Double digits, Fools Gold foolish
As predicted my to do list was huge this weekend, I would estimate it was 12-13 items long. It was a bit misleading because many of the list items took 15 minutes or less to do. The one thing that took way longer than 15 minutes was weeding, jesus. I was out there for over an hour pulling weeds from the various landscaped beds. The regular rain we are now getting combined with our absence gave the weeds ample opportunity to spread like wildfire. Ali had a hell of a time running the tractor as well. The grass in certain areas was so thick and high she had to run over the same spot two or three times. To complicate matters it was hot as hades with temps in the mid 90’s with humidity numbers to match.
I was about ready to replace my rain gauge in my weather center. It hadn’t been transmitting rainfall for awhile. 
The wind sensor has been broken even longer but I didn’t care much about it. I contacted the manufacturer and they recommended I replace the batteries on the transmitter and perform some reset procedure. I thought there was no way this would help matters since the transmitter was still sending the outside temperature just fine but what the hell, it’s worth a shot. I was amazed that after performing the procedure and dumping water in the unit to test it I actually received the data inside, cool.
We knocked out a bunch of the list and then later in the afternoon headed out after a quick dip in the pool. Oh let me mention the pool. The pool water quality has been FANTASTIC since I followed Pinch-A-Penny’s recommendations. When I went to brush the pool down I found that I didn’t even need to. There was no algae at all! The water is beautiful, clear blue.
So anyway we headed out for a couple things. One of the things we wanted to do was check out gyms. Ali’s membership at the Wellness Center was due to run out at the end of the month. They discontinued the discount plan Ali was under last year and as a result want to charge her a ridiculous $540 for a year membership. Considering there are many gyms in the area charging anywhere in the range of $10 to $30 a month it seemed insane to throw that sort of money away.
So we stopped at a new chain that is opening in our area called Lifestyle Fitness. They have a temporary location in a strip mall until their huge stand alone facility is scheduled to open in October or November. As we walked in the door I was a bit shocked by the 6 staff members that surround us, anxious to move in for a sale. I was surprised when I saw one of them was a guy I knew from my shitty gym. He used to be a trainer there and not a very good one. Well we wound up dealing with him.
He gave us the sales pitch and explained all of the stuff the new place will have when it is done. It looked great. Everything is state of the art, big and high tech. I wished they had a facility close to my work. They had a bunch of different plans ranging from 60 a month to 31 a month. As he went over the plans the guy used text book sales techniques, using a red marker to strike out the sign up fee while marking each of the features we get one by one. He said the no sign up fee was a “special” deal (yea sure it is) that expired on Monday. If it was me that was joining I would have signed up immediately. However Ali does almost exclusively group classes anymore. They would not have any classes until the new building opens up, however there is another location out closer to us. It was another gym that was just bought out by Lifestyle. The sales guy printed out the schedule and descriptions and gave it to Ali. Ali wasn’t ready to commit until she had a chance to look over the schedule in detail. We took the info home with us for her to go over. Later Ali determined the class schedule would not work very well with her schedule. On Sunday she bit the bullet and handed over the ransom to the Wellness Center figuring that by the time the next year is up Lifestyle will be in full swing and she can check it out again. It burns my ass to pay that much for a gym membership. I paid $99 for a year at the shit hole.
Speaking of burning my ass, there are a few other things annoying me right now. On Friday we got a bill from the orthodontist for the cracked retainer they replaced. It had been awhile since I had it done so I was wondering if maybe they had decided to be what I would consider reasonable and not charge me for the replacement retainer since between Ali and I we padded their bottom line somewhere between 11 and 12k. I think that astronomical figure should include replacement retainers. Well the orthodontist doesn’t agree. The last time I had one replaced in was a stiff $100. Ali had one replaced last September, which happens to be cracking as well already, for $110. Well when I opened the bill and saw $150 it flipped on the switch. That’s f’in bullshit. I want an explanation of why I should pay %50 more for a retainer than a year or so ago. I am sure whatever explanation I get will not be a good one. I will sit on this invoice for a good long time. I really have a sour taste in my mouth from the whole teeth straightening experience. Yea my teeth look better but they aren’t as good as they were supposed to be. The process took double the length I was promised, it cost a fortune and they want to charge me additional for retainers that obviously are designed to break. Assholes.
The next on my hit list is Paypal. I thought all the drama with the idiotic ebay hard drive seller was all but finished when Paypal said all I had to do was provide proof that I returned the drive to the seller which I did the very same day. I expected that my $65 would reappear in my account shortly after that. Well now the case status once again shows “Being reviewed by Paypal…” WTF is there to review??? It should be a black and white deal, there is nothing to review. Throw out the verbal abuse, I bought the unit and returned it, end of story. I can only imagine what bullshit the seller is feeding Paypal.
Annoyance number three, the pool cage company. This guy is a joke. He never closes out the permit on my pool cage which I would have never discovered if I didn’t pull one for the fence. He gives me the excuse that it was very hectic when my cage was being built and it must have been an oversight. Ok whatever. The guy tells me he would take care of it and have everything wrapped up by the end of May. Well now as June is coming to an end it still has not been resolved. I have talked to him several times over the past couple months and it is always an excuse filled conversation. The guy is a joke. I have been rather patient and calm to this point, I figure if I blow up on the guy then he could just say “F U” and not do it at all. My patience is very thin at this point though. When he calls me back (if he does) I am going to press for an exact date everything will be done. If that date also passes my calls will be daily and will be accompanied by a call to the permitting department to report his business practice.
On Sunday I still had a decent chunk of things to do but got it all done by early afternoon. A good part of the rest of the day I played WoW. By the time I was done I was a bit disgusted. Right now I am on a kick in the game of trying to earn special , high level gear via PVP (player vs player) points. To acquire these points you have to run in a special section of the game called the Battle Grounds. There are 4 different BG’s available. They have different objectives but in general put you in a group with anywhere from 10 to 40 other players and you do battle with the opposing faction to “win” the game. The problem is to amass enough of these points to “buy” the better gear requires you to repeat these same battles over and over and over again. It gets maddening. Sometimes if you are unlucky enough to be in a group with a bunch of “noobs” (noob – a player that has little experience in the game, doesn’t follow directions or is just generally ignorant) you could wind up spending a lot of time in a BG and receive very few points for doing so. It just gets EXTREMELY repetitive and frustrating. The game transforms from fun to work. Well after the session yesterday I pretty much decided I’m not doing BG’s. They suck you into the game for too long for too little enjoyment.
We watched Fools Gold Sunday evening. It was one of those movies I got with Ali in mind, a romantic action/comedy was it’s MO. Ugh, I thought it was stupid. Matthew Mcconaughey must have had terms in his contract that stated he had to be shirtless for 80% of the movie. The whole movie just didn’t work on any level for me. Surprisingly Ali agreed with me in my assessment. Dumb movie, don’t bother watching it. C.