A Terrible Saturday

Today was about the worst Saturday I could imagine. We went for a "quick" trip to Home Depot (as if that exists. Maybe I'd see a unicorn if I'm ever able to make a quick trip to Home Depot). It was a nightmare. First, they didn't have a single person working in the tool corral. We were there for over 20 minutes, and there was not one orange apron to be seen. The place was jam packed and nobody was working in tools. Finally, someone showed up. He knew nothing about the grinders we asked about, and when we asked him where shop vacs were, he didn't know what one was! I don't expect the average person to know that, but come on, the guy works at Home Depot! (BTW - a shop vac is a heavy duty vacuum cleaner for use on constructions sites and in shops).

We finally managed to outrun someone who worked there and find the shop vacs. The display was horrible. The models were mounted overhead so there was no way to handle them and see how heavy and cumbersome they were. That made it really difficult to decide which one to get. It was also impossible to match the display models with the boxes, and the signage was not helpful at all. To top it off, two little kids were playing hide and seek in the shop vac section. Their mom left them there and took off for about half an hour, and yes they were small enough to be abducted easily! It made me furious to see such carelessness, and Home Depot is not exactly a safe place for unattended small children to play. It made our shopping a lot more difficult.

We again got lucky enough to flag someone down, and he said "I don't work in this department, that guy does." He then points out the guy who doesn't know what a shop vac is! I asked him a quick question to get rid of him, and we decided to drive to Loews, which is an hour away. We got everything accomplished we wanted to, and even with the hour drive each way it was easier. This Loews is way out in the suburbs so they have fewer customers than our local Home Depot. They also have friendly, helpful, knowlegeable staff that, gasp, actually approach you as you shop to see if they can assist you. If only there was one nearer I'd never go to Home Depot again.

On the way home, we stopped off to buy sheets to cover our windows with. C is getting tired of the taped up newspapers. We started the day wanting to move our bed to a different, larger bedroom which is now ready for us to use. We didn't get to it even though we put in more than 6 hours of work today.