Thursday Turmoil

          Somedays you think it might have been better to stay in bed. Thursday was one of those.  I think shortages of employees caught up with us.

          For the past month my wife was working on a special cross-stich project as a gift to our new grandson.  She wanted it for his visit with us on Christmas Eve.  For weeks all her spare time was devoted to this project.

          This past week she worked day and night with the goal of getting it framed on Friday.  We worked late Thursday night to complete it and we finally did.  Friday we planned to take it to Hobby Lobby to have it framed.

          We arrived at Hobby Lobby when they opened at 9 am.  We were disappointed to learn that it couldn't be done before mid January at the earliest.  Only one employee was assigned to this job.  Last year he had four who were doing this but now he was the only one they could hire.  He said his daughter worked for the Framery and they were actually in worse shape with later promised completion times.

          Thankfully, he was very kind and agreed to cut out all the pieces needed to complete the project.  Now we need to struggle to complete it ourselves. This will be fun, or should I say a Christmas challenge!

          But our frustrations were just beginning.  When we tried to leave our car wouldn't start.  It sounded like a dead battery. We have been members of AAA for several decades and decided to use the service for which we shelled out big bucks for many years.

          We had our cell phone and began the call for service.  What a joke!  We got into their phone system and tried, unsuccessfully, for over 1,5 hours to get help.  But we couldn't reach anyone to request help.  Terrible service!

          Fearing the battery on our phone would fail, we called my brother-in-law and asked him to try and make the call for us.  He tried for 30 minutes before reaching anyone.  He gave them our information and they said they would contact us, which they did about 45 minutes later.  He asked them if they were busy that morning and the operator said no, they didn't have any calls for service.  Well then what were they doing?

          My brother-in-law decided to come and try to help us while we waited for AAA.  We tried unsuccessfully to jump the battery.  Then we decided that when AAA finally would contact us we would ask to be towed rather than risk anymore damage.  They finally did call and we made arrangements to be towed.  My brother-in-law and my sister took my wife home to wait for my call when the car was finally fixed.

          Shortly after they left the tow truck showed up.  He first tested our battery and determined it was bad.  He started the car and suggested that I drive somewhere to have the entire system tested.

          I went directly to Toyota.  They checked it out and said it was just the battery, which they replaced.  Thankfully, during the process I remembered that the dead battery had been purchased at Toyota.  They checked and found that it was and that there was 50% credit still available.  Thank you, Lord!

          But strike three still to go.  I have been working for weeks to prepare a family Christmas letter.  We decided that this year with about 150 contacts we would send it by e-mail whenever possible to save money.  No problem, at least I thought so.  However, I am working with a new computer and I couldn't insert the letter.  I struggled and finally I was able to use a pdf file to do it.  I saved it until we were ready to send it.

           So, Thursday I recalled the letter and surprise – the contents were gone! Where they went - I have no idea.  Now I am getting back to trying again.  If you do get our letter you may have to open a pdf, if you can.  So let me at least say – "Merry Christmas"- in case it doesn't open.