And people wonder why I'm cranky

So, I had to take my car to the dealership the other day for a problem that was covered by a recall. As usual, I dropped my car off in the morning and took the dealership shuttle service to work. As the guy dropped me off, he asked me if I wanted to be picked back up at the same spot in the afternoon.

"Yes, right here," I said.

Along in the afternoon, I called the dealership to make sure my car would be ready, and to make sure the shuttle service would pick me up at the designated time and place.  Everything was all set.  At quitting time, I went down to the pickup spot.  A little background:  I work at what is called the "governmental plaza", with several municipal buildings in the same block on both sides of the street.  There is on-street back-in slanted parking (don't get me started), and there are always workers getting picked up/dropped off in front of the buildings in areas designated as "no parking".  I had asked to be picked up right in front of one of the buildings, where no parking is allowed and cars can pull in from the street to pick up or drop off.

So there I was, and ... no shuttle van.  And it was FREEZING out.  I waited five minutes, then ten, then called the dealership.  And got voicemail.  Helpful!

I waited five more minutes, and called again. "Where's the driver?" I asked.  "He was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago."

"The driver called," the dealership guy said.  "He said he's there at your building."

"WHERE?"  I said.  "I don't see the van, and there's nobody in the pickup/dropoff area."

"Oh, the van wasn't available, so he just took a car over."

"WHAT CAR?" I said.  Now I was getting ticked.  "There's thirty cars out here, and none of them are at the pickup spot!"

"It's a black Hyundai," the dealership guy said.  "The same guy that dropped you off this morning is driving.  He says he parked in one of the back-in spots so he wouldn't get towed."

"Okay, wait a minute," I said.  "(a), If I had known I was gonna have to pick the driver out of a lineup this afternoon, I would have taken a closer look at him this morning, and (b), what am I supposed to do, go car to car knocking on windows to see which one is the dealership's?  People get KILLED that way.  TELL. THE. DRIVER. TO. GET. OUT. OF. THE. CAR. AND. WAVE."

"Well," the dealership guy said.  "The driver says he's in the black Hyundai next to a brown Tacoma pickup."

JESUS FREAKING CHRIST I was pissed at this point.  I scanned the parked cars for a black Hyundai next to a brown Tacoma, found it, and stormed over to the designated car, which was about fifty feet away from where the guy was supposed to be and where I had been standing, and looked in, and there was the driver, listening to the radio and staring idly into space.  He had never looked ONCE at the pickup area to see if I was waiting there (I was).

Because I needed to get my damn car, I kept my mouth shut and accepted the ride back to the dealership. But THIS IS WHY I'M CRANKY, PEOPLE. Stuff like THIS.  SHEESH.

Good Boy Chronicles, Next Part

I stopped in at the rescue this afternoon to pick up some vaccines for my fosters and visit with Good Boy, only to find out that Good Boy was being adopted tonight!

The rescue screens potential adopters carefully, so I have no doubt he will have a good home.  It's just so amazing that this cat, who was once feral and homeless, will now have a happy, loved life.  Instead of taking refuge in sheds and garages, he will have a home!

I gave him some loving and told him good-bye and went out the door.  And I received confirmation a few minutes ago that he is now home with his new family.

Oh, stop it.  I'm not crying; YOU'RE crying.  :) 

Ten

First off, it was ten years ago today that the American Civic Association mass-murder happened here in my little town; it's the mass shooting that seemingly everybody forgot about. 

and it was also ten years ago today that I quit smoking. 

Number of cigarettes I would have smoked between April 3, 2009 and today, had I not stopped smoking on that date: 109,200. (!)

Amount of money saved:  $19,527.50. (approximately.  I'm terrible at math.) (Just to clarify: I smoked cheap cigs I bought on line. Had I been buying name-brand smokes at the 7-11, that number would have easily been double. And using today's cost-per-pack, you could triple that amount).  I used a figure of $3.56 a pack, since that's what my cigs cost at the time I quit.

When I quit, ten years ago, I surprised myself at the time.  I figured I wasn't "ready".  I supposed it would be my first attempt, out of many.  But I figured, what the heck, and I gave it a shot.  And to my surprise, it worked!


I always said that when I got my mortgage paid off, if I felt like picking up the habit again, I would, seeing as how my primary reason for quitting was financial.  But that was based on a couple of, as it turns out, false assumptions:  (1) that I would be in my 70s by the time my mortgage was paid off, and (2) that I would have spent the non-smoking years pining away for a smoke.

As it turns out, both of those assumptions were incorrect.  My mortgage will be paid off within the next few months (which I accomplished all by myself, without the help of my sister's estate - I've simply spent the past 10 years making a real effort paying down the mortgage), and I really, really have no desire to smoke again.

So here I am:  Ten years a non-smoker, and glad to be one. :)