You may remember that I’ve said many times that when we have storms coming through the area, they usually split and go north and south of us by a few miles, leaving us dry for the most part. But the last two days we have had a couple of big storm systems roll through, bringing us a lot of wind, rain, and lightning. Monday we were out running some errands and the rain started coming down hard when we were about 1/2 mile from the house. We got drenched in the time it took to get out of the Explorer and inside. Of course, it didn’t last long and within a half-hour or so it had let up.
Yesterday started off cloudy and the weatherman was saying we were going to get a lot more rain. But he’s kind of like a used car salesman and you never know what to believe. As it turned out, he was right this time and we got rain all afternoon. Sometimes it was just a light shower, and then it would turn into a downpour with lots of thunder and lightning. Sometime around 10 p.m. the hardest rain eased off, but it continued to rain off and on most of the night. That was fine with me, our grass and trees sure needed it. The area is still in a rainfall deficit of several inches, so the more we can get, the better.
Thank you to everybody who posted comments in the blog or on Facebook, or sent messages and e-mails wishing Terry happy birthday yesterday. She read every one of them and they all meant a lot to her.
I told Terry that yesterday was her day and we would do whatever she wanted. She said as long as we were spending it together, she was happy. We started out by driving down to Lowe’s in Titusville to pick up six pieces of tile she wanted for the kitchen wall behind the stove. I prefer to shop at Lowe’s over Home Depot because they always give all veterans a 10% discount, not just on Veteran’s Day like Home Depot does, but I wasn’t too impressed with our experience yesterday.
We found the tiles Terry wanted, but we needed to talk to someone to see if we could purchase them as individual tiles or if we had to buy the whole box, since the signage was rather confusing. Of course, you can never find somebody when you need them, so I went looking and found five or six employees sitting together in a meeting where the team leader or whoever she was, was talking about customer service and how the customer was the most important person in the store, and she wanted to see her team talking to customers, not standing around talking to each other. I didn’t want to interrupt their little rah rah session, but it seemed like it was going to go on for a while, so I said “excuse me” and she held up her finger for me to wait while she continued to tell her people how important it was to take care of the customer first, and anything else could come afterward. So we waited about 15 minutes, and just before I was ready to walk out I found another employee wandering around who went and got somebody to help us. Yes, customer service is so important.
From there we got on Interstate 95 and drove north to Daytona Beach. In case you don’t know it, people in Florida only drive at two speeds, really fast or really slow. The ones driving really slow are always in the left-hand lane of surface streets, with their right turn signal on, doing at least 10 miles under the speed limit. The ones driving really fast are on the interstate, and they would put any NASCAR driver to shame. The speed limit on I-95 is 70 mph, and I was doing 75, with people running up on my rear bumper no matter which lane I was in. I bumped it up to 80, and then 85, and I was still being passed by people who apparently had someplace that they had to get to yesterday.
We made it to Daytona Beach in one piece, and our first stop was at Bass Pro to return an item I bought last week. The guy at Customer Service said that it was 10% off Tuesday and added that if I signed up for their MasterCard, I would get an additional 10% off on any purchases I made that day, not to mention my 5% veterans discount. I wandered upstairs and looked at a nice Browning over-and-under shotgun, but even with all of the discounts, I don’t think Miss Terry would have been too pleased with me laying out $1500 cash on a gun, even if it was her birthday.
Our next stop was Best Buy, where we spent a couple of hours looking at computers and comparing their prices against Amazon’s Prime Days prices. After doing a lot of research and getting advice from several people who know a lot more about technical things than we do, Terry decided to go with the Surface Book 3, which is a laptop computer with a removable screen so it can also be used as a tablet. We could have saved $10 with the special Prime Day prices on Amazon, but we made up for that by getting $13 off of a CD/DVD reader/writer and another $8 off of a Surface Pen. Now all Terry has to do is get everything set up and figure out how to migrate files from her HP laptop to the Surface Book.
While we were in Best Buy the rain was coming down hard, but by the time we were done there it had let up to a sprinkle. We had planned to go to Aunt Catfish on the River for dinner, but by then it was after 5 p.m., and when I called to ask if they were seating anybody or if there was a delay, they said we would have to wait about two hours for a table. No thanks, we’ll do that another day. Fortunately, our friends Tom and Diane Owen had sent Terry a $25 gift card for Red Lobster for her birthday, and she already had another $25 gift card from them. Since it was right down the road from Best Buy, we went there for dinner. The restaurant was not very crowded and the food and service were excellent.
Terry said she had forgotten something at Lowe’s earlier in the day so we stopped at Home Depot so I could buy her a shovel. Isn’t that what every married woman wants for her birthday? I didn’t ask, because I really didn’t want to know. But I was a little nervous when she started measuring me and then pacing off some distance in the side yard.
On the way home we stopped at Steel City Pizza and picked up a couple of slices of cheesecake to have for dessert later in the evening. And that was our day. Nothing exciting, but time spent together is always precious to us.
Thought For The Day – I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
The Home Depot here in Corpus Christi gives 10% discount to vets everyday as does the one in Show Low. .
Our Home Depot, in PA, also gives the Vets discount every day. My husband just showed his driver’s license, which has a veterans indicator. I can’t find confirmation of the offer on their website, so maybe it is just a local store customer accommodation. We just say, when checking out, “oh, can you please do the veterans discount?”
Sounds lovely. You are both lucky to have each other.
A productive and pleasant B Day experience based on Miss Terry’s wishes- Well Done sir.
Its interesting that the statue with the Pizza is the same 8 ft statue Bobs Big Boy restaurants chain used to place at the front of their entry’s – in lieu of a pizza in was a Big Boy Double Decker burger and a red and white checkered bib overalls.
I’ve always been partial to HD because I’ve returned things there years after I bought them… and still get store credit. Lowe’s, not so much. There, I’ve had them say “It’s ours, but we can’t take it back now.” Nick, I’m glad they take care of you all year though! BTW… I got the impression from your blog that West Point cadets qualify with rifles at the Academy. Is that correct or did I read too much into it? I had dinner last night with a USAFA grad, class of ‘79. He said that they got no firearms training when he was there.