Missing, A Wet One

Yesterday after work I opened up the box that my mirror frame arrived in. I ordered this last week from the Home Depot web site. I had some time before I needed to leave to play volleyball so I opened the box up to take a look. I pulled out the 4 sections of the frame and the instructions. When I looked at the included parts list I hesitated. When I looked at the back of the frame I saw cutouts where dovetail keys are supposed to go. The only issue was I had no additional hardware.

I double and triple checked the box, looking to see if I somehow missed a hardware packet, nope. I was also supposed to get some wood glue included, that was MIA as well. I was more than mildly annoyed as you can imagine. So the instructions give a phone number and email address if there is something missing. I first called and got routed to a generic sounding voicemail, which was odd. I left a message. I also sent an email but I am very doubtful I will receive a reply.

So next I wanted to see if I could just buy the dovetail keys myself, that would be the quickest path towards resolution. Well evidently they are not as easy to buy as I hoped. Any place I found sold them in packs of like 1000, I need 4. I also am unsure of what size I need. So what I wound up doing in buying a few small L brackets. I am hoping using those and wood glue will substitute for the dovetail keys. I may go to a place like Michaels that sells framing materials to see if I might get lucky and find the keys there. I did place part of the frame around the mirror to just see how it will look. I think it will be great, as long as I can get it assembled cleanly.

When I left to play volleyball it was raining at my house pretty steadily. I still went, not knowing the weather on the courts. Although when we started it was ok rain did eventually sweep through. It was hard enough that we stood under a shelter for maybe 10 minutes. It eventually slowed enough for us to get out there. In total I bet we played at least 30 minutes in continuous rain.

Playing while it’s raining is not fun on many levels. The ball can get waterlogged and very sandy. Your body holds onto even more sand than normal as well in these conditions. Despite the weather I actually wound up having my best session of hitting since I started playing again for two reasons. First the rain has the side effect of making the sand slightly firmer, allowing me to jump slightly better. Second and more importantly, I had a guy on my team that was very good at giving me consistent sets that were where I like to hit. Knowing that a set is likely to be good allowed me to be more aggressive with my approach which I need to get out of the sand. It felt really good to be able to get some decent hitting in. I left the park sandy, wet, but pleased.