Plow Follow Up

I guess I should clarify...

This wasn't just slightly annoying, this was downright the world is coming to an end and the entire neighborhood is awake loud. Beyond ridiculous. I'm not just complaining because I'm not used to Winter...this was a new low, even for around here. We've been here two full Winters now and haven't experienced this level of stupidity prior to this.

I will say that our sidewalk guy almost always comes in the middle of the night, but I generally overlook him because A) it's great that we don't have to shovel our own sidewalks B) he's a private contractor and it's impressive that he gets to us at all C) he is only in front of each house for about 2-4 minutes...not 20-30 (and even though I have thought he was loud, I will never think that again!).

As for the roadside issue....it's like I said...we are a totally residential neighborhood...there is absolutely nothing else here...only houses. It's not like people have to pass by here to get anywhere....it doesn't lead anywhere but into the subdivision. The road was more than wide enough....both lanes fully operational. Ya, it's a bit tight if folks are parked on the road, but it's not like it's a crazy high traffic area. Trust me, we'd all rather have a minor slowdown on the road in exchange for our night's sleep.

It just didn't make sense that this job was any kind of a priority that would require the 5 hour middle of the night ruckus.

For those of you that know HRM....what really got us was that there is a TON of snow and ice along the edges of Chebucto Road...so much so that it's actually blocking half a lane...on one of the highest traffic roads in town....but THAT has not been cleared yet!

If you can't vent about the city or the weather, what can you vent about?! :)

Money Pit

Is it really a money pit when your car just seems to need a lot of crazy parts fixed? I mean, it's not like it's a new car anymore...it's almost 7 years old. I didn't think that was all that old though. And it's not like it has a lot of miles on it...I haven't even broken 80,000km. That's low.

Took it in for it's mandatory annual provincial inspection today. At the least I expected to be told it needed a couple of new lights (because every time I take it in for anything, something seems to be burned out) and at the very most I was guessing my brakes might finally need doing (the one miraculous thing that I've never had to replace) or potentially there was a problem with my cooling system (my coolant light started flashing this week).

Turns out that there sure is an issue with my cooling system...leak in the thermostat... $350 repair! Thankfully that doesn't make it unsafe just yet...they can't even assess how bad the leak is, but judging by the fact that the light was flashing for a week and the car never overheated it's a pretty tiny leak. Normally I would just go ahead and fix it now, rather than tempting fate...however, I have other fish to fry. The car actually failed inspection because the ball joints are both worn and loose....yippee....$350 for that too....plus I was right about 2 bulbs needing replacing, plus windshield wipers,the cost of the inspection itself, the wheel alignment that has to be done after replacing ball joints and don't forget our lovely HST. Hello $536 bill...not including the thermostat which I have to watch and probably fix within the next month anyway. Argh.

I know every car has these things, but it just seems to me that everything is going one after the other now. I did a mental tally and in the last two years I've spent approximately $4000 on repairs, etc. (almost $2000 of which was the freaking clutch)....and there are still lots of obvious things that could need doing at any time....like the brakes for instance, or the starter that has been hiccuping for over a year now.

Is it time to suck it up and trade-in? I dunno.

(oh, and I don't wanna hear a bunch of comments about VWs needing lots of electrical work or whatever...since none of my issues have anything to do with that.)

More bitching about snow...

...argh.

Recap: Saturday I went out again in the afternoon to try to tackle it...by the time I pushed all the snow off my car, I basically had to reshovel everything I had done in the morning. DBF and I park our cars so close together that there was about 4 feet of snow piled between them. Oh yippee. I had to give up. Sunday morning I got up early, made coffee and went out at it again. Thank freaking God my fabulous neighbor across the street saw me and took pity and came and helped. He did the most work (because he's strong enough to use one of those big scooping shovel things) and his girlfriend and I did as much as we could. It was awesome! I had to climb in the passenger side of my car, so I could back it out and we could get at the huge heap in the middle. But when we were done....I was freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It only took an hour and I was so grateful.

Bullshit: We have sidewalks on our side of the street...which they did plow last year, but this year they didn't seem to be doing. Of course, it's tough to see the difference between lawn/sidewalk/boulevard when you are shoveling 3 feet of snow, so the sidewalk area (on the whole street!) had been filled in with tossed snow. Until 3am this morning!! When those city assholes came along with their little plow and made a ton of racket and plowed the living shit out of the sidewalks. Ya, that's right....making not one, but two huge blockades at our driveways again. Mhmmm. So I just went at it for 45 minutes and maybe got a third of it done. I'm snowed in AGAIN. It's hard and heavy and solid snow now....not impressed.

I would die to hire a kid to do this for me. Where the hell are they all?

Edit: some fabulously wonderful neighborhood elf dug me out!! I just went to get ready to take another stab at it and someone has cleared the huge mess from the mouth of the driveway!!

Edit #2: and then of course, the sidewalk plow just came back and fucked it up again. Seriously...I understand that they have to do the sidewalks, but do they have to keep blocking our driveways?!!!

Highway Robbery

How is it that the last of the good Christmas seat sales for flights home were in the first week of October? Ya. I've been trying to find a good deal to fly home for the holidays and after I missed that first seat sale I've been shit outta luck.

I finally just gave in and bought my tickets...with a departure date much earlier than I wanted...because I saw one sneaky little one-way seat sale that I couldn't pass up this time. But still $399 one freaking way. And I had no choice but to pay full price for my return ticket because the only cheap seats are on Dec-31st, which is such an unfair way for them to do it.

Anyway, I could vent all night about the robbery of it all, but I won't. Argh.

It would be cheaper to fly to Europe than it is to fly within my own country!

A Saturday Rant

So, my first experiences with selling a few things on Kijiji were quite good. A 27" TV, a 14" TV, my Ikea TV cabinet. All sold for basically my wanted price, all to nice people that showed up when they said they would, all within 3-5 days. Nice.

Then DBF put up a few things. His flat panel monitor sold easily for asking price within a day or two. No surprises there. His car stereo equipment has been a tougher sell but that's more because he needs a knowledgable buyer, not just anyone is going to buy it up. No worries though, we knew that might be tougher.

Now, I'm trying to sell a good WHITE fridge and stove. You would think that these would be highly sought after. They are white, they are modern, they are reasonably priced. Especially here in cottage country where so many people seem to be looking for stuff for their family cabins. But good God, it's been the biggest pain.

People email, ask a bunch of questions, say they are "very interested", then either offer some ridiculous lowball price without even seeing the items....or....never get back to me....or....tell me they are coming and don't show up. (Ya, this lady emailed me like 4 times saying how badly she wanted these and how they would rent a truck and be here this morning and blah, blah, blah....only to not freaking show up!!!) What is it with people?

Everyone wants something for nothing. It's annoying.

And that's my rant for today.

I just need a minute to vent!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I'm so annoyed and frustrated right now!

Good news: DBF's sailing schedule got changed at the last minute. He was supposed to leave tomorrow for five weeks, but due to some unforseen preparation issues they have been held back for about a month. He'll still have to go away, but not for quite as long and not until the end of July now. (So he'll be away for August instead of July). Technically we still miss out on part of the Summer together, but that can't be avoided so I'm happy just to have him home now.

Bad news: This weekend should be a long weekend, right? Canada Day is on Tuesday, so you would think that most government agencies would be taking Monday off as well, right? mhmmmmm. So I get all excited that "holy shit, Arron and I might actually get like a four day weekend together!!! this never happens!" Yup, but nope. Leave it to the freaking Navy to decide that they have to work on Monday. Booooooo. So no one can make any special plans for the weekend because they just have to come back to work for one day in the middle of it. Stupid.

I'm especially annoyed because my job was totally willing to help me out and give me the two days off (and I'm not even supposed to get Canadian holidays), but that nice gesture goes to waste because I can't even take them up on it.

Sure, he could book an annual vacation day, but then that can bugger up any future time off he wants for trips to see his son, so again I get burned. Well, not me...but us. It's always "our" stuff that gets the shitty end of the stick.

You would think since they just screwed them all out of any Summer plans they had already made (ie: because they were supposed to be home in August but now they won't be) that they might step up and give them a long weekend to spend with their families....but, noooooooooo.

Today I hate the stupid military.


(and to top it all off, we decided we might still go camping anyway, but stupid Nova Scotia provincial parks have a no booze rule until July 1st anyway. Boooo. Who camps without some drinkies? Someone just doesn't want us to have a little getaway....)

The movers are haunting me!

Argh, we've lived here SIX months now, and the stupid movers are still haunting me.

You may remember that I mentioned back in December that the movers had to take apart everything we own in order to fit it on their truck (don't get me started on why it wasn't planned better). Well, most of our shelving, etc is from Ikea. The movers even told me that they aren't supposed to take apart Ikea stuff...but for some reason they still proceeded to take ours apart.

Of course, we were told that everything would be reassembled on this end. Um, nope. They put together a couple of the easy things, then basically ran for the door. So, DBF ended up putting together the main piece that goes in our living room (and yes, this stuff is mainly fibre board so yes there was damage) and I've been puttering through stuff as I need it.

Well, today I finally needed the bookshelf. I'm 3/4 of the way through clearing out the spare room and it's time to get the books, photo albums, etc out of boxes.

Let me just say this.... putting together a 2 shelf bookcase from Ikea should be straightforward, but because these asshats took it apart and of course I no longer have the instructions, it is now wobbly as shit. And the back piece is missing so stuff is going to fall off the back of it. Argh.

So not impressed right now. Stupid movers.

Maybe I shouldn't have called it stupid...

Technology bites me in the ass again!!

So work was pissing me off today, so I decided to opt out at 1:30 to head to the gym and run a couple of errands, with the plan that I would come back with a clearer head and work late to make up the missed time.

So I had a good workout, got some yummy groceries and got home by 3:30.

Decided to check my email, etc before I hopped into the shower just in case I missed something important. Answered about 3 emails, then went to check some stuff on the work website.... then...WTF...page not found! Uh-oh. Try again. Refresh. Page not found. Uh-oh some more.

Looked at modem, and yup, you guessed it. Online light not lit up. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Fine, so I hop in the shower figuring it will fix itself. Return fresh and clean 15 minutes later, only to find that it's still offline. Booooo. Then I hear some beeping coming from downstairs. What the hell is that? I follow the sound, and it leads me to our alarm system's main panel....beep, beep, beep. The display tells me there is "trouble", press #2 to find out what kind of trouble. "Telephone Line Trouble". Argh.

So yup, over to the phone I go. Press the talk button, and nothing....silencio. Lovely. So now, no internet for worky and no phone to call and let the bosses know. AND NO FACEBOOK OR BLOGGER!!! You know, the really important stuff. Yikes.

So I putter around my office doing a few other things. An hour goes by, still no action. Then I go downstairs and make fruit salad for this week's breakfasts. Check the phone...nadda. Go outside with coffee and read my book for half an hour. Check the phone again...you guessed it, nothing.

Gah!

Called Eastlink from my cellphone in there somewhere and get the automated response thingy that says yes they know there is a problem and they are sorry for the inconvenience. Whoopee. Good for them. I even saw an Eastlink truck in my area, but for all I know he lives out here.

So I make a batch of tuna noodle casserole, read some more, make a marinade for tomorrow night's salmon fillet, prep some chicken in marinade to put in the freezer, check the phone and modem one last time...and at 8:15 give up and watch Juno. Cute movie. :) Oh ya, failed to mention that the cable TV was out too. Yaaiee for bundled packages, right?

Checked the progess when movie finishes at 9:30ish and I finally have my connection to the outside world back. Grrrrreat, now I can finish the work I wanted to do SIX FREAKING HOURS AGO.

Even Water is Evil

Man, if it's not one thing it's another. It seems to me that EVERYTHING can cause cancer. I'm not going to go into all of the things that have been mentioned in the news over the last couple of years, but I am going cry all the way home about my beloved Nalgene bottle being on the hit list now.

It's pink. It has a flower on it. It makes drinking water fun.

And now it's going to kill me apparently. Grrrrreat.

So what do I use now? My gym has a "plastic bottles only" rule for the safety of patrons. And as if anyone would use a glass bottle, that's just inconvenient and dumb...not to mention difficult to drink from while on a treadmill. Smashed front teeth anyone? I'm not about to start buying bottled water each and every day...that's seriously wasteful and expensive...which is why I got my Nalgene bottle in the first place.

I know there are metal alternatives, but are those really safer? I'm sure sometime in the next two years, the government will tell us that those are bad for us too.

I did find an article today, which gave me some hope. Nalgene is discontinuing any bottles made with BPA (I'm guessing that was a no-brainer since no one wants to stock them or buy them anymore) and they are replacing them with some other kind of impact-resistant plastic-type substance that apparently isn't going to cause cancer (yet!). But who knows how long it will take for those to hit the open market?

Until then, what do I do? Keep living on the edge drinking from my pretty pink bottle? I guess so. Í mean, I'm probably going to get cancer from the sun, or pork, or lead toys my future children will play with, so what's a few litres of water from a tainted bottle?

Thoughts?

Halifax Idle

Were drive-thru line-ups this nutty back home? I don't remember...maybe because they weren't all that bad...or maybe because they weren't in plain view... I don't know.

I drive by a whole ton of fast-food places on my way to and from the gym every morning. The ones that stick out are the THREE Tim Horton's that I go past. (Note: it's only about a 5km drive that takes less than 12 minutes...Timmy is EVERYWHERE).

I have constantly marvelled at the number of cars in the drive-thrus at each of these locations. The first one I generally notice because when there are a lot of cars in the line (say, more than 9-10 like this morning), the line-up will actually spill out of the parking lot and start impeding traffic....on a VERY busy connector road just off the highway...LAME. The second one I have actually counted the cars while I sit at a traffic light...usually at least 10 cars in line, and they only move maybe one car length while I sit through the light....also LAME. The third one is actually the most LAME because it is located in the middle of the parking lot of the plaza my gym is in. They don't have a dedicated lane for the drive-thru that holds more than two cars, so inevitably every time I try to turn that corner to get through the lot I end up having to go all the way around because the drive-thru line is taking up an entire traffic lane.

Here's a thought....get out of your friggin cars and go inside if your stupid Timmy's fix is that bloody important. Coffee drinking should not impede traffic you lazy oafs!

Dear Lady at the Gym,...

Um, I am not sure if you got the tour when you joined, so I thought I might mention that we do indeed have a lockerroom here. It's quite large, with many lockers...some tall, some small. It is located just past the weight area where you seem to spend most of your time. I promise that it is very clean and there is lots of room to maneuver.

I only mention this because it is really inconvenient for you to have your bag, your jacket and your scarf & gloves sitting in the midst of the gym. If you have a look around, NO ONE ELSE HAS THEIR SHIT SITTING OUT HERE. It is especially inconsiderate of you to pile your crap on top of a set of steps that people (and by people, I mean ME!) need to use for their workout.

It was lovely of you to apologize when you realized I had to move your stuff out of my way in order to use the equipment, and although I smiled, I was really annoyed. Soooo...if in the future you could be like everyone else and use the locker space provided conveniently in the change room that would be swell. If you are concerned about theft, a lovely little padlock can be purchased just about anywhere for a whopping $3!

I hope you take this note in the matter that it was intended. A public service anouncement for you not to be a dumbass.

Thank you and happy crunching!

A post just for Mikey!

Oh Mikey, how you will appreciate this! Cuz today WAL-MART SUCKS.

On Sunday I was running errands with a girlfriend and at the end of the day we stopped at Wally World to pick up a few toiletries and such. While in the toothpaste aisle, I noticed that they had Crest Whitestrip kits on sale. I'm about due to brighten up the old toothies again, so I checked them out.

They had two sets on sale. One set had the 7 day kit with a bottle of Scope & a tube of whitening toothpaste...for $39. The other set had the 10 day kit with a tube of Vivid Crest & a tube of Vivid Crest Night...for $34. I stood there double checking the signs and making sure I had the right one. The sign was one of those yellow rollback things with the handwritten price. I chose the 10 day Vivid kit because it was $5 cheaper and I hate mouthwash anyway.

Of course, when I got home I realized I had been overcharged. Yup, full price of $46!

So today while on my way to the gym, I stopped in to get it corrected. At first I thought it would be a breeze because there was no line-up....but after waiting for 5 minutes for the stupid twit to get off the phone (work related, but still an acknowlegement would have been nice) I started to have my doubts.

I explained the issue to her, so she called the department for a price check and of course they say that the one I have isn't on sale. Only the Scope set is. Argh. So I say no, I'm pretty sure both we on sale on Sunday and she tells me to go over to the department and talk to the chick. I'm not mad yet so I agree and wander over there. Of course, the woman isn't there....and when I go to the shelf to find the sign, it's NOT THERE either! Argh.

So back to Customer Service I go. A different woman is there now, so I explain to her that the sign was there on Sunday but it's not now. She just looks at me. So I politely tell her to forget it and I'll just have my money back. Strangely enough, that's no problem. So they would rather lose the $35 sale instead of providing a little customer service.

So there ya go Mikey! Today MAL-FART SUCKS.

(I would like to point out that this won't stop me from shopping there. They are cheap and so am I!)

It's only money, right?

So I got my car back. I think I'm basically over being pissed off now. Shit happens and if I wanna drive my car I just have to deal with it. At least I had money put aside and I'm not going to go into debt over it....even though I had much better plans for the money. *sigh*

But wow, what a difference! The clutch obviously felt a lot different, but boy was it sure nice to feel all the power back in my baby. I really do enjoy driving my car! Zip, zip, zooooom! And the roads were so nice and so clear for the first time since I got here....I actually enjoyed the drive home and felt like a real member of Halifax society. :) I even learned a new route that shaved a good 5 minutes off the drive.

If only I hadn't had to come home and get back to work. Boooo. I could be out there zipping around and enjoying the $2000 I just spent!!

Oh well, I have to go back out later to pick up my insurance and hopefully head over to get my new plates and registration too. (FYI: the insurance itself worked out to be about the same cost as it was in BC....except that I still have about another $150 to cough up for registration so it's actually more expensive...lame.)

Fun with Future Shop

A few posts back I mentioned a slight problem with Future Shop. I thought it might make for a mildly interesting blog topic. Maybe not to you all, but it was a good conversation for us at the time....

Back in November, when we came out for our househunting trip, we decided to go in and pick out our new TV, etc. We had intended on just looking, but ended up picking stuff out and buying it because it was a good deal. The TV was on sale, and the salesman was gung-ho (of course!) so we didn't see the point in waiting and just went ahead and bought the stuff at the time.

Of course, we didn't need it delivered until January so we asked about layaway instead.

How it works is that if you pay full price at the time of purchase they will hold your stuff in stock until whenever you want it delivered. If you only put a down payment on it, they can't guarantee that it will be in stock when you need it. Makes sense. So, we paid for everything in full up front. The TV and the receiver were in stock, so they were immediately tagged as ours. The speakers had to be ordered in, but would be there way before we actually needed them and would also be tagged as ours upon their arrival in the warehouse. All good.

Since we were in town a week before we had arranged delivery, we had been into the store a few times to look at DVD players, cables, etc and had even seen our salesguy and he confirmed that our stuff was all there and tagged, awaiting our delivery date. Awesome!

Fast forward to delivery day......

DBF was all excited waiting for the Future Shop truck to arrive. He raced around getting the new stand all put together in anticipation that our system would be arriving in the afternoon. We were stoked to see the truck pull up about an hour earlier than expected. How exciting to see those boys drag that massive TV box out of the truck and up our stairs!! But wait, what do they mean "sign here"?? Isn't there more stuff on the truck for us? Nope, sorry, but this is all they gave us to deliver. Say what?!

So, long story short...we called, got put on hold, hung up, called again, got put on hold, hung up. DBF decided just to drive down there and find out WTF. He found our salesguy and explained what happened...so buddy went into the back and sure enough he finds that someone has tampered with our order! The receiver is there....and TWO speakers (we bought FIVE)....and the paperwork has been torn off and is laying on the floor. Nice!

Now, had I been there I probably would have lost it and pulled out my bitchy, screaming voice on the guy. Instead, it was DBF and he just stood there staring at the guy. I can imagine the poor guy was probably terrified....DBF can be imposing when he wants to. DBF explained that obviously he would like his $50 delivery fee refunded....which was done without question. Then the guy even offered up a credit towards something else for the trouble, so DBF got a pair of speaker stands that we needed for cost ($60 off...nice mark-up eh).

Luckily the missing three speakers were on order and arrived the next day, so we were able to pick them up and it wasn't really all that big of a deal....but what a hassle!!

Nice business ethic there though, eh? Some other sales guy probably had a deal pending and didn't want to have to order the speakers in, so just took ours out of the warehouse knowing that more would be there in a couple of days. Lame. Not cool.

But at least we got a bit of free shit.