We lost hot water this past weekend. It just stopped, which is not such a bad thing during the hot season, but still a pain in the butt. Toby sent me to WF to purchase a new tankless hot water heater on Monday. I did that and had lunch with the Moms. The Lowe's people pissed me off, but I managed to hold my temper and gett'er done. The water heater that I wanted was, of course, stored in the rafters of the building. I found a lazy employee to go and find another employee to get the water heater down for me. When I pointed to the box that I needed, the employee who drove the forklift said, "Well, that is a liquid propane heater. Is that what you need?" I replied, "Well, I need a propane water heater." Then he did a stupid man thang. He smirked and said, "Well, propane IS liquid." Then he looked at the lazy employee (who was still hanging around) and they snickered - as if I were a stupid woman. My eyes narrowed. Ya know, sometimes I am stupid, but I am not THAT stupid, and I'd rather not be treated as such. I know more about construction and such than your average Joe, but I don't know it all. I do know that you should treat customers with respect and common courtesy rather than smirking and snickering like school boys on the playground. At that moment, I was an angry woman trying to keep her temper in check and her smart mouth under control. I managed and got my water heater and left.
As it turns out, it was not the water heater after all. It was the pipes coming in and out of the water heater that were clogged with hard water deposits, which is not unusual in these parts of OK. Tankless water heaters work off water pressure. When the water does not flow well, the water does not heat. Toby gott'er fixed Monday night, and we all took a hot shower that would peel your skin off. We will work on that next. Tuesday, I took the water heater back to Lowe's without further incident, saw Mom again, and did a bit of shopping with Jes.
To make myself feel better, I'll tell you that the man who installed our AC/heater unit said I was "as handy as a back pocket." He is an older man who sits and points and tells you what to do to install the unit. He would tell me what he needed out of his truck and I would go find it for him. He was truly impressed with my knowledge of tools. He was also impressed with my peach pie and said that if I were to start selling pies, I'd be too busy to ever do anything else.
On another note: Toby let the chickens out of their pen recently. They are free birds, and they love it. But we really need to contain them, because they could get eaten by varmints if they get too far from the house. When they are close to the house, they are a problem too. Last night at supper Toby said he was tired of them crapping on his floor (garage). Jesse and I misunderstood Toby and thought he said, "rapping on his door." If you know how my mind works, you know what happened next. I launched in to Edgar Allen Poe mode - crap, crap, crapping on my chamber floor...Jesse added, "Never more!" Yeah, it went downhill at that point, but it was funny.
12 comments:
You must have the patience of a saint. I'd have lost it on those 2 idiots.
OMG where do I begin with this post? Lou you are one funny woman... love the "handy as a back pocket" and who hasn't had to deal with snickering stupid man/boys at the "Man Store". (eye roll). I'm glad you kept it together. (No small feat). Ok, it was definitely the Poe reference that did it. Or was it the idea of Peach pie... jeez I think you should just write a book. My word verification for this comment is redink. Hmmmm a book title of interest?
Deb, I was hoping for a comment from you - I figure that as a woman in the electrical business, you get a few men who treat you as if you are "just a woman."
FF, I liked the handy back pocket thang too. LD, the AC man, is older, shorter and rounder than most men and about as cute as they come. He talks with a deep Okie accent where his words kind of run together. Styrofoam becomes starfoam and almost stahfoam. Tire becomes tar. Fire becomes far. With Toby's bad hearing, I have to interpret most of what LD says. Toby is amazed that I can do that, too.
It happens more often now that I'm in the office. When I was on the tools it seemed that I ended up being 'one of the guys' after the initial getting to know you phase. The electrical industry has got to be The. Worst.
I sympathize with you and Deb, Lou. The IT biz ain't half as bad as the trades (speakin' of smart-ass remarks about women, yadda, yadda), methinks. But then again, I come from a military background and was around when women were integrated into the AF workforce, around 1970-sumthin'. THOSE were interesting times, believe me.
Ah, chickens. I inherited a flock o' free range chickens when I bought my acreage outside of OKC. The coyotes got all of 'em, one by bloody one. No big loss, to me... their eggs tasted horrible. "Nevermore!" Heh.
Buck, I threw rocks at the rooster today. I'm tired of his crowing and pooping in the carport. You don't like fresh eggs??
I send Gene shopping. I don't like to go... Your rooster is why I don't eat chicken! I hated cleaning the chicken coop as a kid. Yuck!!!!!!
The chickens in Lima, Peru, were fed fish meal and the chicken and eggs tasted like fish. Not good, so Bucks chickens must have eaten something bad, eh?
Jo, Chickens will eat anything including bugs in the yard. If they would just stay in the yard...
You don't like fresh eggs??
What Jo said. I don't know what my chickens ate but their eggs tasted HORRIBLE.
The Okie accent sounds kinda Arkie, too. I don't think I can phonetically spell what "Tower" comes out like.
Glad you have hot water again. We're going to look into tanklessn -- and geothermal -- when we finally build that retirement villa back home. Someday.
Moogie, I had a friend that was an Okie who had also lived in Arkansas. She said her accent was Arkie Okie.
I tweet everything I'm not happy with when I go to a big box store. I usually get a response from corporate and then a call from the store manager. you should try it. They hate negative press.
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