when it rains, it pours

allen levine

Member
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12,340
Location
new york city burbs
not a rant, just a glimpse into a day of nothing but negative.

My son is coming over tomorrow early to reseal my driveway, but ofcourse, this constant rain, we cancelled that until july 3rd hopefully, we wont get rain for at least 36 hours.

anyway, I needed to get the sealer and a squeegee.

I don't like the HD near me, so off to lowes.

no squeegees, plenty of sealer, the man in the blue vest says they go like that, and snaps his fingers.
I ask, can you check the back or computer, nah, if they aren't there there are no more.
whatever, maybe if they sell like "snap" some idiot would order an extra box or two, what good is the sealer without a squeegee.
Onto the next store, the HD near me I dislike, but just for a squeegee, and ofcourse, what was I thinking, not a single one either.
Do you have any in the back I ask, the employee just grunted. Usual for this HD.
Ok, not discouraged, but now this is turing into a 2 hour trip for 12 dollar squeegee.
Next HD, nope, out of stock, can you check the back or stock, this isn't my dept look for (insert something he said).
Next, onto a hardware store that sells sealant, guess what, I got there, not only no more sealant, no more squeegees, they are coming in next order, whenever that is.


it seems the driveway squeegee to apply sealer is the most sought after item on Long Island.

There isn't one store manager, or stock person, that realizes that this time of year, a lot of people do it, and maybe, just maybe, order a box or two extra, afterall, it isn't perishable, and its not like its a 400 dollar generator.
Its a 12 dollar stick and squeegee. Get 3 extra boxes.

Finally, I just went to another HD, one further away, and just walked over to the manager who was standing in the front, and said, any shot you have a driveway squeegee for the sealer.
he said, sure, ofcourse we do, busy time of year for driveway sealing, Ill show you where they are.

I wanted to check his head for fever, this is so untypical of the local HD employees.

He then asked me if there was anything else he could help me with. What? is he for real? A dedicated people person actually willing to help someone in a big store? incredible. Nice guy, I thanked him.

so now Im a bit tired, sweating, its been over 4 hours since I started my journey.

got home, when taking the tar out of my truck, one of the metal handles snapped and scratched my truck.

Went to get the hand truck to roll them into the garage for now, the handtruck had a flat.

really? I took that handtruck out of my store, its been there before me, meaning its probably been there since the 60s, and its never had a flat.

So I schlepped them into the garage, and it was pretty hot and muggy yesterday, I was dripping, but happy to be done with this simple chore.
I put the last 5 gallon containter down and it caught the squeegee handle and the handle fell forward and smacked me in the face.
It stung, Ill live.
I walked over to shut the light in the garage/shop, one switch behind my lathe, and the freakiest thing happened.
The motor and box is behind and on the left side of the lathe. The light switch is on the wall in back, and I recently hung clamps up there, so as I reached around the clamps to shut the switch, not sure how, my thumb on my left hand got caught on the motor/box of the lathe and bent backwards as I was moving my hand fast.
it swelled up, Ill live, but it hurt.like a sprain.

had enough, nothing going right, so I decided to shower and call it a day.

On my way out 30 minutes later to get lunch, I noticed tons of bird poop on my truck, its parked under a tree.
I get the hose, and towels, its like cement, and clean the truck.
I go to step up onto the running board, my right foot slips and now I have a toe swollen also.
right foot toe, left hand thumb, face bump, and scratched my truck.

nice day.

I wouldn't dare turn on any woodworking machines after that, took the rest of the day off.

today was better.
 
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"Momma said there'd be days like that, there'd be days like that, Momma said"

Sorry to read this although it did make me snicker a little, no offense intended, you just wrote it well. The Home Depot that had the squeegee must have gotten the manager that use to be at my local one. All the employees had that attitude. He must have left thought because it is no longer like that.
 
Thank goodness some high paid wizard back at corporate made the decision as to what the store needs instead of letting that dumb old store manager that knows his customers handle things like that ;-)
 
Best I can figure reorders are by done by computerbased on number sold. When they don't have any stock then none sold. So extras can't be ordered because the SAP software says it's a slow seller. The first few years SAP software was used it's nickname was sorry about profits....

Sounds stupid but I really believe lack of stock in many national chains is due to silly inventory control software and management to scared or not smart enough to take charge...
 
Best I can figure reorders are by done by computerbased on number sold. When they don't have any stock then none sold. So extras can't be ordered because the SAP software says it's a slow seller. The first few years SAP software was used it's nickname was sorry about profits....

Sounds stupid but I really believe lack of stock in many national chains is due to silly inventory control software and management to scared or not smart enough to take charge...

I don't know, when I worked at Lowe's (about 6 months was all I could stand), I had a customer come in one day, asked me for some advice on a project... when I met with him, he had an empty cart... as we talked about his project, I suggested things he might need and by the time I finished, he had about 3/4 of a cart of stuff... the sales/customer service manager called my supervisor and said I spent too much time with a customer. ????

In my working career I was manager of a forwarding company... all I did was customer service for 40 years. I learned early on that the most important customer was the one you were talking to at the moment.
 
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