December 12, 2005 :: Upping the ante

I bought a drill yesterday.

Some of you already know what a chore this has been for me. Lowe's had a Black & Decker 24 volt model on sale the day after Thanksgiving ($89.99 marked down to $39.99, a steal), but ONLY the day after Thanksgiving. I, of course, did not know that, and when I went into the store on that Saturday, they laughed and said I was short. Of course, they had plenty in stock and asked me if I still wanted to buy it at the regular price. Hell no!

I tried to borrow a drill. I have a few projects that need drilling, that have been piling up. No, I'm not trying to drill the shower tile mentioned below. I'd asked around... my brother has one, but he swears it is underpowered and has managed to make himself scarce by going out of town every weekend. I asked a couple more friends, to no avail.

Lowe's has seen a lot of me lately, and they must be grateful or something because they sent me a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon in the mail that was due to expire yesterday. I figured, what the hell, I'll go buy the drill with some money I got for my birthday, and I won't feel so bad about being ripped off because it isn't my hard earned paycheck.

So when I get to the store, I check the circulars piled up front for deals. No dice. Then I wander around the tool section for a while, gawking at things I don't need and have no place for. Finally settled on a Black & Decker Firestorm 18 volt high speed number for $79.99. Not too bad. Then I had to find a bit set... $24.99. That was (along with a few other odds & ends I needed) a bit more than I received for my birthday, but I was prepared to do it.

On my way out, I saw a display of piled up drills, sandwiched between two other displays, and far away from the other drills. Black & Decker 24 volt, closeout sale, $46.99. Well, whaddya know. I dropped the Firestorm and picked up my new drill. Not quite as fast, but who cares... it was $33 cheaper. I was happy. The purchase total came within a dollar of the amount of cash I got for my birthday, so clearly the gods meant for this to happen.

Now I'm really prepared to tackle all these "handy" projects around the house... got all the tools and parts I need. It is time to put up or shut up. Now all I need is a week off to do everything.

And that $10 off coupon? It's still in my pocket. I forgot all about it. Did I mention I hate coupons? I hate coupons.

posted by Rainmayun at 11:14 AM -

December 07, 2005 :: Holiday grinch

It's that time of year again. All the charities are actively seeking donations, and if you work at a big company that tries to pretend like they are good corporate citizens, you probably get hit up for a lot of donations and other stuff like I do. Everybody has their own pet cause, and the firm actually encourages them to spam everybody to donate to their cause.

Not that the causes themselves aren't worthy, but sooner or later I get tired of people with their hand out all the time. The company employees are active in a variety of cancer research societies (which makes sense because the National Cancer Institute is one of our clients). They collect Toys for Tots. They collect canned food for the hungry, and clothes for the needy. They sell candy, cookies, pizzas, cookie dough, coupon books, and a whole lot of other crap for Girl Scouts, Boys & Girls Club, various mentorship programs and a bunch of diseases you never heard of. They collect cash for a lot of things, like famine in Africa, and earthquake survivors in Pakistan, and tsunami relief all across south Asia. They even have a silent auction ever year. This year, they had an auction for Red Cross donations for Katrina relief.

Now, I'm not a total scrooge. When I am so moved, I donate appropriately. But (and I think I speak for a lot of us here) Katrina wore us the f*** out. I saw my people on tv, and I felt like I had to do something to help them out. I probably gave more at that time than I have ever given to any one charity. But now, I'm out of donation money. My budget is tight, it's Christmas-time, and I have a big ass family... that means a lot of gifts (when I feel like buying gifts, which I do this year). So I'm not donating any more stuff. And the hands are out all over the place. And they are starting to piss me off.

Some lady called me from Value Village a couple of weeks ago, asking if I had any items to donate for pickup. It so happens I had been cleaning out my closet and had a few things, so I said yes. I also felt bad because last time they called, I said yes and then I forgot to put the stuff out on the day they came, so I was fairly diligent this time. Pickup was Tuesday morning, 8 am. I got my stuff together in a box, labeled it, and then put it by the door. She said they'd pick up in rain/hail/sleet/snow, but as some of you know it was snowing pretty hard Monday night, so I was undecided as to whether to put it out. But I didn't want to forget in the morning (and I am not a morning person at all), so I put it out there. I put the box on a plastic bag so the bottom wouldnt soak through, and I put it as close to the house as I could. In the morning, the lady called at 7:30am to remind me (even though she had called 3 times the day before, and left 3 messages reminding me) that they would be picking up. I did my best not to cuss her out, because I'm not a morning person, and I went to go check on the box. It had a little snow on it, but it was otherwise ok. I went on about my business for the day.

At the end of the day, the box was still there. Those #$&*(#$U*()#$s didn't ever come get it! I really wanted to call that lady back and cuss her out for wasting my time, but I did not bother.

On the way into the office this morning, some lady had a table set up in the lobby of the building asking for people to donate blood. No, I am not going to donate my blood! Can't you see I'm using it right now? The lady acted like I had personally offended her when I said "sorry I can't do that". I think if they press me again, I'll tell them I'm on some exotic medication for leprosy or something, maybe then they'll leave me the f*** alone. Then again, that's probably bad karma.

OK, I'm really not a scrooge like that. But I would appreciate it if these people kept their hands out of my pocket (and my veins)!

posted by Rainmayun at 1:10 PM -