS SIDE UP on all sides. BUT....it had been crated up with luan style thin plywood.....all sides...the plywood was glued to the boxes and then they'd glued fiberboard corner pieces to that......the lettering was ALL covered...the UPS guy didn't even know it was furniture.....he sure didn't know it was fragile!! The crates looked fine - not a bit of damage to them....but when we got it all uncrated we discovered DAMAGE, DAMAGE, DAMAGE! Of the 10 pieces, not a one escaped damage, though 6 of them only have minor damage. Four pieces are broken beyond use.

We've notified the place we ordered it from....they're sending "touch up kits" to my house....when they arrive, I'm to call them and they'll send a professional furniture repair man here to fix the 6 pieces (and then I'll decide if I'm happy with the work). They've ordered replacements for the other 4 pieces - I so hope it's not going to take another 10 weeks for delivery!! They're filing a claim with UPS and are notifying the furniture manufacturer...they agree that it should NOT have been shipped UPS......and that it was crated improperly...the outside crates should have been marked and were not. I am sooooooo sad....this furniture is sooooo beautiful and we've waited sooooooooo long for it.

So, our office is all at 6's and 7's right now.....we have to work with half our office furniture for now....boy what a mess!! Of course, with the extra stuff here, just sitting still in crates awaiting a decision, space is at a premium as well!

Ed dropped his cordless work drill the other day......standing 8 feet off the ground on a ladder, it slipped out of his hand and went all the way to the cement covered ground below - SMASH!

So....having the opportunity to go "to the city" yesterday, we made it a multi purpose trip (as usual). I found the coffeemaker I wanted and had a $10 off coupon for it, too!! It's a Cuisinart On Demand.....I LOVE IT!! Ed bought a new drill (actually got a deal.....got a cordless drill, sawzall, light, 2 batteries and charger package for less than what just the drill would have cost him). We priced the other stuff we're going to need (when we get a truck...sigh). We got out to see my nephew in law and grand niece....my niece was working so didn't get to see her (missed you, B!!). Saw her mom and dad and another grand niece at her house...plus got over to my nephew's house and visited with him and his two boys (missed his DD......sorry, K).

We also went to the Sportsman's Show.....I'm not crazy about it, but Ed likes to go....we used to do it yearly, but hadn't been in about 4 years. I think there are lots less vendors there now.....more boats (canoes, kayaks) than there used to be and more turkey hunting stuff than other types of hunting.

By the time we got home around 9:30 pm, I was beat, but it was a good day.

Done Ramblin.

Seven days later......

ANOTHER storm! Oy! This time, it started out as sleet and freezing rain....got about 3 inches of that last evening into the night. This morning it turned to snow......we'll see how much more we get before it stops! It was a bit hairy driving downtown for Sunday breakfast at the local restaurant this morning....they'd not plowed our road and only one other vehicle had been down/up the road since the snow/sleet. We're partway down (or up) a hill, so getting going sometimes is a challenge. (The plow truck went by for the first time at 10:30 am!)

Oh, heck...let's do a bad news/good news thing!

Bad news......both my reading lamp (one of those "true light" lamps, which I NEED) and our coffeemaker died on the same day last week.....AAARRRGGGHHH!!

Good news....I was able to replace the lamp more inexpensively than I thought I'd be able to.

Bad news...I couldn't find a coffeemaker I liked.

Good news....we have a spare, so I've time to shop around.

Bad news.....the guys that brought our new bed (a memory foam one) set it up with the mattress cover on upside down, which resulted in them putting the mattress on the box spring upside down, so we spent several nights trying to figure out why the *&^&* the bed was so uncomfortable.

Good news.....when we discovered the problem and flipped the mattress over, we discovered that it was much better! (imagine that!). We've slept on it (correctly) for almost a week now, and I think when we get used to it (they say 3 to 4 weeks) it's going to be even better than now. We're both sleeping better just due to the fact that it doesn't move when one of us is restless (me), so the other one (DH) isn't being woken up over and over in the night by a shaking bed.....once our backs get used to it, I think it's going to be wonderful....I HOPE!!

Bad news.....my niece was sick last week when I went shopping, so I didn't get to see her and grandniece....bummer!

Good news....for the first time in a long time, I was able to get nearly everything on my shopping list that day!

Bad news....we've STILL not had a chance to get out snowmobiling.

Good news...business seems to be picking up.

Bad news...the pickup we thought we could borrow until we buy one isn't available now.....the friend is having mechanical trouble with it. So....if we need stock on a non-delivery day that won't fit in my car, we're going to have to rent a pickup. That could be interesting...there are no car rental businesses in our area...hmmm....wonder if the guy that sells used cars does rentals.....hmmm! This also means we're not going to be able to get the door we need to the hobby/stock room until we get our own pickup....and we also aren't going to be able to get the house antenna until then, either. Sigh...figures!

Good news.....our office furniture has been shipped and is due to arrive Tuesday!!! YAY!!

Done Ramblin!

The Weatherman Was Right

Ok....I've never said this before and I never thought I would, but.......ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! Not that I want to get rid of the snow yet this year, but, geeeeezzzzzzz.....we didn't need any more!! It arrived a little later than originally forecasted - the majority of it coming down late Saturday night instead of during the day, but we got between 12 & 14 inches of the white stuff.

I took some pictures this morning, after it was all over. Ok, so the house is a single story.....but....in this picture to the left, the window is more than 4 feet off the ground.....it is the view I had out my office south window this morning......standing! Sitting, all I saw was snow and sky!

The next two are the views from my kitchen window before my DH shoveled it out (also south side, also 4 ft off the ground) and the one out my livingroom window (north side, about 3 ft off the ground). The livingroom one shows snow that has come off the roof on that side......good thing we don't need to get out that patio door (on the right, toward the end of the house).


The next picture is of my DH standing in the road. Or rather, a picture of my DH's head as he stands in the road! We can't even see cars and trucks go up and down the road. And finally....the last one is a shot of the back yard. About in the middle of the picture there is a 3 1/2 foot stake sticking out of the ground.....which is buried! We've decided we need to put a much longer stick there for next year, with measurements on it, just in case these winters are here to stay!!


And now it's nearly 45 degrees out, so that should settle the snow some!

Done Ramblin!