It has been a long day with my assistant Sneedlet One. Bright and early this morning I dragged him to my hole-in-the-wall barbershop so that one of us, and hopefully both of us, could get our haircut.

At first, he was reluctant to give it a try. He just kept insisting that I take him to Supercuts. Understandably, the joint scares him. When I say it is a dump, I am not exaggerating. I don't know how long it has been at this location, but at least as long as I can remember. They are in the process of remodeling, but the effort is futile.

I finally told His Honor that I would take him to Supercuts after I got my haircut. Then, for reasons only he knows, he changed his mind and decided to give the place a try. In the end, he looks good and I never have to go to Supercuts again.



Back in June, I bought four of these solar lanterns at Costco for twenty bucks per. I put them on the retaining wall in the patio as sort of an accent and a bit of light. The lamps appear to be cast iron, but are in fact some kind of resin. I discovered the hard way the the color is not in the resin, but painted on it. After just two months, the paint on the top of mine was badly peeling.

When I was in Costco today, I asked one of the managers if they have had returns or complaints about the paint. She said no, but told me to bring them back for a refund, if I am dissatisfied. Since I didn't have a receipt, she said they would look them up on my purchase history.

I gathered the lanterns up and headed back to the Costco, where a young woman working returns politely informed me that (a) they had no record of me buying these lanterns and (b) they don't even sell them anyway.

Fortunately for me a manager happened by and was dragged into the ordeal. He took one look at my bedraggled lanterns and asked me, "How old are those things?" Exactly my point.

He sifted through the computer records of my account and verified that, (a) I purchased them in June and (b) Costco is still selling them. The thing that faked out the clerk was they are listed as bronze. My bronze was now a sickly gray.

In the end I got a full refund, not in cash, but in Costco store credit, since I don't have the original receipt. About ninety percent of my shopping is at Costco, so I guess it will work out okay.

Tonight the Lovely Mrs. Sneed, Sneedlet and I went to the movies to see Ratatouille. I took both Sneedlets to see the first half of the movie when it first came out. They were bored with it so we left early. We actually stayed for the whole thing, even though Sneedlet was ready to go at the three-quarters mark. Thankfully, he is in bed now and all is right with the world.












Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky