Numbers, numbers everywhere! 3/21/2009

Saturday-

Weather today is predicted to be more spring-like with temps in the 50s. Trees are budding, and robins have arrived. Chipmunks and squirrels are scurrying about, and fawns and goslings have begin to appear everywhere. The flora reveals include some crocus and daffodils.

My day will consist of preparing for Barb's scheduled arrival, and trying to negotiate the Sleep Number Bed. Something's gone wrong with the pump, and I cannot seem to fix or adjust it. Pfffffffft!

Luckily, I do have two spare pumps. A few weeks after I purchased the bed, the pump stopped working. Although it was a bona-fide argument to get it, the warranty allowed for a new one. Unfortunately, Customer Service informed me it would take three to six weeks to arrive.

"But without the pump," I said, trying my darndest to reason with Customer Service Rep., "I have the sleeper-sofa. It must be deflated in the morning and reinflated at night. Without the pump, I have no bed." Customer Service Rep apologized for my inconvenience and said he could make no promises regarding the ETA of my replacement pump. I asked for a supervisor who was equally apologetic... and equally ineffective.

Next up, I went to the store and spoke to the manager, who gave me a similar answer. In a word, this irritated me. I mean, I'd forked over thirty-two hundred dollars, less than three weeks earlier for this purchase, and was now left with no bed on which to sleep. What rattled me the most was my inability to comprehand why the replacement pump could not be shipped by overnight express. I do understand that sometimes things happen, and while I did not like it, I could certainly bear one night on the, uh, couch. But these folks were not even pretending to meet me half way!

No amount of reasoning was getting me anywhere. So I took a deep breath and did what any woman worth her salt would do. With no small degree of smugness, I picked up a pen and insisted everyone involved give me their names. I then informed Store Manager it was my intent to purchase some space on the Internet, design a website, and title it thusly: "Before You Purchase a Sleep Number Bed, Read This!"

A funny thing happened. Store Manager suddenly remembered he had an old-model pump in the back room that he could lend me until my new one arrived. Go figure!

I left the store with the perfectly functional, old-model pump in hand. (If I could have high-fived myself, I would have.)

An even funnier thing happened. New pump arrived by... guess. No really... Guess! Overnight Express!

When I returned to the store, the next day, to return the out-dated-but-functional pump, Store Manager didn't want it back. He said they probably couldn't sell it, and he was glad to have the shelf space for newer, more effecient models. So I have that old one on my shelf. As luck would have it, once I installed the new pump, I asked Mr. Wizard to check out the original, and he managed to repair it. So I kept that one as well, and that's how I happen to have two spares! HA!

It's going to be a physical hassle to make the exchange today, on account of the space constraints of the room and needing to disassemble the sofe to complete the task, but I'll get 'er done! I'm like that extra pump: old and out-dated, but incredibly funational, and damned determined!

By the way, in spite of the pump debacle, I seriously love my Sleep Number Bed. Several of my friends have purchased them on my say-so, and they thank me all the time for telling them about it. I'm confident that if something really did happen to it, I'd probably want another. It's been three years, now, and it's definitely the best bed I have ever had, uh, as long as the pump works...


All for now.
CM

Sunny Daze! 3/7/2009

We are having a beautiful day!

Temperatures started to rise yesterday, and today they are set to go into the sixties, with long periods of sunny skies, peppered by drifiting clouds.

I am beside myself with glee!

Had some fun on Facebook yesterday afternoon while the little ones were asleep. I had gone on my acount just to admit a new friend as, er, a friend, and discovered over twenty-five requests that had been sitting there. Once I started to play with it, I couldn't stop! Had a blast and am now looking forward to using it to spy on, *cough* uh, I mean, catch up with all my pals!

Steven J. was much better yesterday. (Cheryl spoke candidly to me in the morning about some arguing she and Steve have been caught up in and her concerns that SJ sensed the tension - my guess is the economy's getting to them, like everyone else.) I figured it was something like this. SJ's such a good boy; for him to be so naughty was just plain odd. Now that we have a handle on what might be bothering him, we have some direction on how to make things better for the little guy.

All for now.
CM