Rant: Why won't you let me hire you today?

One of the best tricks I've ever heard of, when dealing with car salespeople who won't negotiate with you, is to say "Why won't you let me buy a car today?"

I've just called the SECOND contractor recommended by a neighbor of mine, and both of them have actually DISCOURAGED me from hiring them to work on my house. I called the first one back in October, before the storm that necessitated a new roof and gutters on our house (although we didn't know that for sure until last week, when the SECOND insurance adjuster came out to look--the first one never turned in any paperwork on our claim, so it didn't get processed). Even before the storm, there was a leak in the porch roof, and when it rained, water poured down the kitchen wall. The woman I talked to (one of the business's owners), told me that they couldn't take "small" jobs like ours because they wanted to have time for the "big" jobs like tearing off and replacing roofs. While I understand that small businesses need money, and that half a day spent on a $500 job is half a day that isn't spent on a $5000 one, that particular contractor lost any chance at tearing off and replacing OUR roof as soon as she told me that. Because there was WATER POURING DOWN THE KITCHEN WALL.

And now this guy, whose job is presumably cleaning gutters, talks in circles about types of gutters and types of debris, etc. etc., until finally I figure out that what he means is "I don't want to clean your gutters." And I'm not asking him to, like, come out on Christmas Eve or anything; any time when the weather isn't bad, which is supposed to be the case for at least the next 10 days, would be fine. Wouldn't you think that winter would be kind of a slow time for guys who clean gutters?

Come on, folks: I just want a) the gutters cleaned; and b) the roof patched so that water doesn't pour down the kitchen wall. I want to pay you to do those things for me. Why won't you let me hire you today?

Top Five Things I Miss About Oklahoma During the Holidays

1. Number 1 has to be friends and family, right? Even if it weren't, I'd pretty much have to say it is. But actually, it is.


2. Utica Square.


3. Real bookstores, where you can get quality editions of classics for children and adults to give as Christmas presents.


4. The OCU Christmas concert. Do they still do Betelehemu? How about the a capella bird song? Sigh.


5. Braum's peppermint ice cream. The egg nog ice cream isn't bad either, but a little goes a looooooong way.

Have yourself a retro little Christmas

Susan has posted a nifty selection of retro gifts to ThisNext, one of the few social-whatever sites I find actually interesting and useful. (I also like del.ici.ous.)

I am so far behind in Christmas shopping--I haven't bought a SINGLE present yet. And one of mine has to be mailed to Australia! Which is why I love Australian online merchants. Of course, the year I sent chocolate that ended up sitting on the front step for several hours--and remember, in Australia Christmas is in the middle of SUMMER--wasn't so great. But overall, it works out pretty well to just go online and order something.

Yesterday's playgroup hostess had already done her decorating, and her house looked gorgeous. It's gorgeous anyway; slightly older than mine, with great Arts and Crafts details and amazing natural woodwork, a huge brick fireplace, and leaded glass windows. I have house envy like you wouldn't believe. I mean, my house has all those things, but they're on a smaller, kit-home scale. But what I envy the most is the playroom. The ENTIRE THIRD FLOOR is covered in indoor-outdoor carpet, with built-in storage and huge windows. It's the perfect place for 5-10 toddlers to run wild. Every Friday I come home and make plans to knock down all the walls in the attic and install carpet. But for this week, I think I'll settle for just getting my Christmas decorating done. Maybe I'll make some of these. Or, y'know, just buy some.

Makin' the switch

I'm about to switch over to Blogger beta. My impulse, actually, is to just delete this blog, but last time I did that, somebody else snagged the blogspot URL within MINUTES, so I'm not going to do that with a blog that has an identity I've used in comments on other people's blogs fairly recently.

But if I disappear without warning, you know why.

Useful links

This is really just to remind myself of the link, even though I've bookmarked it and posted it to del.icio.us:

How To File A Complaint about an insurance company in the state of New York.

Bor-ing!

This morning I read back over the last page or so of posts on this site and realized that they are really, really, boring. And also kind of long, convoluted, and nonsensical. Don't bother to protest out of niceness; I've had several blogs over the years and I know when I'm On and when I'm Off, and right now I'm Off. Mainly it's because while I used to have plenty of time to sit and cogitate about things and then write up a nice coherent post that had a POINT, now it seems like I'm always doing five or six things at once, and I think about writing about them, but honestly, who wants to hear about My Walk Around the Neighborhood or My Conversation With the Irritating GEICO Claims Adjuster?

I think I liked it better when I was posting household hints and cool frugal living sites I'd found, but I've got yet another blog that I set up specifically for that kind of thing, and then abandoned almost as soon as I launched it. Actually, I really hate the know-it-all voice I somehow assumed on that blog, but I couldn't seem to shake it, so I just left it in the dust with the rest of my deserted blogs.

And now I find myself wanting to end another long, convoluted post with no idea how to conclude, so I'll just say...

Catch ya later, maybe.

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Mr. Maus teases me a lot about how paranoid I am about the fact that we have no window treatments on some of our windows, which are very high (I have to stand on a stepstool to dust the sills).

"The only way someone could see in," he says, "is if they were standing RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW."

So today I hear a noise outside, and see a flashing light. I look out, and there's a guy in a cherry-picker standing RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW, working on the electrical lines.

Ha! Sometimes, it's not all in your head.