I'd Never Left But Now I'm Back

I do apologize for being out of pocket for as long as I was without leaving word. It was just one of those things that sort of happens. I would plan to write a blog entry and then get caught up in other stuff and when I again had the thought to write it would be too late in the evening. The same sort of thing happens when I should call my mother - lots of good intentions but an equal amount of falling down on the job.

Let's get y'all caught up on the goings on in this joint.

Wheelchair - The saga seems to have finally come to an end. Naturally we had to call the medical supply company to get someone to pick up the chair and the lady B spoke with said she couldn't find a record of his old push wheelchair. Not surprising since he got it in about 1992. The lady said she'd call back after she found the record. The next day when I wasn't home B got a call from a guy who was a salesman for that company for many years and who B used to have all his dealings with. The guy called to say that he saw an order for the company to pick up his electric wheelchair. Egad! Do these people get anything correct? B told him of the screw up (this guy is now some sort of middle manage for the medical supply company) and the guy said he'd expedite an order to pick up the old push chair. And they did. Of course they didn't pick it up before the salvage company canceled two other appointments with us but it's now gone. And Middle Management Guy that B knows wants to come over for coffee and a chat. Believe me fella - it's going to be some chat.

Television - We got a new one. B has been wanting a new TV for over a year now and he'd been doing research online since before Christmas to find the right TV for us. When the new line of Sonys came out in Germany in April, B could not wait. Our local electronics stores didn't have them yet and when they did, it was my job to go down and buy one. I am the sort of customer salespeople love. I don't want a demonstration, I don't want you to tell me about the features. Just write me up a sales ticket, schedule delivery, let me pay and you can start counting your commission. I scheduled a delivery for the next day - sometime after 2:00pm. When it wasn't delivered by 6:15pm B started to panic a bit and called the store. They said they deliver until the store closes at 8:00pm and our TV was definitely on the truck. When it got to be 7:50pm the panic started again and once again the store assured us that we'd get our TV that day. The delivery guy arrived about 8:30pm and about had a stroke when he saw that he was by himself and would have to haul out our 100 pound old TV on his own. The salesman neglected to say on the delivery request that we had a big-ass TV even though I specifically told him we had a big-ass TV. Still the delivery guy got the old TV removed, the new one set up and even though he wasn't required to do anything more than plug in the TV and see that it came on, he hooked it up to our pay TV decoder box and our DVR. Even figured out why it wouldn't get sound through our pay TV service. The guy spent an hour messing around with it and absolutely earned every single cent of the nice tip I gave him. And B called the shop the next day to praise the delivery guy and the nice lady who was very patient with us when we called in a panic. Yay Saturn in Magdeburg! You're rock-a-licious!

And the television? Top quality. Both B and I have been staring at it like a couple goobers saying repeatedly "Look at that picture. Would you look at that picture? It's fantastic!"

Birthday - B celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday. He's having a little trouble believing he's 50 years old because it just sounds so old so I take that opportunity to remind him that there was a time, his 25th birthday specifically, when people, himself included, thought it would be his last birthday on this earth. We had a nice party for him. Friends and family came over for cake and coffee in the afternoon which soon changed to drinks and dinner and then drinks and snacks. Lots of Jägermeister and beer was consumed but I limited myself to one glass of champagne. I don't do well being a hostess when I'm toasted on Jägermeister. The next day B's aunt and uncle came for coffee and cake which just stayed coffee and cake. They also brought with them some photographs B's uncle recently found and scanned. Some were of B from when he was about 5 years old and there were some from about 1974. At that time B was in the midst of growing his hair long and in the photos it was at the length where it made B look like Prince Valiant. It cracked me up to see them but it also choked me up a bit. Seeing B standing or holding something in his hand is something I've never seen him do and seeing it in a photo gets me a bit emotional.

And The Rest - Friends of ours gave B a beautiful orchid plant for his birthday. Shall we now take bets on how long it'll be before I cause its untimely death? I drove my MIL home this afternoon and noticed that sometime between Saturday afternoon and this afternoon somone had taken a nail or key and had scratched down the length of my car from 2/3 of the length of the passenger door to the tail light. I shit you not - if I ever found who did that I'd snatch his balls off like a paper towel. And finally, it's just now after midnight. My windows are open. And for some reason it smells like schnitzel and French fries outside.

Good grief. How could I have gone over 2 weeks without filling you in on tidbits like that?