Tire Choice chump, frustration, quick 5

My Presidents Day got off to a frustrating start yesterday.  I thought I would head out early to Tire Choice and get a nail removed from the tire of the Tacoma that has been there for awhile, it was causing a slow leak.  I originally bought the tires at Tire Choice and when I did I also purchased the road hazard coverage.

So I get down there a little after 8:15 and see a couple people in the waiting room, not bad.  I tell them I need a nail removed and also I would like to have the tires rotated and balanced, another thing I paid for when I bought the tires (lifetime balance and rotate) but has never been done.  A couple times I have stopped by TC over the years to have them do it but it always was met with “you’ll have to wait two hours” or something along those lines.

I was told there was only one person back in the shop right now (something I seem to hear a lot at this location) it should take about 90 minutes, ok, fine.

I walked down to the near by Dunkin Donuts and fueled up.  On the way I went by one of our local Crossfit gyms, they were out running as part of their WOD.  I have been thinking about buying Ali a trial membership there.  I have a feeling she would really enjoy the team atmosphere and everyone knows that strong is the new skinny.

So I walked back to the garage and began what was a marathon wait.  At around the 90 minute mark when my truck had still not moved from the parking lot and I saw there were many more than just one person back in the garage I got annoyed enough to ask what was going on.

They said they were just about to take the truck back now, which they did a couple minutes later.  They took it back, put it on the lift and then it sat there instead, untouched for a good 20 minutes.  I could see it from the waiting room.

Eventually I see a guy working on the problem tire but then I also notice that he puts the tire back on the same spot on the truck.  Obviously if he was rotating the tires that wouldn’t be the case.  I just shook my head as he brought the truck back out front.

I told the counter person that the mechanic did not rotate or balance the tires as I asked but at this point I was done wasting my time, it was almost 11 AM at this point.  The clerk shrugged his shoulders and said he guesses the woman that did my work order did not include the rotate and balance on there.  Yea whatever, great.  So I wound up spending almost 3 hours at Tire Choice and got one third of the work done.  I was sure to utilize their feedback email address I saw in the store.  I think I will be getting a call today.

So next I went down to Sam’s to get gas and run the truck through the car wash.  More frustration awaited with lines at the pump and even longer lines for the wash as the snowbirds had inundated the place.  Lovely.

So I finally get back home, annoyed I wasted most of the morning doing something that should have taken a half hour.  Ali had texted me earlier saying when she came out Sadie was outside.  Well that’s odd, I didn’t let her outside before I left.  Ali said she made sure she hadn’t punched out another screen.  Well she hadn’t punched out a screen but there were two claw rips in the screen door.  I think she pushed on the door and perhaps it wasn’t latched securely and she punched through.  I wasn’t planning on doing screen repair as well yesterday but suddenly that was now on the to do list.

So then I go outside and see the hole that Nicki dug, right in the area I just resodded the day before.  Ali told me how cute it was that Nicki was digging, something she used to do pretty regularly but not anymore.  I told Ali it was not cute that she did it right there.  Ali did not agree that she should have scolded Nicki for digging.  I repeated I don’t care if she digs but there are 3 other acres she can dig at.  I told her she just will confuse Nicki by encouraging her to dig at the same spot where I will scold her for doing the same.  More frustration.

So finally we were taking out some of the indoor plants to the shed to transplant and combine with some of the new houseplants we bought.  The one plant I got down had some standing water on the top of it.  I evidently added too much water on Friday night.  Well Ali did not notice the water and threw the pot up on her shoulder, trying to be efficient so she would have another hand free to grab another one.

Well within a few seconds she had a muddy stream flowing down her arm and onto the carpet.  She blamed me for overfilling the pot with water.  I blamed her for not noticing the lake in the pot before she picked it up since I saw it right away.  Cleaning the mess up required use of the Dyson and SpotBot.  Yes, it was frustrating.

Luckily for both Ali and I, she had a dentist appointment in the afternoon so we got a much needed break from each other.

While she was gone the equipment for my SSR upgrade came.  Once Ali got back I headed right out in the SSR to Best Buy, I wanted to buy some high grade wire connector for the install.  While I was out I got a call from my Dad with an updated status.  He was stopping for the day just inside the Florida border.  He and my step mom have been making the trip south pretty slowly but they should finally arrive later this afternoon.

During the day yesterday our neighbors across the street dropped off two boxes of dog supplies.  They had just recently had to put BOTH of their older dogs down, each had their own set of health issues.  We felt so bad for them as we knew how much they loved their dogs, just like we do.  I could see the pain in Steve’s face as we tried to offer our condolences.  It has to be an absolutely awful thing to deal with.

While Ali was away I figured I would try to burn off some of the frustration of the day with another crack at this month’s forum challenge.  I improved my numbers from my first try by 3 pull ups and 9 push ups, a decent improvement but I was actually hoping for a bit more.

Ali made a really good rice pilaf last night.  She also reheated the left over sweet potato patties in the frying pan, it made a ton of difference, they tasted much better to me now with no additional seasoning.