Cheryl B. Dale's Blog: RANDOM MUSINGS, page 4

ESCAPE FROM REALITY

So after all the hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and threatened volcano eruptions, Las Vegas happened. Fifty-eight people dead and 500 injured. I want to cry.

Instead, I am taking a break to regain my normal equanimity by relating my latest experience with my favorite department store: Belk's.

A week or so ago, a relative found a great shirt in Belk's but couldn't buy it. Her birthday is coming up,so I went back later. As I was paying, the salesclerk asked, "Do you know you can purchase a second one at half price?" Upselling of course, but done in a friendly, no-pressure way. Just one woman imparting information to another.

As I thought about it, she went on: "Of course, if you want to come back Thursday, you can get 20% off your purchases for our Girls Night Out specials."

"Really!" But I'd got the last shirt in a small size. "I'm afraid if I wait, the shirt won't be here when I come back."

"That's true. Well, you can pre-purchase it today and pick it up Thursday."

I ended up pre-purchasing it and another for half-price, both costing a few dollars more than the original shirt. The last thing the clerk, holding up my bagged up shirts, said as I left: "I'm going to send this upstairs right away so it'll be sure to be there for you to pick up Thursday."

I went on Thursday to pick up my package. Another lady in line on the same errand made conversation as we waited. We agreed about how nice Belk's people were, always looking to save us money.

A pleasant male clerk took both our tickets, came back with the other customer's purchase. "I didn't see yours, but I'm going back to check again," he trilled.

Two other ladies came up. A female clerk took their tickets, came back out with their purchases. The male clerk conferred with her, then apologized to me for not finding mine. Both went back to look again.

Finally, they came out and the female clerk admitted they couldn't find it and apologized profusely "I don't know what happened. If you want to come downstairs with me, we'll check the register where you bought it. Maybe the associate got busy and put it aside and forgot."

I didn't think so, but we took the escalator down and looked all around the register where I'd made my purchase. The female clerk even went into the back room there but came out with nothing.

In the meantime, I'd looked at the shirt rack and sure enough. No small size in the one I'd come for, but the half-price one did have another small.

"Oh, is that the section?" The clerk brightened. "We have more upstairs. Let's just go back and see if we can find your size up there. Bring that one with you and if we can find a small in the other, you can just take them."

Nope. No small. After much agonizing, I got a medium. So I have a medium and a small shirt for my relative. But...

As I handed her the medium, the sales clerk said, "To make this up to you, I'm going to refund what you paid and charge you only..."

And it was such a ridiculously low price she mentioned, my eyes popped.

I protested but she insisted. She also took my phone number and name, saying that if my pre-purchase package turned up, she'd call and I could come swap the medium for the small.

The mix-up was annoying but the clerk more than made up for it. Now I'm going to have to give money to my relative to make up for what I didn't spend on her shirts!

There is some hope for our country when people present us with empathy and fairness and simple courtesy. I do love Belk's. That experience inspires me to go and be pleasant to everyone.




The first Belk in Monroe, North Carolina (called New York Racket). 1902.

PUERTO RICO

I couldn't think of a thing to blog about today. I'm still reeling from all the disasters hitting us lately. The damaging hurricanes hitting Texas and Florida. The deadly earthquake in Mexico.

But Puerto Rico's problems stand out.

The president has been busy campaigning in Alabama and arguing with the NFL and chastising his Health and Human Services guy Price for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on flights for business as well as personal travel. Obviously, the president has little time for Puerto Rico. Maybe because Puerto Rico speaks Spanish? Or maybe because a Trump golf course in Puerto Rico went bankrupt? Or maybe because he thinks Puerto Rico's a foreign country?

While he dithered, Puerto Rico suffered. I won't show a lot of pix on the misery people there are enduring, but I did steal this photo and caption from the AP (couldn't resist the cat):




In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 photo, Maribel Valentin Espino sits in her hurricane-destroyed home in Montebello, Puerto Rico. Espino and her husband say they have not seen anyone from the Puerto Rican government, much less the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since the storm tore up the island. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Things aren't much better today but I believe a nudge from Hillary Clinton steered the president in the right direction. He finally sent the hospital ship Comfort there and put in a three star general to oversee operations and waived temporarily the Jones Act that kept any but US ships from transporting goods to the little island. (A lot of US shippers stood to lose money; the fact that the devastated Puerto Rico would pay twice as much to get supplies didn't bother the shippers. Or the president either, evidently.)

If you want to donate to relief efforts, here is a page from the NY Times that lists charities and rates them. The first four seem to be the best buy for your buck.

Also, the Salvation Army is an old dependable, with a large percentage of its donations going to the intended recipients. Not only are they helping Puerto Rico, they are also there for the other islands hard hit by Maria.

And there is always the Red Cross. It's not one of my favorite charities, but it's been around a long time. Be sure to choose "Hurricane Maria" to direct your donation.

Let's all be thankful for what we have.

BARNES AND NOBLE

We had a Books a Million store on the mainland when we lived on our barrier island. Here, we have a Barnes and Noble. We went in this week for the first time. People were browsing around and drinking coffee and reading.  With my eye problems, I don't visit book stores much; I'd forgotten how much I loved them. A few pix:

Cafe at the back, looking through the books:


Entrance, looking through the books:


And a lot of lures for kids:






I spent too much time in this last section!

HURRICANE IRMA

Thanks to everyone who asked about us during the latest hurricane.

Irma came visitng up here last week, but by that time, she was a tropical storm. The power went out in lots of places, but we were fortunate. Trees fell on houses in lots of places, but we were fortunate. Rains caused flooding in a few places, but we were fortunate.

In fact, the only sign we've had a storm near us is this tree in the lake. (Or what's optimistically termed a lake. I'd say it's more of a pond!) That line of bushes at the back of the water is actually a tree that was on the right side but fell into the water. That's our closest damage and I'll certainly take it and be happy!


Last year about this time, we fled our little island before Matthew hit and came home to find, though lots of houses suffered, we had only a small tree on the house that left the roof intact. So our move this spring was especially fortuitous because this year, Irma inflicted a lot more damage on the beautiful islands off Georgia's coast. They say it'll take months to fully recover. And this just as the results of Matthew were nearly obliterated.

But we are safe and sound in our new north Georgia home. Oh, we lead a charmed life and are duly thankful!

CONTINUING EDUCATION

We have a continuing education program in our new town and they held a fair showing many of their offerings for members and prospective members to browse through. It was at the Mall in front of Sears where there is a nice court to set up tables. Nice crowd, I thought:


Anyway, there are all kinds of activities and groups for any interest.

Such as a photographers group for my guy. And I found a travel group where people can participate in trips--local, out of state, and out of country. There was also a bridge group, a poker group, and a pinochle group. I didn't take a picture of them but two or three ladies were sitting at a table playing Scrabble so I'd guess there is a scrabble group. And I saw a mahjong table, too, for those interested in playing. The music school offers teachers in different instruments; I have a friend who started back on the piano after years of not playing.

And here's a photo of the hiking table. The sponsor had a pair of hiking boots and other hiking paraphernalia on display but I failed to get shots of them. She encouraged me to join but I reluctantly(?!) turned her down, pleading house renovations.


Then here's a photo featuring men in Highlander costume, promoting the Robert Burns group. Naturally, they focus on Burns. They even have a dinner every year featuring Scottish songs, food, and Scottish dress. This day, one of the sponsors had his bagpipes and serenaded us a few times.


I confess I'm interested in the group that meets to eat in different restaurants each month. And there is an opera group I wouldn't mind checking out. And a lady who puts out a magazine looking for local articles...

But not now. We're still trying to get ourselves settled. Nice to know that we'll have things to do whenever we have time though! I'm just glad we took time to attend th fair!

EXHIBIT AT BOTANICAL GARDENS

We are still disorganized from our remodeling, but found time to go to an exhibit done by two of the photographers in my guy's new photography group. Chuck Murphy focuses on wildlife, including turtles, frogs, birds, and even snakes. Jena Johnson is an entomologist and focuses on--

You guessed it. Bugs.

This was the audience when we first got there.


And here is a corner of the display:


A closeup of an angry(??) bird:


Chuck did the presentation, to an audience that had grown so much chairs had to be added several times. (He joked that he made out-of-town family visit for support.) As he went into details about how he photographs his subjects, I was glad to learn they are all living creatures that were unharmed. If he catches them, he later releases them. Even the field mouse and snakes, all of which he relocated since they were in his yard!


And who could resist the cookies? They were an art in themselves! Yum!

BOTANICALGARDENS

The master bath is being remodeled and our contractor keeps shooing us off. "Gonna be loud," he warns before he starts to take out the tub. We hang around, wanting to see what he's doing. "Might wanna go out for a few hours," he hints. We gawk as he and his helper lug in tools. Finally, he says, "Maybe I should have got you movie tickets."

That sent us scurrying. No place to go so we decided on the botanical gardens. Here are my phone shots of some of the flowers in bloom there. Don't ask me what they are; I'm not a gardener.



























I thought this was a tomato plant but closer inspection tells me no. Maybe some kind of pepper?


I love this arbor view. You can't see them very well, but there are three peaked arches going up the hill.


And of course my guy had his camera. Here he's chasing an elusive butterfly.


His pix turned out better than mine, but all in all, an enjoyable morning. Sad to go back to my neglected yard, though. Makes me want to hire a gardener.

LOWES AND RUGS

Got the last of our stuff out of storage last weekend but we're still in a mess.

The previous owner put real hardwood floors through most of our new abode. Naturally, that means rugs. We went shopping and to my surprise, Lowe's had a great selection. That's where, in fact, we bought several.

This is a sample I eyed wistfully but my guy hated it. Don't know why. It's a beautiful baby blue.



This is one he liked. We bought it in ivory for the living room and entrance way.

.
Here you can see one of them, along with the hearth and a box of electronic gizmos still not unpacked. (Hey, we're working on it! We're working on it!)


And this one went into a guest room. You can see the edge of one of the beds.


I didn't know Lowe's had such a great selection of rugs along with other things, including moving cartons, hardware, ceiling fans, et cetera. They have really been our go-to place for our move!

I admit I've noticed salespeople hurrying off whenever we show up, though. Don't know what that's all about.

NEW GRILL!

We're so excited! Our new grill, lost in the ether somewhere, finally showed up!

Lowe's didn't have in stock the one my guy wanted, and so they ordered it. The grill department guy said they had four in Norcross and one would be shipped to our store within a week. Then they would put it together and call us so we could take it home.

Didn't quite work out as planned. After checking the day it was supposed to show up, we found Lowe's couldn't find it had been shipped. But no worries, the cheery woman in customer service said. She'd put in a note and when it showed up, they'd call.

A few days later, no phone call. We checked in again. A young man looked at the computer and shook his head. We needed to talk to the man in charge of that department. So we waited around for twenty or thirty minutes till we got to talk to him. He looked at the computer screen, thumped some keys, and shook his head. He didn't understand what was taking so long. It was ordered though. Definitely. When it came, they'd call.

We waited a few more days and checked in again. The young man in customer service we'd talked to previously, remembered us. (By this time, we'd dealt with him several more times, returning wrong sized blinds and also a ceiling fan with a clacking noise in the factory assembled part. That's besides us going in and asking where our rug was Lowe's had ordered. Of course, he remembered us!) He checked his computer again re the grill. Then he called an older gentleman over. This guy looked at the computer and shook his head. But...

"It looks like the order was put in wrong," the older guy said. He fiddled around on the keyboard, said the order was fixed and the grill should be in and get assembled shortly. They would call us.

Uh huh.

A few days later, we returned. A pleasant woman checked on the computer and frowned. Then she got someone else to check. This gentleman said the grill was supposed to be in the store but he couldn't find a inventory record of it. He went to the back to physically check and see if it was actually in the store. Some time later he came back with another man who explained: "The data saying the grill was in the store, really meant the grill has been ASSIGNED to the store." It was on its way, he said optimistically. And they'd call.

Sure enough, the next afternoon, we got a call from Brian. The grill was in and ready for pick-up! Brian had personally attended to assembling it.

I get the impression they never want to see us again.

But never mind. Soon my guy will be cooking!

CANOPY SHOW

We've been in the house for two days now, but still have lots of work to do. We're camping in the guest bedroom since renovation is due to start in two weeks for the main bedroom and bath. Somehow we found time to go to another aerial exhibition because a young relative was one of the performers. Her ambition is to join the Cirque du Soleil, but if that doesn't work out, she thinks her education should prepare her to be a physical therapist. Sounds like a sensible plan to me!

The entire show was based on a children's book, Juniper Gets Wet, by local author and artist. A little girl dams up a gully on a rainy day and makes a big ocean that she sails away on.

The man who did the illustrations read a scene, and then the aerialists performed to songs chosen for their references to water. Not sure, but I think this was the first scene: "It Had Been Raining For Weeks." The music was "Into the Unknown."


If I remember correctly, this picture represents Juniper's brothers and sisters who are tired of the rain. The scene is titled "The Books Had All Been Read" and it's performed to "I Can't Stand the Rain."


I think--and I'm not sure about this--this scene was when Juniper is washed away in the flood: "When Water Was All She Could See" and music was "Orinoco Flow"



Juniper comes to a stop in the scene "She Trekked Through a Lush Jungle" as we listen to "Welcome to the Jungle" and the aerialist performs with the ring.


After different scenes where Juniper meets a Princess (with a fun rendition of "Dancing Queen") and goes through a Room of Wonders, she keeps having adventures. This pole reached all the way to the ceiling and this shot was taken when the performer was about halfway up. The scene is "Sailed Through the Night" and music was "Chasing the Beat of My Heart."


This was one of my favorites: "Prepare the Submarine" with, naturally, "Yellow Submarine" along with "Deep Blue Sea" for the music. The two metal structures moved back and forth, depending on the performers' powering them.


So we did manage a fun outing despite being in the midst of our move. We needed a break. Very enjoyable!