One of Those Weekends

It's been one of those weekends where things just don't go smoothly. And they don't just not go smoothly, they tend to go badly or plain old weirdly.

Earlier in the week, I happily popped online and booked a hotel room for this Monday in Niagara Falls. All was well, I was excited.

As the week progressed, we were taking care of all those little pre-trip things that need to be handled, like making sure the van is all ready to go. We've had the van for eight years now and I've been noticing for a little while that the wheelchair lift sags a bit when I'm on it, so we thought it wise to take it in and have it looked at.

Dad took it in on Friday. He sat and waited for a couple hours before they came out and told him everything looked good. Making sure, Dad asked if they had checked the hinge pins, which hold the lift level and steady. They went and took a look, stating that they should be good for another one to ten years. Having seen how it sags, Dad wasn't convinced, so they offered to remove a pin so he could get a better look.

Upon removal, the pin broke, rendering the lift useless.

Of course, they had none of those pins in stock, but they could order them and have them shipped on Tuesday. Installation would be $700. Dad raised a bit of a fuss and they came down to $400, at which point he got in the van and left.
(Further research revealed the pins to cost only $30 a piece.)

Having worked in a steel mill for thirty years, Dad resolved to fix it himself.

So, I've been nervous about whether or not that'd be fixed or if the trip would be canceled. To add to it, Friday was the last day I could have canceled the reservation without having to pay any fees.

Later that day, we ended up stumping the phone repairman. We just upgraded our phone, internet and TV services with a package deal a few weeks back. Earlier this week, our phone service stopped working right. While still able to make calls, we haven't been able to receive any. They were finally able to get someone here, but after much troubleshooting, he concluded he had never seen an issue like this before. He said the source of the problem wasn't on our end though, and it should hopefully be fixed by Tuesday.
Seeing a pattern here?

Things got relaxed as the evening came and brought game night with it. Corey and Eric came into town for some early birthday fun and Mikey joined us. That's when the surprise came. Everyone secretly chipped in and got me an XBox 360 for my birthday. I'm still surprised and it's Sunday now. Thanks again, guys!
For the rest of the night, we played Rock Band. And we ruled.

Eventually, game night came to an end. Mikey was the last to leave, taking off a little after 1:30 AM. A few minutes later, Mom and I heard the whooshing sound of a car speeding down our street. From the sound of it, he was easily doing 60 or over. Then came the series of thuds.
Mom immediately dialed 911 and ran outside.
At some point during the swerving of the vehicle, one of the tires blew out. Out of control, the car jumped the curb, roared across three lawn, and crashed into the side of an empty house, maybe 7 or 8 houses down from our own. A few minutes later, a police officer handcuffed the driver as he was loaded into the ambulance and taken away.
Word is that there were no skid marks, so the guy didn't even attempt to hit the brakes.

Definitely one of those weekends.

Now, to end on a lighter note, Dad and his buddy Jimmy were able to fix the lift earlier today. Trip's on.

One Bad Apple

So, my beloved iBook died on me last week. It's happened before, but it's never been a big deal, I'd take it to the Apple Store and my extended protection plan would cover the cost. Simple as pie, right?

Not this time.

It's now become clear to me that though I love Apple computers, I hate the Apple Store.

Last Friday, the day after the iBook crashed, Mom and I drove up to the Apple Store to get things sorted out. Upon arrival, an employee of the store helped us sign in for an appointment at their self proclaimed "Genius Bar."

We waited paitiently as time passed. A seemingly endless amount of customers were called up to get their problems sorted out. 90% of the problems came down to people not knowing how to work their iPod they got for Christmas. One lady's big dilemma was...I kid you not..."How do I charge it?"
Are the instruction booklets that complex nowadays? I recall mine quite simply instructing me to...y'know...plug it in.

Time began to drag. Two hours had passed. We decided to ask if it was getting close to our turn. Turns out we were somehow put on a standby list, so basically if everyone else decided to leave, they'd call me up. Fantastic.

One of them had seen us waiting and knew they had messed up, so he snuck us up there a few minutes later. He tells me my logic board is a goner and needs to be replaced. $300 and 1-2 weeks.
I just had my logic board replaced last year. Apparently a bunch of the logic boards they made were defective, so they replaced them for free. Kind of odd that my defective one lasted longer than its replacement.
I asked if my protection plan covered this and found out it expired in August. I argued that I renewed it and was told it doesn't go beyond 3 years after the original purchase.
Wonderful.

I headed home with my dead laptop to debate whether I should have it fixed or just get a new one.

After a few days, I decided to get the repair now and look into a new one when I can better afford it.

Mom and I headed back earlier today to have the laptop shipped out. We signed in at 2 PM and saw we'd be helped at...7:30?! A 5 and a half hour wait?!
It didn't look crowded, so we decided to wait a bit and see if we might get in sooner. After an hour (and countless more iPod "problems"), I said "Screw this." We asked if we could get an appointment for tomorrow and he said I'd have to do it online. Works for me. With that, we were out of there.

So, I'm sitting here tonight and decide to head to Apple's site to schedule myself for tomorrow. What message do I get?

"We're sorry, due to higher than expected support traffic in our store, we will not be able to provide you with assistance at this time."

I am not a happy customer right now.