Rants of a Rebecca

I'm not a crook

Hi Itty Bitty Bins, and other non icons of the 1980's. I think I am in the clear now, the Police haven't been knocking on my door, no Private Investigators hanging around, no WANTED posters of me plasted anywhere. Yep, I think it is safe to tell you all what I did. I broke my bed. No that is not the thing that is worrying, but it was the cause of the crime. Now before anyone get's started, it was not caused by any "action" in the bed, it was simply a matter of after 12 years, the slats in my bed gave up the ghost. About six months ago, they started to creak, it was impossible to roll over in the bed without the sound of a jumbo jet landing in the room. It was also sagging into the middle, so that is where I spent most of my nights, afraid to move. So I did something about it, I moved to another bed, one of the single beds I have, and I only used the Saggy Baggy Creaky Bed when I had to use it. Then last weekend, I finally got sick and tired of sleeping in a single bed, and decided to reclaim my bed, by replacing the slats. There was much Bob the Buildering to do. So I went down to the local Hardware store, and purchased a measuring tape, this served three purposes.

1. The ability to measure how big my bed was, so I knew how long the wood would have to be.
2. To check out the prices of said wood, so I knew what I wanted when I went back, and didn't look like a desperate housewife, but someone who actually watches home improvement shows, and understands about wood.
3. To measure just how big my feet actually are, so I could blog something on the weekend.

So with measuring tape in hand, I blogged, then measured the bed, then went down to the big chain hardware store further down the road, because the local one I got the measuring tape from was a bit of a rip off I though, regardless of the fact I had no idea what I was talking about. At the, shall we call it "Big Hammer Store", or BHS, I had one of my finest moments. I saw a guy who looked like he knew what he was talking about, because he was carrying two measuring tapes, and asked about wood (The timber kind Andy.). He worked out what I needed, and filled in a docket, showing I needed 10 pieces of said wood, so I could go and pay at the check out. While this was happening, he would cut the wood FOR FREE, instead of the usual $1 per cut fee. He was kind enough to do this because I was wise enough to ask the question "How do you get it to the right size.", in other words, playing dumb that I didn't know what a saw was. Anyway, off to the check out I go, to make my purchase. While there some kid was screaming that he didn't want to leave the BHS, and I wasn't really paying attention to what was happeing at the check out, I just handed over my credit card, and signed where the X was. All in the self interest of getting away from that screaming kid, who was now screaming he wanted a blue bucket, not a red bucket. So with receipt in hand, I went back the the Woodsman, loaded the ten pieces of wood in my car, and drove up to the checkpoint, so they could see I wasn't stealing anything. I moved up to the gate slowly, the guard, I could tell this by the nailgun he carried, asked for my receipt, and checked the back of my car. After what seemed like ages, he handed back my receipt, and said I was free to go, yippee! So I got home, and fixed my bed, and what a joy it was to lay on that bed and not hear a single sound as I rolled around, then it occurred to me, I better check to see how much I had actually paid, so I could transfer the money back into my credit account. I looked at the piece of paper in total disbelief. The total price, for fixing my bed, and ending 6 months of terrilbe sleeping arrangements was $11. I had been so stingy not fixing my bed, for $11, that just didn't seem right, so I looked again, yep still $11. Now to me this seemed a little cheap, was the wood going to rot with in 24 hours? Then I saw the reason for the low price, I had only been charged for ONE piece of wood, not TEN! w00t! Nice going there, a 90% discount, I had ripped them off for $100, and I wasn't going to let them know. I figure, at the end of the day, the kid on the check out stuffed up, the Checkpoint guy stuffed up, so I am going to take this win and run. Needless to say, I've been sleeping very well ever since. So next time one of you goes into your hardward store, and you complain about the high prices, just remember, you're helping to pay for my bed, and I thankyou. Blog Out HooRoo Bec

posted by Rebecca @ 9/08/2005 09:24:00 am