Columbine

So yesterday, i'd been looking forward to attending my first Home Depot "clinic," an hour long thing on energy efficiency. It's definitely an interest of mine and i was hoping to learn about some new products and maybe even more importantly, see someone demonstrate techniques in how best to use them.

So I drove over to the local Home Depot. I've gotten into the routine of clocking my mileage everywhere i go so that i can compare different routes to say, decide which is less miles, the highway or back roads.

So i know that just getting to Home Depot one-way was 10 miles.

Imagine my disappointment when i asked at the Service Desk where the clinic was being held, and she said, "Clinic?" There's no clinic today. There was one yesterday, and we're doing another on Thursday, but there's nothing going on today."

I told her that their website, www.homedepotclinics.com, indicated there was a clinic that day. She called the store manager over and he very nicely confirmed what the desk clerk had just told me.

I figured i must've gotten the dates mixied up. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened. So I left, and when i got home, i went back on the website, and now i really got annoyed, becus i wasn't wrong. The Home Depot website did, in fact, indicate that the energy efficiency clinics were being held not only Saturdays throughout October, but every Sunday as well, from 1-2 pm, at this store.

I decided to call my local Home Depot back, if only to tell them they should contact their corporate offices and fix the snafu. Could i have been the only person who showed up for a non-existent clinic?

I was lucky enough to get Jim back on the phone, the store manager i talked to at the store. He was still very apologetic and asked me if there was something in particular i'd been looking for. I wasn't sure he "got" why i was making a bit of a fuss (mainly, that i drove 20 miles for nothing, but also because they should really fix their website!).

He didn't sound like he thought it was especially important to do that, but maybe that's just what i read into it. So i let it go with him, but becus he just appeared to not think it was a big deal (maybe that was just his temperament), i decided to leave a message online with Home Depot's customer service. I didn't really expect much. Half the time online messages aren't even monitored, it seems.

So i was quite surprised to find a reply back this a.m. (so quickly!) from Home Depot customer service, apologizing again for the inconvenience and offering me a $25 gift card for my trouble. So, wow! I thought that was pretty cool. $25 could buy a lot of mouse traps!

On the squirrel front, i've been studying my new clothesline bird feeder with 2 soda liter bottles on either side. Still no signs of squirrrels there yet, which frankly surprises me. But i can see that the weight of the bird feeder, especially being filled with bird seed, pulls the clothes line down in the center and so the 2 plastic soda bottles strung on either side have slid toward the center as well and are touching the bird feeder. I'm guessing any squirrel worth his salts could simply hang or jump to the feeder without having to do the Slippery Soda Bottle Dance.

I think that if i can recruit more people to give me their empty soda bottles, if i threaded 5 or so on each side of the feeder (total 10 bottles needed) that would be a long enough length of slippery soda bottles so that any interprid squirrel could not bypass the soda bottles by leaping to the feeder.
So now i need to find 10 more bottles.

I may have dropped out of the No Heat contest, but rest assured I'm still here to cheer you guys on. There are still 16 official contenders. But to play fair, i think you really can't be using a wood stove, for instance, to stay warm while the rest of us huddle under piles of blankets.

Still NO HEAT:
Boomeyer - Missouri
monkeymama - Northern California
debtfreeme - Northern California
Ima Saver - Georgia
scfr - Texas
snoopycool - Florida
dmontngrey - Massachusetts
sevenofseven - Northern California
princessperky - Charlotte, North Carolina
Househopeful - Delaware
toyguy1963 - Ohio
Analise - northern California
Little gopher - Minnesota
Joan.of.the.Arch
canoineag - Denver
Buckeye - Ohio
Koppur - Massachusetts

Those who already turned on the heat:
Fern - Oct. 19
mbkonef - SE Pennyslvania - Oct 17
Creditcardfree - Oct. 15
Nancy - Oct. ??
MilehighGirl - Oct. 11
wyozozo - Wyoming - Oct. 10
Mech - Oct. 3 Massachusetts
ME2 - Oct. 3
myenglishcastle - October 1
homebody - October 1