Running a scam

I knew we were scheduled to have thunderstorms today, but I wasn’t really prepared for the rain.  It was pouring today, absolutely pouring.

I had a ladies’ luncheon to go to, just two doors down from my own home, and I was nervous that I’d have to walk in the pouring rain.  What’s that you say, I should have used an umbrella??  Well, I would have… if I had known where one was.  Living for four and a half years in Seattle taught me to simply have a hooded jacket available at all times, and today was far too warm for a jacket.  I don’t even fit into any of my jackets, anyhow.

Fortunately I managed to time my departure right in between two major squalls of rain.  Kurt got caught in one of those squalls and arrived him in a completely soaked uniform, which occurred as he walked all of ten feet to his car.  Poor guy.

After dinner, we decided to make a trip to Target.  It was still raining, only by then it had calmed down from a downpour to just regular rain.

On our way there, we saw the following:

Yes, folks, that is a sprinkler system operating in the rain.  I know it’s hard to see the rain, but if you look closely at the darker areas of the photo, you can see how the rain is slanting down from left to right.  You’d think the people in charge of that sprinkler system would have shut it off!  That looks like a waste of water to me, as the ground was probably already saturated by the amount of rain we’d gotten all day.

We’ve managed to get some awesome deals in the last few days.  Kurt decided that our living room air conditioner wasn’t draining properly, so he wanted to go to Home Depot to get some supplies.  Being as handy as he is, he was able to rig up a system so that the excess water is drained away through a plastic tubing, which is then attached to our down gutter.  We were going to go through the self-check, but then we realized one of the parts Kurt wanted didn’t have a sticker on it.  So instead we had the cashier who mans the self-check ring up our purchases for us.

The cashier didn’t really want to bother walking all the way back to plumbing to find out how much this plastic piece was, so he slipped it into our bag without charging us.  That makes sense to me, although I know it’s not exactly the way things should go.  He continued scanning in our order, but when he got to the coil of tubing that Kurt had picked out, he scanned it, exclaimed, “Six bucks??  That’s a lot for a family!” and immediately line-voided that item.  I didn’t really notice it till Kurt was scanning his debit card because our total was only $7, when it should have been closer to $13!  As we left, I checked the receipt and sure enough, the tubing wasn’t on it!

Good thing Home Depot doesn’t have receipt checkers, or else it would have looked like we stole those items!

Then today at Target, Kurt wanted to get a pair of loppers.  Our tree in the front yard hangs way down over our driveway and over the sidewalk.  Kids get whacked in the face as they ride their bikes on the sidewalk, and our van’s antenna gets caught in the branches every time we park in the driveway.  I know it’s technically not our job to trim our tree, but it’s easier than trying to wait for someone to come out and take care of it for us.  When landscaping was out front trimming our bushes, the man trimmed one or two of the bushes and then left the other bushes all raggedy looking.  Kurt had to call our property manager to ask the landscapers to return and finish the bushes.

Hence the purchase of loppers today.

Kurt said the loppers were all mixed up in the garden section, since it’s starting to come into the fall retail season.  (It’s sad that summer things go on sale in July, when we’ve still got August to get through!)  He found one pair he particularly liked with telescoping handles for the short members of the family, namely me, and he thought they were $20.  Even that I felt was a lot of money, but he convinced me that it would be a good thing to have.

Once we went through the checkout, I looked at our receipt and the loppers were actually $30!  ACK!!  I had Kurt go back to the garden section and get the non-telescoping loppers, since they were definitely $20, and we went to Guest Services to exchange them.  We explained what had happened, and Kurt mentioned how none of the loppers were on the right hook, so he had to guess at which pair cost what.  The man taking care of us was a supervisor, and as he listened to us, he decided that he’d give us the telescoping loppers for $20!  He felt that since it was the pair we really wanted, he should give us the cheaper price since the items were all mixed up on the shelves.

Score!!!

I’m not trying to scam people; I am just trying to buy what I can afford.  Maybe they look at my belly and realize we’re about to add another family member and they feel sorry for us.  I don’t know.  But it’s nice to have even a little bit of help!