LONG WHINE - PART 1

Wednesday was not one of my better days.  I almost never go shopping because I do most of my purchasing online now, but, on Wednesday, it was time for Grandpère and me to make a trip to the nearby larger town.  First we went to cancel the internet service for our laptop at the phone store, because I was not successful either by phone or online in cancelling the service.  We learned to our dismay that our contract did not run out till September, so we'll be charged $90 to cancel. Still, even with the cost of cancellation and the cost of a router at $100, we'll save money in the long run, plus we'll have better service through our cable provider.

Our next stop was the electronics store to buy a flat screen TV for me.  Grandpère recently purchased a new flat screen, and, after several months of comparing the quality of the displays, I decided to ditch the old clunky set for a flat screen.  (No, we mostly do not watch TV together.)  The prices of flat screens are surprisingly low, so why not?  The purchase went without a hitch. Thank goodness.

On to lunch at a restaurant that offers an Italian buffet, with a discount for seniors, which Grandpère welcomed after all the money we had already spent that day  After lunch, we went to the large chain bookstore nearby. I have a discount card for the chain, and I stayed in Grandpère's truck to look for the card. He locked the truck, and went on into the store. When I tried to get out, I could not. The doors were locked and I couldn't open them.  I tried and tried with no luck, so there I was trapped in the truck.  I thought to myself "This is not possible.  Suppose the truck catches on fire."  I thought Grandpère would miss me and come to look for me, but he didn't.  He thought I was somewhere in the big store.

We both have cell phones, but Grandpère doesn't carry his with him, and, even when he does, he only turns it on when he wants to call someone.  If he'd carry his phone and turn it on, life would be so much less stressful for both of us in so many ways.

What to do?  I looked up the phone number of the bookstore and called and told the person who answered of my plight and gave her Grandpère's description and asked her to look for him and tell him to come let me out.  I waited and waited, and Grandpère never came, so I called back.  The woman said she had called for him, but no one came, and she was the only person working in that very large bookstore, and she could not leave the checkout counter to look for him. I sat for maybe half an hour, and finally a man parked nearby, and I waved to him and began to shout through the locked windows to ask if he was going into the store. He said yes, so I shouted Grandpère's description and asked him if he saw him to tell him to come unlock the truck. He found him, and I was rescued.  I wasn't in any mood to look at books, so we checked out Grandpère's book with my discount card, which caused all the trouble, and left.

The next stop (If we're going to shop, we try to do it all in one day.) was a home decorating store to buy curly maple branches to put in two vases in the living room.  Another easy success, and the branches have a nice minimalist look about them that I think is quite attractive, though I doubt everyone will agree.

When Grandpère told my son about my getting locked in the truck, he said it was impossible to be locked in a vehicle.  He came to our house later to check out the situation, and he was right.  There is a lock inside the truck that works without the key.  The problem was that neither Grandpère nor I knew where the lock was.  Now we know.

End of shopping but not end of bad day and whine.  More whine to come!