Why?

Oh, forget it. Why ask why anymore? Only a few hours left, and I won't have to bother with it (him) any longer.

But I must ask. I must. Why provide your e-mail address for lab/office communication and then never check your inbox? We have a meeting in half an hour. A certain someone, the bane of my summer existence, is nowhere to be seen, as usual. It's his last day and he's responsible for refreshments. He also should be here, period. I'm thinking, he has no idea that the meeting time was changed last week from noon to 11.

I dig out his phone number, thinking I'll be lucky to reach him, dial. . . I hear a sleepy "hello?"

This is the FIRST time I've ever received an answer when calling him. Jeebus. "Joey, you do realize that lab meeting is scheduled for 11 today?"

"It is?"

(As an aside, this is one of my pet peeves. When I tell you something, it's really annoying to be asked this question immediately following.) "Yes, Joey. Clay sent the e-mail last week to all of us, including you."

"I haven't been reading my e-mail, but ok, I'll be there."

. . . *sigh*

You know, I suppose I could have been a bitch and just left him to be an hour late. I could have done that. Somehow, I don't feel like that would have been the right thing to do. It would been just one more failure on his part that somehow would reflect on me. Of course now, I hear a couple of other people talking about how they ignored the e-mail. They're all asking me, "when's the meeting?"

I don't understand it. I just don't understand it.

All I need for that vacation I want is a photo ID and my birth certificate. Oh yeah, and some money. That's the sticker. Man oh man. I'm really tired of this "everyone else but me" feeling. Burned out.

Is anybody keeping an episode count?

Sears customer relations, this is Shaun.

Hi Shaun, this is Bronwyn R., we've spoken before about my lawn mower. I suppose I should just give you my phone number so you can pull up the records and see the whole story. . .

And so the lawnmower saga continues!

You claimed it was under warranty, and it's no such thing.

No, it wasn't, but the work was.

This is four times in the last three months. sigh

Yeah, it is, at my home - plus two service calls at the store. I'm thoroughly fed up with it. I've spent far too much time dealing with the problem. There's no reason for a Craftsman mower to be misbehaving this way.

The repairman they assigned to you on Saturday wasn't even a lawn and garden guy.

Oh, well, that was brilliant.

Yeah, it really was.
Look, I want my supervisor to be in on this, but he's out today. But *sigh* I'll be off tomorrow. Look, I'll print out all the notes and leave them on his desk. . . I'll have him call you tomorrow.

That sounds fine. I can try to find someone with a truck to help me bring the mower to the service center, but I'm not willing to bring it in, just to have someone tweak it again and send it back to me in the same condition. We've done that six times already, and I've reached my threshold of tolerance for it. I think you have, too.

Yeah.

And you know, since we moved back to the U.S., my family have spent more than $15000 with Sears. We've never had such serious problems with the company before. I'd hate to see this sort of thing sour us. Craftsman is a great company, and its mowers should last 15 or 20 years. I want a mower that will satisfy that tradition.

Well, I agree, we'll see what my supervisor says.

I thank you for your help, and I look forward to hearing from your supervisor. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

And so, we wait and watch the grass grow.