My phone chimed indicating a text so I pulled it from my pocket to check it.
‘I’m heading for Loew’s to pick up some supplies. Do you need anything?’
It was from Kathy and she meant Lowe’s – the builder’s supply place. I was working on my cabinet doors and although I had measured several times before cutting, still managed to screw up and make two doors too small. I figured it would be easier to call than text.
“I need two pieces of 2’x4’ birch plywood. Three-quarter inch,” I said.
She delivered it to the house when she returned and about a half hour later, realized I’d screwed up more than two doors and would need two full sheets of plywood. Damn. I called her back.
“I need that receipt. I’m going to return what you got me and get two full 4’x8’ sheets,” I said.
I rode my bike the short distance to her place. She handed me the receipt and loaned me her SUV so that I could pick up the material. I also had a Lowe’s gift card for $50, so the return, the purchase should be a net zero.
I went to Lowe’s carrying my wood to the Customer Service desk to conduct the return. I pulled the receipt from my pocket when my turn came.
“This receipt is from Home Depot,” the clerk told me.
“Umm…is there two pieces of birch on it?” I asked…confused.
“Yup,” she said while scanning the tag on the wood. “It’s the same price here as there.”
We agreed that she’d let me return the wood to them even though Kathy had actually been at Home Depot and so I went to get the wood I needed. I called Kathy as I walked.
“At any point did you notice that everything in the store was orange (Home Depot color) and not blue?” I asked.
She was sure she’d been in Lowe’s and suggested maybe I had an old receipt in my pocket that just happened to have an identical purchase on it. “Maybe the Lowe’s receipt fell out of your pocket and is in the car?”
This seemed almost impossible, but she had me thinking. She called back in several minutes to admit she had in fact been in Home Depot.
“I’m such a ditz,” she concluded.
Ya think?
I brought my new purchase to the Customer Service desk and went over what had happened with the new clerk. She scanned my return and said, “$34 for the return.”
Now…it had only been five minutes since I’d walked in the store and come to this same desk and the wood I was returning was scanned at $54 – their price being the same as Home Depot’s. I said this, but she was adamant.
“Well, I guess I’m going to Home Depot then,” I said – and did.
I did my return and took my new purchase to the SUV, which I’d taken the time to measure before leaving to be sure it would fit in the back only to find that while measuring the interior and finding it over four feet wide, I’d failed to measure the back gate – the way in which I’d have to put the wood into the vehicle – and regardless of how I turned and angled the wood, it wouldn’t fit in.
I took the wood back into the store and had an attendant rip the sheets into sizes that would fit in the SUV before finally loading and heading home. A trip that should have taken me 20 minutes took an hour and a half. Ah…the beauty of home improvements.
Because I took all that time to correct a screw-up, I ran out of daylight to ride my bike, which killed me. It was 60 degrees and sunny and I was dying to ride up the closed road Dakota and I had investigated on our 8-mile hike Friday. I’ve been looking for a way out of the valley and Everrett Road, now closed due to a lack of use and poor condition, seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was steep and long and went right through a very scenic, forested stretch of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, leading to country roads that I relished for longer rides. Well…it wasn’t going to happen but I consoled myself with the knowledge that the forecast for the next two days was sunny and warm enough to ride. Maybe tomorrow…
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