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12:47 p.m. - 03-21-2003
Cars, Houses and getting ripped at K-Mart
"Licensed to get pissed you mean."
I really wish someone would make up my mind. All this thinking is making my brain itch. Seems that now we're not going to be trying to move to the west like we'd thought.
Originally, we were going to try to get a house on the west coast of Florida because you can get a lot more land for a cheaper price and there's plenty of quiet, small towns to choose from. But, after finding out what we have to pay for income taxes and the fact that we'd probably need a sizeable down payment we decided to push that idea to the back burner and concentrate on getting a second car. We had planned on staying where we are for another year to save up money for a downpayment on a house as well. Ok, I can go with that. But, now the plan's changed again. Now, we're trying to get a house not too far from where we are now and we're going to try and do it before our lease is up. The wife has gone from wanting to get out of the city and move to a nice country home, to wanting a house here in the city. The house does have it's good points, though.
It's close to MonkeyBoy's school, closer than where we live now so a second car can be put on hold, for a bit. Plus, it's a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with lots of space. And, it's cheaper than half of the houses in the area that have one less bedroom and 2 less bathrooms. I have to be honest, I think it's a great find and I really really really hope that we can get it. I have a feeling that it's going to be tough though. With the bankruptcy and the forecloseure, we might have to jump through a ton of hoops just to get our foot in the door. It always works out that way. Back when we could barely afford it, we had mortgage companies throwing mortgages at us. Now that we can pay, no problem, we can't seem to get a peep from anyone. I'm sure we'll need some kind of downpayment for this house, but that's not what bothers me. If it wasn't for the goddamn income taxes, we would already have about $1500 that we could pay. But that, and part of my next paycheck is going to the IRS so there goes that. Our lease ends, I believe, the end of June, since we moved in the 1st of July, so that gives us basically 3 months to scrounge a downpayment. That's still a pain, though, because we have to also save to pay the rest of the taxes that we don't pay by the 15th and we need to start setting stuff aside for next year. Why does everything go wrong at once, but stuff goes right one thing at a time...and usually while other shit is going wrong. Oh well. I'll keep you appraised. I'm sure you're dying to find out what happens.
If we can't get this house then I'll be really depressed and upset. This is the perfect place for us. We looked around it the other day and it's really spacious. The biggest thing about the house is that it seems to be stuck in the 70's. The carpet in most of the rooms looks like something right out of That 70's Show and a lot of the light fixtures and cabinets are reminiscient of that era as well. But the house has this totally relaxed vibe. I felt really at home there. Also, all (or most, I can't remember) of the rooms have paneling. I just really like the place. We even figured out what room could be my office at home. I'd actually have a room to myself instead of an "area" where the kids run through all the time and stuff. That would be cool. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I can't help it, I just really dig the place. Keep your fingers crossed for us, eh?
I had to go with my father-in-law to K-Mart last night and haggle with the stupid people who work there. On the 18th, the wife and I were exchanging some shoes for her mother and we wandered around and I saw this really nice button-down twill shirt with 7 Time Champ and Dale Earnhardt's signature on the back. My father-in-law is a huge Earnhardt fan. So, I got it for him. Well, turns out that it's too big so he takes it back the next night, the 19th (Wednesday), to exchange it. The lady at the service desk tells him that she can't take it back because it's used. WHAT? Used? Yeah, she said it's used because it has lint on it. Lint? You have to be fuckin' kidding me. Lint. Well, he explains to her that all he did was try it on and when it was too big, put it back on the hangar and then buttoned it up just the way it was. He still had the receipt so it should have been no problem. Think again.
So she calls the manager of the menswear department and she looks at the shirt and says that they don't sell that shirt there. WHAT?! They go back to the menswear area and she doesn't see anymore hanging up so she says that they don't sell that shirt. My father-in-law is really getting steamed and he's been drinking so he's starting to go off on them. After finally getting fed up, he leaves and goes home. He wanted me to go back to the store with him, but I had to work so he'd have to wait. So, yesterday, after he gets off work, we head to K-Mart to return the shirt. The girl at the service desk is the same girl from the night before, she remembers him and remembers the shirt and tells me that they don't sell that shirt. I've got a headache so I'm already in no mood and I pound my finger down on the desk, pointing to the shirt and say, "I bought that shirt 2 nights ago from this store." She calls someone from menswear over. A minute later, this fat little black woman comes walking over and stupid service girl explains the situation to her. The lady from menswear actually remembers seeing the shirts before, but since she's not the manager of menswear (who said they don't sell that shirt) she can't authorize the girl to give me a refund. So, stupid service girl calls the manager.
Their big problem is that the shirt doesn't have a tag, I took it off because I was giving it to my father-in-law as a gift, and the receipt just said BADGE TWILL and no description so they were saying that there was no way to prove that what was on the receipt was this shirt. The manager comes over, looks at the shirt and says, "We don't carry that kind." I glare at him and tell him the same thing I told stupid service girl, "I bought this 2 nights ago from right back there (pointing to the menswear dept)." About that time, some cleaning people rudely interrupt us and ask him to open some fuckin' door. So, he asks me to wait and he takes our receipt and heads back to open the door for the people. While he's back there, he starts looking though the shirts. After about 5 minutes, he comes back to the desk and tells the girl that it's ok, give us a refund. Shit, people, you should know what the fuck you have in your store! I know I'm not the smartest person there is, but I think I can remember where the fuck I bought a goddamn shirt. Especially if it was just a couple of days ago. Fuck! Even though I got my money back and stuff, I was still pissed. Fuckin' people. They immediately assumed I was lying, didn't even give me the benefit of the doubt. Shit.
Well, that's enough rant for now. I've got to get ready and walk to MonkeyBoy's school and pick him up. Not looking forward to it either. I got more sleep last night but I'm still fuckin' worn down. Plus, it's fuckin' hotter than hell (yes, I do know for sure) outside so I'm going to be fuckin' sweating buckets when we get back. Oh well, guess I'll stop bitching.
