Packing, John, Disposable Cookware, A Big Boy Recliner

I'm sitting here with a whopping headache (probably from allergies). It hurts too much to pack. Packing isn't coming along very well. I'm trying not to combine things I won't need until I have a place of my own, with things that I need or want to use at Tom's.

It's also hard to decide which of Sunny's things to toss out. I found one of his notebooks from work. It has no useful information, but it's one of the few examples I have of his beautiful handwriting. How can I throw that out? Most of our correspondence was via email. Thankfully, I still have a lot of it saved on my old hard drive. I need to burn it to a CD.

My friend John got some bad news yesterday. He found out his grandmother, whom he's been caring for, has been hospitalized. It's only a toe infection, but there's always the chance she could lose it, and there's no telling how she'll react to that. John's afraid she'll become even more dependent on him. Not only could that have an emotional toll on both of them, but it might keep him from spending the time on his music that he needs to. Hopefully it won't. Hopefully this will be a positive turning point in his life, somehow. In any case, he had to rush back to Louisiana, cutting short his Texas trip. Keep him in your prayers, chants, thoughts or what have you.

I'm hungry, and want some oatmeal, but I've already packed up my pots and pans. When will they invent disposable cookware? Yeah, that's all we need littering our landscape and destroying our environment. "Convenience--convenience is a thing to die for."

I had two very different retail experiences this week.

First was CarMax. I had to unload my Buick, which Sunny had been driving. It's in great shape, despite the fact that I crashed it once, and also rear-ended someone. I wasn't sure if it had any frame damage. Luckily it didn't. Anyway, I took it to CarMax, hoping to get at least what I owe for it. Kelly Blue Book's website says the trade in value is only $2,000 or so; and the 3rd party sales price was listed just below what my payoff is. I walked in, and they greeted me right at the door. I introduced myself, and told him I only wanted to sell my car. The Sales rep asked me a few questions about it and then showed me to his office to fill out the information on it. I was impressed that he actually remembered my name to type it into the computer. He went out to mark the car (they use little numbered cones) for the mechanic to check it out. When it was all done (which only took about 30 minutes),he made me an offer of $4,000. I know I may have been able to get more than that from a private person, but I don't have the time and don't want the hassle. The only drawback was that they didn't have a courtesy car, so I have to see if I can get a ride. If not, I guess I'll be taking the 2 hour bus trip home.

The other experience was with Gallery Furniture. It's a huge furniture warehouse in Houston. I bought a big man's recliner from them in July 2003 for Sunny's birthday. It's broken 3 times since then, but I had an at-home repair plan on it. Last week, I called them to come fix it. They told me that Friday was the soonest they could come, but couldn't tell me what time until Thursday. I waited all day Thursday for a call, and they never called...So I called them about 4:30. They said they don't make out the schedules until between 5 and 9. I called them back at ten o'clock, because they still hadn't called. They said the store was closed and everyone in that dept. Had left. They showed up at my door this morning, and the guy said he couldn't fix it, because they didn't have the right part. The part... A bolt that had broken. What B.S.! Anyway, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with them, and all I got was a $10 refund for the remaining time on my service plan...And one broken chair with a bolt that apparently can't be replaced before Monday.

In sum...sometimes it's the big corporations that are the good guys, and the independent dealers that are the sleezeballs.