So, that was a day and a half. Wow. In the short version - absolutely nothing happened. So you may as well stop reading now. Trust me.
I don't know if I should be pleased or insulted that you're still reading >;-P Don't follow instructions well, do you?
Ah well -- I think the fact that nothing happened is exactly what made it so frustrating. What should've taken an hour or two seemed endless.
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| Yup. Just like that. |
I wanted to stop by the printer to have flyers printed, drop the car off to get its oil changed, and do some banking. Otherwise there were ideas about cleaning and doing laundry and writing and a few other odds and ends. Right. Suffice to say, other ideas are for sissies.
Alright so I *might've* contributed to my own demise by going to bed at a slightly less than civilized hour last night *g* And keep in mind, civilized in my world is anytime before 2am. Before midnight is almost unattainably impressive. So uncivilized... Well, use your imagination. I'll give you a hint - I didn't get home from work till about 11, so it wasn't super early.
Regardless, being a responsible adult (stop laughing!), I set my alarm and it did, in fact, go off. Several times. With the enthusiasm of a series of exploding bombs and the resulting sirens *sigh*
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| I used to love this movie! |
When I eventually deigned to acknowledge it, it was to see I had half an hour until my car was supposed to be at the shop. And that clock is currently running about 10 mins slow. 20 minutes. Car has to be 15 minutes away. And I'm still in bed.
Frig.
But, it turns out, this might not be the first time this has ever happened to me. Up, showered, dressed and out in under 10 minutes. Sweet. And it's not really a 15 minute drive, I just tell myself that so I'll be early. Really a 10 minute drive, so I should still be on time.
And then I hit the train. Really? I couldn't stop my eyes from rolling. The only saving grace is that I was in Oakville and not on my way to the barn. Trains in Oakville are about thirty seconds long -- I was still good to go :) Made it in time to drop the car off.
Except I'd failed to run the "on the way" errands. And now no longer had a car. *sigh*
Fortunately Bev saved the day and generously offered me her car :) Thanks Mum! hahaha okay so... Printer. First stop was Staples -- quick and easy to deal with, but they can't print full bleed. Booo. Not going to work. So Googled for print shops in Oakville -- there are a surprising number of them *g* The one I knew about apparently doesn't exist before, but there were three others that looked promising. I ranked them in order of my own interest and figured out where the top two were. Reasonably close to each other, so that's good.
Driving looking for 30... Found 28 and 34... I hate to keep saying this, but really? Okay so a little more research proved user error -- we'll blame the lack of sleep. Sounds good to me. I actually needed 20. And sure enough, when I got to the *right* address there was the sign on the building. The empty building.
I'm serious. Occupying the large, otherwise-empty store were three baseball caps sitting on a counter. I tell ya, I couldn't make this stuff up! I do kinda want to know the story behind the hats. Although I suspect it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as the one my mind spun so maybe I'm happier not knowing. The rest of the place was empty.
Out of curiosity I called the phone number I had for them. I was a little surprised to get an answer -- maybe there was an upstairs? But no, when I asked where they were located, I learned they're on the other side of Burlington. All that remained here was their sign. And the baseball hats.
Okay, nbd, because you see while searching for that shop, I happened to find the third one on my list -- the one I hadn't mapped. Small world and all that. So I went in to talk to them and they were capable of doing what I needed. But snarky and condescending. I just wanted to get out of there. So I left my email to send me a quote and ran away.
I was starting to feel just a little disenchanted with this whole idea and, sitting in the parking lot, my phone rang. I gave it the death glare but it continued to chime away. Okay fine - answer it. It's the girl who's organizing the marathon I'm supposed to have a booth at on Saturday. Apparently the City of Oakville has instituted a new requirement -- they need proof of liability listing them on the insurance. Ummmm say what? They're not on my insurance -- my business is in Campbellville. And this is suddenly making it all seem like way too much hassle. So ostrich it (ummm if you're not familiar with that Laur-ism, it means stick your head in the sand and ignore it till later) for the moment and continue my travels.
Third -- fourth! -- print shop of the day. It took pretty much everything I had to force myself to go in. But here, here I found good customer service.
KKP for anybody interested. The people were pleasant and helpful. The only other customer in the store was fairly entertaining, so that's always fun. On a side note, I was a little astounded at the number of things they had posted about copyright laws and how they refused to violate them. Ummmm really? Are people that ignorant about asking a professional copy store to copy illegally? But obviously so. Ugh.
But the staff there knew their stuff and were easy to deal with. They suggested a minor change to the file that would make it print better and since they're not far from home I decided I'd take said file home and make the change. So with quote in hand I went home. On the way, I got the call that my car was ready. Sweet!
Go home, fix the file, find quote from other print shop. Slightly cheaper, but not guarenteed by Friday. And I didn't like them. Will go with the people I liked. Return to mechanics and find all is well. Car doesn't need anything extra and is deemed to be in good health! Woohoo!!! If you know my history with cars, you'll understand how very exciting that news actually was >;-P Drop new file off at print shop -- all good there too. Now, hours after it began, the day is *finally* starting to go as it should. Sweet.
Right. You're not new here.
Next stop was the bank. Line was long and moving ridiculously slowly, but sobeit. I was told something would be done by today; I needed it; I would wait patiently. And I daydreamed my way through the line and eavesdropped shamelessly on the other customers. Really, what else is there to do? Nothing fun going on though. So eventually I make it to the counter, get 3/4 of the way through business, and then am told that the piece I needed would indeed be done today. By midnight. Wtf? Seriously - that deserves more than "Really?". Is there any way to expedite this by about 6h? "Uh maybe - let me ask somebody." Fast forward another 20 mins of twiddling thumbs and listening to other clients. And then no. And while I will likely be up at midnight and able to return for that transaction then, I'd be willing to bet nobody would be there. If they'd just told me Thursday at the beginning - no problem. But telling me it'll be ready on Wednesday, wasting a good hour of my day, only to inform me it'll be Wednesday at midnight?
Suffice to say I was less than amused.
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| When all else fails... |
So I turned my thoughts toward sailing. Last week I *really* wanted to go and didn't. Worse - I found out that the hurricane apparently let up enough for a great race. I could've gone! Which made it even harder. Today though weather was stunning, so I was pretty excited. But wait - the ostrich.
*sigh* So I call my insurance company to figure out what all would be involved in solving this dilemma. And my usual contact is on vacation. Of course she is. Welcome to my life. "Would you like to talk to somebody else?" Ummmm yes please. hahaha I've no idea who, but hey surely you can recommend somebody? Indeed she could, and the person she recommended me to was awesome. Fast and sharp and helpful. Solved the problem quickly and painlessly. Superstar customer service -- esp juxtaposed with the bank.
So far a bit of a brilliance or disaster day. Probably a good thing I didn't try to ride my horse!
But at least now, it was time to shrug off the stress and go sailing. Well almost. First I had to get there. QEW was stopped, but that's not new -- I'm used to taking Lakeshore down and have got the hang of which lane to be in when. All good. Except my usual "correct" lane wasn't moving. But I bided my time until the giant vehicle in front of me moved over revealing a complete lane block for construction. Booo. But traffic in the next lane was being civilized, one car fitting in between each of the cars in the other lane. All good. Except the guy who theoretically *should* have let me in wasn't about to.
"Really? Don't be an ass; it's not like I have any choice about this."
Oops. Was that out loud? With the windows down?
Fortunately the look he gave me was amused, and he stopped and let me in. I smiled and waved as I took the offered space and of course got out of his way as soon as we passed the construction. And at the next red light, he asked me out. hahaha yeah - welcome to my life. I have to admit I'm always thoroughly amused when that happens. This is the third time now. A couple years ago I actually went on the date -- was even a reasonably good one; we talked for ages. But circumstances being what they were at the time, nothing ever came of it. And circumstances being what they are now, nothing would come of this either *g* But it did have me in a fairly good mood when I got to the yacht club.
Even with the construction, I made it with about 10 mins to spare. Sweet! The whole crew was out for the last Wednesday sailing night, and the wind picked up as we headed out. Woohoo! And then, right before our heat was about to start, died abruptly. Oh dear. If a snail and a giant turtle raced, backwards, they might still have beat us *sigh* It was painful. But - it was close, which was interesting. They were applying some pretty serious strategy to get somewhere when the wind gods took their toys and went home. Kinda cool. Would've been way cooler at speed, I admit, but still interesting. And even better that we won :) That always helps.
And possibly the most stunning sunset/moonrise I can remember seeing. Almost surreal colours on a stunning sky and a red cityscape. Awesome in the most literal sense of the word. A large part of me lamented my lack of camera, but part of me appreciated just floating there enjoying it. What better way to spend a fall evening? Absolutely amazing.
Out of curiousity, why are you still reading this? I did tell you right in the beginning that nothing happened right? And, well, nothing's going to continue to happen.
Because you see, after sailing was the finale of America's Got Talent. Yup - one of my guilty pleasures. Not quite sure how I got addicted to that, but sobeit. The act that held me fascinated got kicked out a week or two ago. So sad. But my second choice was still in and there was a third that I'd forgotten about but when I watched the review decided was socially acceptable as well. So I watched the presentation while typing this. My guy was eliminated fairly early on. Booo on that. No accounting for taste I guess. But the third choice won - so reasonable :) An unusual act, to be sure, but that's part of what makes that show so interesting. Completely indescribable acts can win.
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| True story. Except finishing the book *last* night led to this whole story.... |
And I wasn't quite finished this post, so I searched valiantly for something else to watch on TV and found Bond. Not my favourite one by any means, but really any Bond is acceptable. And so the day begins much as it ended - not great, not horrid, and with stuff exploding. Night!
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