Miffed & Thrift
I woke up yesterday to a sound of a jet ski borne on top of a swarm of hornets into the great gawping maw of a snoring giant.
Yeah, it was landscaping day at the apartment complex. I give myself three years before I miss being woken up by the chorus of leaf blowers and chain saws. I do hate outdoor work (I hate feeling dirty, which is the alternate name of outdoor work), but I'm going to have a good couple of years not getting woken this way.
I started out the way I do most days while I'm trying to do too much: a cup of tea and a sinking suspicion of imminent defeat. When you have more things to do than you have time for, it's difficult not to sink into the mire of overwhelm.
But I have been trying to rise above the sinkhole of overload. Sometimes my success is like that of the horse in The Never Ending Story.
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| Fun fact: the horse's name is Artax |
But today I did manage to do some of the things. Go me. I did some of the things until 1700 when I returned home from seeing a friend and buying groceries such that Chris and I could have the dinner of edibleness.
Since Chris wasn't home yet, I had a snack and then started looking on FB Marketplace and Offer Up hoping to find some things we'll need this weekend for less than we'd spend at the store. And find I did!
I found:
- Some paint liners, drop cloths, paint stirrers, and roller handles for $10
- An 8' ladder for $35 on FB and the same one for $25 on Offer Up...
- A hammer drill for $25
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| Idk why this is more special than *my* drill that's only over a decade old... |
I messaged all the people while Chris arrived home announcing his dire and imminent starvation as usual. Paint person gave me until 2200 to pick up the stuff, so I started making food. As dinner was dinnering, I got a message back from hammer drill person and that person said that they'd only be available until 2000. It was already 1830 so I turned off the burner under the broccoli, and Chris and I set out to El Cajon to pick up paint stuff and a hammer drill.
The plan was to get the drill, then the paint stuff, then food, then home. Oh, and then Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
We got the hammer drill and then heard back from ladder dude, Greg, whom I was trying to get hold of before leaving.
So yes, I asked when would be the best time for us to get said ladder. Chris has, at this point, expressed his doubt about getting an 8' (2.4m) ladder in our VW Golf with the back seat that is stuck on one side such that it will no longer release to fold down. Not to mention we don't have any ties in the car so that the ladder could be encouraged to stay inside the car. Note that Greg tells us that 'any time' is ok.
But this could work, right? Chris is grumbly McSnart Face because he's ready to gnaw through his arm and hasn't had a chance to unwind from work, but I forge ahead because where else are we going to get an 8' ladder for so little money? I checked on Lowes.com before we left and they're over $100 new. So I message Greg asking if today is best, hoping he'll say tomorrow would be just as good.
He does not.
I am acutely aware that when trying to get something from one of the "buy it from your neighbor" sites, you have to move! I've heard plenty of stories of one person saying they're coming to get a thing just to arrive and have had it sold already because why would some person hold the item if someone is there offering them cash in the moment?
Having sold things on Craigslist and FB Marketplace myself, I don't do that. But I do get it. You answer questions about your item, most of them questions your description answers but no one reads. You agree to sell it to some person only to have that person never show up. And where do you draw the line? I spoke with one person for months about some china I have to sell and that never amounted to anything. So, I get it why people will just sell to whomever shows them the cash first. But it means you have to be a bit cutthroat to get the item you want. So, I'm pressing to get the ladder.
Chris then brings up the pertinent question, where are we going to keep the ladder? We can't keep it in the car since it won't fit all the way in and things get stolen in our parking lot like heads-up quarters on the sidewalk.
I tell Chris I have a terrible plan. We get the paint stuff, we get food, we go eat the food, we get the ladder... then we drive all the way to the new house and drop off the ladder. He agrees this is a terrible plan. It really does take us about 40 minutes to drive to the new house and he's tired and hangry already. I mumble something about maybe keeping it in our apartment for the time being and he grumble snorts some sort of assent.
So, we had a plan, but I get confused. At first we're going to get food, then the paint stuff. But then, once I've found a place that might be able to accommodate my diet, we realize that the plan was originally to get the paint stuff, then get food, go home and eat the food and get ties, then go get a ladder. Chris points out that if we get food first it will be all bleh when we get it home if we stop between.
So, we went to get the paint stuff, and I let Greg know the plan.
The original restaurant is now miles away. We decide to try Rubios where I can eat one thing, and find that the one closest to us is already closed. So we head off to one in La Mesa that's open until 9:30. As we go, Greg says:
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| 😒 Greg, really? |
We arrived at Rubios in La Mesa where they told us it would be 25 minutes until our food would be ready. We looked at each other and Chris said, "Let's leave." I was horrified. Don't they realize that the only way I was going to salvage the ladder situation was if Chris had blood sugar?
Sourly, Chris walked to the car, frustration steaming off him. I offered two solutions to this. 1. Go to the Rubios in our town. 2. Go to Trader Joe's across the street and pick up a to-go container of chicken salad and a fork. "Let's just go home" Chris said. "I just want to get this over with!"
So we went home. Last time Chris was unhappy (when he realized that he felt too in between in this post), I took care of him the way that female partners have taken care of unhappy male partners for aeons. Today, I used the other method of taking care of cranky partners. I took two hard boiled eggs out of the fridge (go me for having pre-hard boiled eggs!), squished them with some mayonnaise, crumbled Ritz crackers over it, shoved a lid on the thing and put it and a fork on Chris's car seat.
Chris had looked for the bungee cords we have in the storage room but come up with nothing. Stating that he knew where they had been before we started moving things to the new house, he asked me to look for rope while he went out to have a word with the stuck car seat. I looked and did find the box labeled "bungee cords" but no bungee cords were to be found. This is what happens when you live with your crap in storage for three years. You use some of it and it gets all messed up.
I finally located three short lengths of climbing rope. I brought them and all our accoutrements to the car where Chris was having no luck with the seat. It's like when your extendable luggage handle won't release. The handle to release the seat won't do its job. And the part that locks the seat in place is almost a circle around a metal rod. So as much as I was a fan of kicking the seat forward, it probably would have hurt more than helped.
Chris grumbled that the three lengths of rope might work after we spent about 10 minutes figuring out where to tie them to on the car and we agreed that with one part of the seat down, the ladder might fit. So I sent a message to Greg who was imploring...
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| Sure, Greg |
Happily, Greg lives only about 15 minutes away. When we arrived, I asked him if we were doing the Offer Up price. He said no, the Facebook price. Greg...
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| ... and the horse you rode in on! |
We threaded the ladder through the car and headed out. The ladder almost fits in the car with the top of it banging against the dash and the feet angled just so that they could crack our still open hatchback window were we to go over too large a bump. Chris asked the Google if Rubios was still open. The one in La Mesa was so we asked the GPS to take us there.
I spent the drive mashing my hand under the ladder to get the car into 5th and going negative 6mph (-9.6kph) over speed bumps, after each of which we listened carefully to not hear the sound of breaking glass.
Chris spent the drive narrating every wrong move other drivers made and glowering at them. Do you know how precise driving is in Germany? Well, there's a reason they're able to drive 120mph (193km) on the Autobahn and there are almost never accidents.
Happily food was obtained this time. On the way home I revisited a conversation Chris and I'd had a few days prior. It was the every-few-years conversation you have where you rehash everything you are currently, and have in the past, been unhappy about in your relationship. I know it sounds terrible, and it's not like I enjoy this conversation, but after knowing Chris since 2006 and having this conversation about six times, we seem to have it reasonably down to a respectful "I don't want you to feel bad but..."
Well, Chris either informed or reminded me (my memory isn't great for things I'm bad at) about how I tend to railroad him at certain junctures in our life together. Like, I just decide a thing I'm going to do and when he brings up concerns about the thing... I just keep going.
Well, I had a spark on the way home and asked if this night had been one of those railroading incidents.
The nice part is that I became aware of it before Chris had to tell me and... it wasn't like the time I decided I was moving to Albuquerque and left while he was still thinking we were going to move someplace together once we mutually decided where.
Chris carried the ladder in because I am still gimpy of tum. Now the cats are taking turns hiding behind the rungs as if they're a parapet that makes them invisible to each other for an edge in the ongoing cat battle.
And what have we learned today? We shall not now, nor ever again, try to pick up three items from Offer Up or FB Marketplace on the same night. Also, if you have to stop cooking broccoli before it's done, move the pan off the burner. They were way overdone.
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| 😒 |
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