When you hit middle age you really only have two choices: you can get fat and lazy until you roll over and die, or you can can get off your ass and do something, like maybe ride a bike.
Bluntness
I've also been told I have little tact, so if this offends you simply ride on.
Showing posts with label carpet installation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carpet installation. Show all posts
Here it is, Tuesday morning and as usual, we have cloudy skies, though our temp is in the upper 60s (F). Humidity will be high all day, and the clouds will be gathered low and, being substantial, will give us constant shade. Remember, technically speaking we are still in Spring... at least for another few days.
I worked yesterday. It was slow. We did have a customer who is struggling with a carpet decision. She doesn't want any seams and her room is too big to install carpet without a seam. There are people out there who believe you can see a seam. You can't, unless the installer is an imbecile. Because of the size of rooms today, having wall to wall carpet will always mean seams. At one point she suggested throwing a throw rug down over the seam, so I said "sure, you can do that." I don't mind selling foolish people unneeded throw rugs.
I'll be leaving soon to have my blood drawn for the AC1 test. I'm excited. So, this will be short.
For those who missed it, the Orange Anus signed an agreement to work on a trade agreement, again under the ruse that it was an actual agreement. When he went to reveal this latest deceit, he dropped the papers on world wide TV.
He also left the G7 early because? I think there are several reasons why he's back in DC... or is it Mar a Lago? Whatever. Mostly I think it was because he received a rather cool reception. None of the other members seemed to want to talk to him, or listen to him rant... he does that a lot, making up facts to suit what ever thought is rattling around in his head. The important thing is that he was not getting the attention he felt he deserved. This was on top of that shitty parade the world laughed at.
This asshole needs to be the focal point of every conversation, the subject of every media story flashing over the airwaves. And so he starts warning Iran, hinting that we're going to attack the country, and voila, his dirty, little heart is getting what it so desperately craves. He will end up being the cause of death for millions.
By the time I left work yesterday the wind had picked up and was busy blowing away the warm weekend weather and leaving space for cooler temps to rush in, and rush they did. When I got up this morning our temps were hovering in the mid 50s (F) and the skies are overcast. The temps might make it up to 70 (F) if we're lucky, and the cloudy skies will remain as rain will be moving into the area for the next few days. If the long range forecast is correct, our temps will not rise above 75 (F) for the next 2 weeks. So, is summer going to be cool? We shall have to wait and see.
The flooring department was busy yesterday. Two big ticket installations were processed, one of which was mine for over $10,000. Wowza! My customer put that charge on 2 different credit cards, something I'd never do. There was an actual sale going on when she was measured which would have reduced this cost by almost $1000, but she chose to wait, possibly because she knew she was going to be putting it on 2 separate cards. I feel bad when I see people doing things like this since it tells me they're not balancing things well as they go through life.
My new printer arrives today. I'm excited. I'm going to be moving some things around in the writing room.
I gave Howie a walnut this morning. He played with it for a long time but never ate it. I also took a picture of him out walking by one of my Itoh peonies. I'm glad he stayed red, I was concerned he might end up a yellow lab.
I watched a clip of Scottie Bessent on some talky show yesterday attempting to blow off America's downgrade by Moody's. Scottie's not too happy. The words he was spitting out didn't come close to matching the look on his face. This downgrade happened on his watch and he knows in the end, unless we get an upgrade shortly, he will be blamed. He's learning that you can not run the country as if it were a business. Because of that downgrade the stock market is going to drop today. This is the Republicans fault. They are the reason the country is so deep in debt. In a way, they're like my customer who wants that carpet so bad she's going to put the total cost on 2 credit cards. Orangie wants a tax break, and so they're going to borrow more money in order to give it to him.
On Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis: Prostate cancer is one of the most curable forms of cancer. It is very slow moving. For his cancer to have reached this stage, metastasizing and into his bones, quite likely he's known about it for quite some time. In fact, this may be the real reason he dropped out of the presidential race. It is a sad day. He's given a lot for this country, and I feel bad that he has to suffer towards the end of his days.
Today's starting out a little on the cool side, as long as you definition of cool is in the mid 40s (F). There are drizzles hanging around, but if the forecasters are correct they will pass leaving this afternoon sunny. Temp wise, it looks as though we'll be hanging around in the mid 50s (F) to low 60s (F) for the next few days. I can live with those temps.
Yesterday, because it was the last Sunday I worked an 8 hour shift was a day of none accomplishment. That's right, except for writing my daily entry in Riding On, I did virtually nothing... literally. Well, I did go to work. I did have a nice carpet sale to an ex-employee, a little over $5000. Her husband signed up for a store credit card. His credit must not be that good, since his limit was low. Customers with decent credit usually have a limit of $8000, he maxed out his limit and she put the balance on another card. She also told me they were going on a cruise in June: Italy, Greece, and Turkey. I'm betting they're deep in debt.
I've been listening to Lady Gaga's latest. If you like her music some of it's pretty good. However, the videos are rather odd, none of them likeable enough to watch more than one time.
And I think I'm about played out with Skyrim. There are a number of endings and depending upon the choices you make during the game, you can have a good one, or a bad. I had a happy ending this time, one a previous playthrough I had to deal with a terrible war. Now I'm debating whether I want to download Avowed, another RPG from Obsidian, a studio that is owned by Bethesda. Here's the trailer.
I understand that the Orange Anus is caving on some of his tariffs again, this time in the form of waivers to certain groups, one of which, I believe is the auto industry. This means that his April 2 deadline is off again, sort of, while still being on. Pharmaceuticals are still included... possibly... at least for now.
Also, we're evidently going to be importing eggs from Turkey, among other countries. I'm wondering if the Federal government is going to be paying the import fees, if not, the price of eggs will still be high.
Elonia is trying to buy a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. He's offering voters $100 each if they sign a petition against activist judges, and he's doing this in order to put an activist judge that will give him what he wants on the bench in Wisconsin. I'm hoping the voters there force him to pound sand.
In Virginia, Governor Youngkin had to deal with boos, hisses, and catcalls.
In Philly, at the NCAA wrestling championship both Orangie and Elonia were booed mercilessly. You'd think this moron would learn a lesson and avoid making public appearances.
Let's see if I can write this quickly, I slept a bit late and I need to be at the store by 0930.
We have sunshine, and a lot of wind. Under a wind advisory we are, and it's predicted to continue for most of the day, with our temps climbing up into the mid 50s (F). Tomorrow we'll be up in the 60s (F), and our afternoon temps should stay that warm throughout the rest of the week.
Yesterday at work end with a spud. I'd gotten approval last Monday to leave early since the Oscars were starting at 7 and that's my punch out time, however life intervened. One specialist had his schedule changed, another left at lunch, and a third called off. Business was slow for most of the day, until.... 45 minutes before I was to leave. The most aggravating thing was the man who called on the phone and wanted to know about indoor/outdoor carpet. Many questions about cost, product, and date of installation, all of which take time when your trying to explain things over the phone. Did I mention he was.. gruff? He wanted precise figures and we can't do that, even our computer generated estimates provide a range for what the cost could be. He found this difficult to understand. He wanted a specific time for the measure, this never happens. I spent over 20 minutes on the phone with the customer and in the end he told me he stop in at the store today so he could pay his measure fee with a check. There are certain interactions which need to take place in person; a phone conversation simply doesn't work.
Because of this, I missed the first 2 minutes of the Oscar ceremony. Boo! Hiss!
Now I know there are those of you out there who don't watch the Oscars because of lapsing attention spans (thank god I'm not that old), or claim it's too long (it was shorter than Killers of the Flower Moon), and so didn't get a chance to see John Cena's full frontal (I'm waiting for Bob's comment on that one). Joy Da'vine Joy Randolph won Supporting Actress, as expected, but how many of you knew that she was born in Philly, but grew up in Hershey, PA, and graduated from Hershey High School? It's nice when you get to see local talent win an Oscar. I hope none of you find yourself in the same boat as Donald Trump, who posted how bad the ceremony was on his Truth Social, or got to watch Jimmy Kimmel's response. As usual, the Academy doesn't always vote the way the public thinks. The highlight of the evening was, of course, Ryan Gosling's performance of I'm Just Ken. From comments I'm seeing on the BBC and Le Monde, everyone around the world love it.
The sun is out, the outside temp is 65 (F) and the temps today are predicted to only climb into the mid-80s (F), oh, and the humidity is supposed to be tolerable. Oh, and it's one of my none work days. Just about everyday that is a non-workday is good. Not that I dislike work, mind you, but with business being so abysmal it does get boring.
I did get a phone measure yesterday from a woman who wants to have a carpet installation. She let me know that she put the same carpet in her condo on Florida, a cheap pattern with a 5 year warranty. She's also selling the condo in Florida, in fact she and her husband are going to be going down for the closing next week. There's a fly in the ointment, though. We're running a special that expires on July 30, and they drive down, and this Friday she's out of town for a business meeting, and they're leaving on Monday. I know that's a lot of "ands," and unfortunately there is one more: and the first measure date available in July 17, when they're in Florida. Measure services has been contacted and they will update her if an earlier date becomes available.
Here's a great article from the WaPo basically saying that HGTV is make you depressed. It turns out that all of those pretentious people pushing neutral color palates in order to be trendy are bad for your psyche. Stark Whites and bland neutrals with zippo for contrast are not good for you heads. Of course, I've been saying this for years. Color is good unless you want to live your life as a drone.
And I saw this picture of my ship taken in 1962. Newly built, and leaving the shipyards, it's on it's way to the Atlantic. I was 10 years old then and had no idea I'd live 3 years of my life beneath its flight deck. The mast is canted to its port side rather than straight up to fit beneath the Brooklyn Bridge
There are rumors that Jack Smith wants January the 6 indictments of Trump and his evil cohorts to be done before Fannie's in Atlanta. Sounds good to me. I'm sure his team and Fannie's team are having some really sweet conversations.
It also looks like Sweden's going to be joining NATO. I find it nearly hilarious that the one thing Vlad the stupid didn't want is happening because his greed for power is making him look overwhelmingly stupid. He wanted his blow bro Trump to dismantle the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and instead the organization is growing larger, and stronger. I'm fine with this!
Well, it's Tuesday and my first load of laundry is in the dryer. My 2nd, sweatpants, will be going into the washer shortly. Moving both washer and dryer to to the 2nd floor was a smart move, since the big PC is up here. The only thing I don't like is the vinyl floor - it's faux marble, has a lot of white which shows up dog hair. Holy Crap! I had no idea there was so much dog hair floating in the air around me.
We had a big carpet carpet install returned. There are 7 rolls of shrink wrapped carpet sitting back in receiving, each with the dimensions of a room written on the wrap. Beaucoup Bucks $$$$. The customer claimed it was the wrong color. Well, that's a lie. I can remember 2 times when the wrong color carpet was sold. Both times, the installation was stopped before the installers cut a single piece of carpet. I'm betting that in this case, wrong color means the customer didn't like the carpet after it was installed. I don't doubt this happen more and more frequently because carpets are expensive now. Two years ago, the same carpet would have run $3.25 a square foot, today it costs $5.37 a square foot. American capitalism is destroying itself.
Back when the electrical work was being done for the laundry move, I used a small piece of plywood to keep Biggie at bay in the kitchen. Believe me, he so desperately wanted to go hang around with the electricians.
You know, it doesn't seem a day doesn't go by without Ronnie DeSantis doesn't do something that heralds his turn to the far right. Black people are furious about his attempt to whitewash their history. Ronnie doesn't understand. He desperately wants Florida to become the white Mecca.
The voters in George Santos' district are furious with him. I would be, too, if he represented my district. While Democrat and Independent voters want him gone, some Republicans, though still claiming to be angry, would rather he stay. They don't want to lose his vote and they're worried that they'll do that if there's a special election. They are totally clueless as to how badly this hurts them with the voters.
So, I'm off today. If you missed my little Yippee Skippy dance, I'm sorry. I'd do it again but, unfortunately, I've too much shit to get done.
Stupid customers started crawling out form under their rocks yesterday and I was on the verge of turning delectably dour when... my shift ended and I got to go home!
Let's see: there was the man with the crappy phone connection who called to see if we could make a stair runner out of carpet he had left over from an install quite a number of years ago (I looked in the system and he was no longer listed which means it was over 10 years ago). He didn't like my response... so he asked me about ceiling tile he purchased in 2015. He got a bit upset when I told him they were only available for purchase from Armstrong, not through the store since we no longer carry that style.
Then there was the woman who called and wanted me to go over her install quote over the phone. I told her we prefer customers to come into the store and she laid down the law. "I'm partially handicapped so that's next to impossible." Of course, she did not have an email copy of the quote and there were issues... many, many issues: there were charges for dismantling platform beds... 3 of them, and wall units, 2 of them (and I'm looking a pictures because our measure techs take pictures of problems). I pointed out one piece of furniture she said "well, that's just an armoire and it's only a little over 6 feet high (and easily over 4 feet wide). I did some changes and emailed her a copy of the quote. I did some changes and emailed her a copy... She's going to mull over the install.
And then there was the man in the hat. A tall, black gentleman asked me to cut some blinds for him, on the way to the blind cutter another older, white gentleman stopped me. "I need information on indoor and outdoor tile." I explained I was going to cut blinds and called another associate, "we have a customer in the tile aisle who has questions about indoor and outdoor tiles." After cutting the blinds, I was heading towards the flooring desk when the associate I had called stopped me. "There's no one in the tile aisle." I looked down the tile aisle... no one there, so I headed back to the Flooring Desk. As I was getting ready to sit down, I saw the gentleman in the hat had returned, so I went up to him to see if I could help. "I've been waiting here for an hour," he growled. Me? I pulled out the store phone and checked the time I'd called the other associate. "I'm sorry, but I called for assistance a little over 5 minutes ago, and you weren't in the tile aisle when he got there." Well, he didn't like that.. at all. I tried helping him. Every answer I gave me was wrong. He objected to everything... because it wasn't what he wanted me to tell him. "I'll ask at your Pro Desk, they'll have the answers," he said, very angry. I looked at his hat, and I looked at him, and smiled. "They're closed on Sunday." He stormed away. This is the mentality that voted for the Idiot Jerk in the White House. That little MAGA hat he wears exemplifies complete failure, and in his mind we are the ones responsible for his being a dumb fuck.
Wednesday. I work... and this isn't even my hump day. Shit.
So, when I got home from work yesterday we had about 3/4 inch to an inch of icy slush, mostly slush with a crust of ice. Grabbing my handy dandy shovel, I cleared off the back porch, steps, and the veranda for the dogs. They love snow when it's soft and fluffy - hate it when it's crunchy slippery. I then took care of the front sidewalks - didn't take me long at all. I just put the shovel down and used it like a plow. The prediction is for us to warm up over the next couple of days. Good.
Okay, the the mailman drops off this letter from the E. Cumberland Road Neighbors last evening and when I opened it I found an invite to join a 'public website' specifically for my neighborhood at nextdoor.com... well, kinda... and probably not. It was written by someone named Corinda Traina - I Googled the name... nada. Nextdoor.com is a social network started in California about 12 years ago and neighborhoods are groups of people who live in the same region. Sorry, this isn't for me, so it's going in the trash.
And, how's this for stupid? Yesterday afternoon I was sitting at the flooring desk and I received a call form our Measurements Services regarding a customer. They had just sold her a carpet installation, around $2000, and after she gave them her credit card number asked them when she was going to be able to pick out her carpet... 🙄🙄🤣😂🤣 Let me explain... After having their rooms measured, customers normally choose the carpet and the color and the padding. The minute they pay for it, that carpet gets ordered. Sometimes, if a customer can't make up their mind, a generic carpet and color is keyed into the order. All this is explained to the customer. Most customers will have decided on a specific carpet and color before they are actually measured. When Measurements Services sells an install, they verify all of this information since the last thing they want to do is sell you a style and color carpet you do not want. This customer evidently wasn't listening and blindly gave them her credit card number. End result: I had to cancel the purchase order and process a refund.
And finally, I saw where the Idiot Jerk in the White House is 'unhappy' with the joint legislation which will keep the government open, but gives him nothing for his WALL. I guess the American Freedom Caucus, that crazy bunch of hate mongers, is telling him to sign it. They're telling him to go around Congress in order to have his WALL built. In fact, I do believe Lindsey Graham is advocating the declaration of a National Emergency. For those who don't know, the American Freedom Caucus is an all white, Evangelical boys club. Do you know what's going to happen if he declares a National Emergency? Well, I'm going to quote Dirty Harry. "Make my day."
