Spite

Well, a happy Sunday morning to everybody out there.  The weather is kind of not gorgeous, but nice.  We're supposed to have clouds on and off throughout the day.  Temps are to climb into the low 80s (F).  It would be a nice day to get a little yardwork in... if only I didn't have to work.

One really nice thing about these not so hot temps is that I've yet to turn on my Central Air.  Clean Sky Energy (my electric provider) is probably not too happy, but then my belief is that utility providers should not be in the business to rake in the big buck.  Wall Street, however, thinks differently.  Well, to hell with Wall Street.

Retail was slow yesterday.  We have hundreds of bags of mulch, probably 200 pallets, that have not sold.  This was another big mistake by the orange home improvement retailers I work for, and because it doesn't spoil, much of that mulch will be sitting in our parking lot next spring, waiting to be sold. Not that corporate cares.  The cost for all of that mulch comes off of my stores bottom line, and it was our responsibility to make sure every bag sold.

I did have some customers show up yesterday and say, "hey, remember us?" to which I replied, "no."  I think with an inner monologue most of the time, so picturing faces and remembering faces is not something I do well.  This doesn't mean I don't remember people, just that I need to spend a lot more than half an hour with them for their features to imprint.

And then there's this:

The Orange Anus was convicted on 34 counts of shit-doery and the Republican party has decided to splash spite all over America.  In case you hadn't heard, there are 8 Senators who are now refusing to advance any bill, any nomination, in fact anything going through the Senate.  While this may be titillating the hell out of their grudgeful base, America is watching, and remembering, and this November America is going to go to the polls.  When they lose their elections, they're going to whine and complain that the elections were fraught with fraud.  They will stick to that lie because it's the only thing that keeps their dark, little hearts beating. Trump will continue to kill the Republican party long after he's out of the picture.  This is their own doing.  Perhaps they shouldn't have been so desperate to say "Shut up!  We're in charge!"

ηλιοτρόπιο

I guess today should be called my mini-hump day since I'm in a 3 day work week.
Yesterday, work was slow and boring to begin with but then, about 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave things... got hectic.  One of my customers with an expensive carpet install showed up... and did some minor changes... and signed up for a credit card.  The other 2 specialists were busy with customers of their own, and then another customer showed up, and another, and then a customer wanted blinds cut
 Oh, and we have a customer with a flooring issue:  three of the transition strips they need for her doorways have yet to be delivered.  For fifteen minutes I listened to her non-stop complaints about how her daughter had warned her we were going to be slow, how she can't have guests over because they've moved the island out of her kitchen, how she's a clean person and can't deal with the mess, how she's spending all of this money and wants the job done now.  There's only so much we can do.  We don't manufacture this product... somebody else does, there's nothing we can do if they're waiting for materials.  So, I patiently listened, and apologized... and didn't that whiny woman call back 6 hours later and go through the same song and dance with one of our Assistant Managers.  She is one of the Entitled Ones who is only patient as long as things are going her way.  Her demands are always framed in whines.  In the end they will probably knock a couple of hundred dollars off of her charge, not because it's the right thing to do, rather they'll do it to shut her up.  She is a lot like the Idiot Jerk in the White House, who feels she's owed.
Anyway, because I didn't get home till late, I didn't add any mileage to my challenge.  I did, however, print off  Greek alphabet so I know what their letters look like.  Now when I look at a word, I know what the symbols stand for, like the English 'p' is actually the Greek 'r.'  Interesting.
Oh, and I planted ηλιοτρόπιο  (sunflowers) this year... and they're black.

I will save seeds and plant them again next year.

Stupid people

Sometimes I have to deal with stupid people.  I often wonder what is going on in their heads since logic seems to have abandoned them.  I had woman come up to me yesterday with an emailed receipt on her phone from a purchase she had made several months ago.  Standing in front of the same type of vinyl flooring she had purchased, she told me she wanted me to match the price.  You see, she had purchased that vinyl when it was on sale... several months ago.  Since her original purchase, the price had gone up .24 cents. 😂🤣😂  She could not understand why I could not match that same price, in fact, she grew irritated.  I told her everything goes up in price.  I laughed a lot after she left.  Not only did I laugh, everybody I told laughed as well.  I'm still laughing.
Then there was the gentleman who asked for a lot of help purchasing tile, and thin set, and grout.  He's going to be installing a tile floor in his dining room.  He asked for advice the best information I could.  Then, as he was leaving, he asked about getting one of our credit cards.  The love when customers get our credit cards - they tend to buy more.  After he asked about the card, he told me that he had just lost his job last Friday.....   Think about it now.  Stupid?  Sure, he's going to be getting unemployment for a few months.  And in PA you can work part-time and still get your unemployment.  But, if you're not working, it's not too wise to take on an expensive project - like installing a tile floor.  Like I said, I deal with stupid people sometimes.
And I'm not going to mention the moron who wrote that the Idiot Jerk's political career was hanging on how well he handled Florence.  At this point nothing is going to save his neck.  In this country, Democrats outnumber Republicans, by a lot.  That's bad for the Idiot Jerk.  He and his Evangelical junkies have done nothing but piss of Centrist and Independent voters.  They don't understand that when they say "my way, or the highway" we"re going to kick them out the driver's seat and out of the car.  Stupid.  People are so stupid.
They fed us yesterday.  We're getting fed again, today.  Food is good.  Today's forecast is... cloudy, and Florence begins to turn north.  She's going to pick up speed now as she pisses away what's left of the tropical moisture she stuffed herself with.  Supposedly we're only going to get about half an inch.  We will wait and see.
Finally, I Googled 'stupid' to get some pic for today's blog and, I kid you not, my screen filled with picture after pictures of the Idiot Jerk in the White House and his ilk... or spawn...   Evidently their family portraits have now become synonymous with "dumb fucks."  This one I think really hits the stupid nail on the head.

Phonies among us

Well, it's Tuesday.  This is my 6th day working.  I'm off tomorrow, won't that be nice?  And Thursday!
So back on Sunday I had this young couple come in, they're going to be selling their house and want to new carpet installed.  She was all about how they wanted to make sure the new home owners had decent carpet, not top tier, but definitely not bottom of the barrel, and they want to take advantage of our free installation program.  After looking around, they settled on a cheap $1.00 per square foot carpet (bottom of the barrel).  Padding was supposed to be a nice, medium grade... and, of course, they went for the cheapest we sell.  For some reason, when I did their estimate, they were charged an installation charge.  They didn't like that, so we said we'd try and figure out why.  Yesterday she called to see if we'd found out why our estimator was including the charge, and she was all rancid, honey sweet, saying things like "That carpet color is just perfect with our paint," and "That texture would really pop in our living room," and "I know this is upsetting for you," and... well you get the picture.  She's a phony sack of shit.  They're going as cheap as possible.  I know why they're getting an installation charge:  normally that carpet is a lot cheaper.  The price was raised so customers could use it for the free installation... and there's a slight glitch.  The estimator still qualifies it as being too cheap.  Today I'll call her and tell her the truth, though I won't tell her she's a cheap sack of shit.  Oh, and to make her phoniness even worse, she ended her phone conversation by saying "and you have a blessed day."
Oh, and today there's also a special election out in the western part of the state to replace a Republican scumbag.  Evidently the Republican, some phony named Saccone, is lagging in the polls.  How desperate is this phony?  Well, he's starting ripping whole chapters out of the Roy Moore play book shrieking things like my opponents hate the Idiot Jerk (so true), they hate families (??? I know Republicans hate Muslim families, and interracial families, and same sex families, but Democrats and Independents don't), oh... and the hate God.  Can you smell the desperation?  We'll have to wait and see how this plays out.
And finally, for a bit of levity, if you haven't seen the Betsy DeVos interview done for 60 minutes, you really should, just for the hooting hell of it.  This woman is dumb as a fucking brick.

Money can't buy you intelligence, nor can it keep you from being a phony.

Dig This

So, yesterday I go down to the Service Desk to check on returns and I see this, a shovel in a cart.  A shovel that some moron returned.

Look closely.  You'll see that it's broken into 2 pieces.  If you look very closely you'll see that this shovel has been heavily used, and... some scumbag customer returned it to our store.  They did have a receipt, mind you, from a shovel which had been purchased 2 days ago.  I suspect that might be when this shovel was broken.  Anyway, yesterday this scumbag, using that receipt, returned the broken shovel.  And some dumbshit at our Service Desk processed the return.  Oh, and in case you are wondering, this scumbag customer didn't do an 'even exchange' they wanted their money back.  The fact that there are people who are reprehensibly dishonest bothers me, but that fact that some nimrod at the Service Desk didn't just out and out refuse... well, let's be honest, that person should not be working for us.  That clerk gave someone a free shovel.
Since I'm no longer in a position of authority, all I can do is piss and moan here.  Were I able to, the clerk who did this would be documented for their sheer stupidity.  People don't seem to understand that when you do returns like this you set a very bad precedent.

A cut below honesty

So, yesterday I sauntered over to the Returns Desk to see what our lovely customers decided to bring back for a refund.  For the most part these Returns are valid; they bought too much, realized the project was more complicated then they realized, or there's actually a problem with their purchase.  However, about 20% of the Returns are the result of customer stupidity.  In the winter, they bring back paint that's been frozen and tell us there's a problem with the paint... yeah, you let it freeze and now it looks like cottage cheese.
Yesterday a "customer" returned some blinds... real wood slates, saying they were too short.... and they were, I'm certain.  You see, we cut blinds for customers, and those cuts are dependent upon the dimensions the customers give us.  This means that if the customer measures the width of his window incorrectly, thinking it's 29" rather than 30 1/2", we're going to cut the blind too short... and they're going to return it because... well, we cut it wrong.  However, yesterday's customer was really special.  Her blind was cut way too short, and just didn't fit.  And, of course, she didn't want to exchange it for a blind that fit, she just wanted her money back.  When I got the blind back to the department, I opened it up and 'Voila!' it was cut too short.  The problem was that we didn't cut it, the customer did... with a circular saw.

Can you see that black, angular streak, that's where the friction from the saw blade started to burn the wood.  And this customer made 2 separate cuts, one from each side, you can see that because there's a 1/8" ridge next to the char mark.  So, the customer screwed up, and then returned the blind because they screwed up, and had absolutely no problem with no problem in doing so, without understanding that by doing so, they were putting themselves a cut below honesty.

Two days till Christmas

In just two days the 2015 Christmas season will be over, well, almost over.  Sure, on the 26th people will be returning the gifts that don't fit, or that they just don't like, and, of course, they'll be out spending their Gift Cards since that's what Gift Cards are for.  Over all, I'd have to say this wasn't a bad Christmas, at least in the retail market I work in, home improvement.  And it started with Black Friday.  This year we did not open early.  Face it, no one rushes out on Black Friday to buy a refrigerator, or a stove, or to have a deck designed.. it just doesn't happen so there really was no reason to open our doors hours early.  This year, they didn't relentlessly play Christmas music, only on weekends when the aisles were full of customers which was nice for associates who've listened to the same music year after year after year.
This doesn't mean we still don't get bad customers, however, though I can say this year we had very few come to the paint desk.  Well, there was this one woman who had bought a faucet at our store on the East Shore and returned it to our store ten minutes before we closed, and, of course, she didn't have her receipt, and to our chagrin, the credit card she'd used to pay for the faucet was inexplicably not letting us pull up her purchase information, which meant we needed to give her store credit for $86. I got to deal with her when she decided to purchase some caulk and just couldn't find the specific caulk she needed.  She took 2 tubes and I went back to stow my apron since the store was now closed.  And, of course, when I left the building she was at the register complaining loudly because she was trying to use her credit card to pay for her purchase, you know, the one that was inexplicably not working, instead of the store credit she received.  HHHmmmm
Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with a picture of what looks like an insect.  This is what happens sometimes when we tint paint.

Nifty ain't it?