In a Handbasket
Sometimes it just feels like that is your choice of conveyance as you go through the day. Today started out fine as I was only going to work 4 hours today (8a-12p) and then take the afternoon off. As most of you know, Amy and I have no kids (not for lack of trying) and we’re running out of time. Thus, the reason I was taking off was so that we could attend an appointment with a fertility specialist.
However, before we could get there, there was some other hurdles to jump.
Amy’s car went into the shop yesterday to have the compressor replaced. She was told it was a four hour job. She got the call around 4pm that her car was not ready since the parts shop had sent the wrong part (so they say). So her car had to stay overnight and this changed up our schedule for this afternoon slightly.
You see, the schedule was to meet at the post office after I got off work and get our paperwork and fees turned in to get passports (we may get an opportunity to visit Canada in a few months if things work out and we wanted to give that opportunity the best chance of happening). She had called the Post Office and found out they would be open 9:30a-5pm. Then we would have lunch and go to the appointment at 2:30pm. Afterwards, we would stop by a Sprint store to have an issue with my phone resolved.
This was all changed when her car was not ready yesterday. They told us that the mechanic would be in early to have the car ready by 11am. I left work today at 12pm and they had not called Amy yet. She called them and found out that it was ready.
Now, here is how this afternoon REALLY went down.
- I picked up Amy, drove to the Goodyear center, dropped her off to pay for and pick up her car.
- I drove back home and waited for her to arrive.
- She picked me up and we headed to the Post Office. By the way, the air conditioner was NOT putting out cold air.
- We arrive at the Post Office at 1pm to find a sign on the door of the Passport office that said “Gone to Lunch”. One of the postal workers saw us and told us they would be back at 2pm. Naturally, we were flustered as no one had bothered to tell us this fact when Amy had called yesterday.
- We call the Goodyear manager and let him know the problem. He says that it would be only a few minutes to find the leak and take care of it.
- We get back to Goodyear and wait in the lobby for about 20 minutes. It’s already 1:30pm and ask how much longer it would be. We’re told it may be a while since they had not found it yet. We ask for someone to take us home since we had an appointment.
- One of the mechanics who was near the end of his lunch offers to take us home.
- We pick up the van and go pick up lunch at McDonald’s.
- We then go to the specialist’s location. However, we were going by directions from Google Maps and found that they were WRONG. It would seem some new construction changed them, but we did find the building at about 2:10pm.
- We go into one of the pay parking lots and find out from them that there is a parking garage specifically for the building we would be using. However, they waved us on into the parking lot at no charge (one of the few things that was a bright spot in this day).
- We see the specialist and discuss some options. There are some additional tests they need to do when certain things happen in a few weeks, biologically speaking.
- We complete our visit, pay the co-pay, and leave at about 3:45pm.
- At this point, we had not heard back from the Goodyear shop and decided to take another stab at getting the passports handled.
- We go back to the same Post Office and found we could immediately get seated and handle our paperwork (after a few phone calls to family members to get parental birth dates and locations) and pay the necessary fees.
- We leave there around 4:30pm and call the Goodyear shop. He says he had tried calling but got a busy signal (presumably while we were making aforementioned phone calls to family). Amy’s car was ready.
- We go to the Goodyear store and he explains that something called a “Shrader valve” was leaking and that was fixed. I don’t leave this time until Amy starts up the car and gives the air conditioner a few minutes to start cooling. It was good, so we parted ways as she would go home while I go to the Sprint store.
- Once at the Sprint store and waiting about 5 minutes, I speak with an employee who manages to point out that my phone needed service… which they don’t do there. I’d have to go to a location about 5 miles away to get it fixed.
- I figured I’d had enough at this point and just came home. There is a Sprint service center near my work I may use instead.
And so I sit here rather tired. We did accomplish most of our goals, though not exactly as planned. At least I don’t have to take another half day for unfinished business.
Increasing in Him,
WebCudgel
Topics: @Home, Family, WebCudgel |
March 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Wow, I would have been kicking the cat by the end of that day.
1. You need A/C already?!?
2. I was having brake problems so I call and am assured by the store that installed them that they would check the problem, should only take 30 minutes. I opted to wait…. 3-hours later, they knew what I was talking about, but couldn’t find the cause of it. Please come back next week. hahaha
3. I finally got tired of Sprint’s… service centers and service fees and convenience fees and braindead employees and dropped calls and overall lack of customer service/courtesy… and switched to US Cellular. We just re-signed for another 2 years (third time) and couldn’t be happier.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Well, the temperature has been climbing and it does get hot in the Texas sun rather quick. Just today it was in the 80s. Besides, my wife is looking for work, so she doesn’t want to show up to an interview sweaty.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Oh, and I went to the Sprint service center near work and they replaced my phone with the same model at no charge. Another thing goes right for once (and I managed to pick up Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica at Target while I waited).