Call Me

I’m a total nut about serendipity. Here’s a recent example.

Our house phone had been out of order for God only knows how long. Since I was away for two weeks, I can’t say when I would have noticed it. Some time during that time though, husband called and asked if I ever had any trouble with the phone. Well, yes that was a strange thing to ask me, but he did set up an appointment with AT&T to have it checked.

The repairman showed up and promptly found the source of trouble. Our service box had been struck by lightning he deduced. Anyway, I was happy that the source of trouble wasn’t with the house wiring which would have meant we would have had to pay for the repair.

Here’s the serendipity. Even before Mike called (that’s the AT&T guy) to tell me the phone was working again, I heard the phone ring and answered. It was a call for Scott about a summer internship. Good timing or serendipity? Well y’all know what I think.

Plus, Mike showed me how I could troubleshoot to see if the house wiring might be at fault should we ever have trouble again. You take a working standard phone (you do still have one of those, don’t you?) out to the service box and plug it in. That could tell you the house wiring is at fault if you get a dial tone out there and not inside. But I guess if you don’t, you’ll need to call the phone company anyway because it could be a case like ours or not.

Thanks Lowe’s

Since I will shortly be chronicling our sad and frustrating battle with American Home Shield over our home warranty contract, I wanted to heave some positive feedback in the direction of a corporation that did a fine job for us.

We purchased our new toilet and sink from Lowe’s here in Springfield, Missouri, and opted to use their installation services. We bought the fixtures on Saturday and the install department followed up with several calls along the way. The installer called on Monday to set up an appointment for Thursday. He arrived ON TIME! Although we experienced a minor problem because the faucet we were sold didn’t fit our sink’s holes and a trip to Lowe’s was necessary to switch it, Lowe’s charged us the original price instead of passing on the cost of the more expensive version. The installer went on to put in a dishwasher while we exchanged the faucets. He returned in about two hours to finish the job.

Kudos to the folks at Lowe’s and our installer Caleb. We are very happy customers and we will gladly turn to you again.

Will He Come Today?

Is this a provocative title? Are you at all curious? Am I talking about Jesus or . . .? Actually I’m talking about a repairman who told me he was coming on Monday to do a little work on the house. Then, when I called yesterday, he said, “I had another job to finish and I’m coming in the morning.”

I think any unemployed remotely handy man or woman should consider going into the handyman business. I called one out of the phonebook this week to see if he could switch out a kitchen faucet. Sure, he could do it, but here’s the catch: I would have to commit to a four-hour minimum for $265 and oh, by the way, the wait time would be six weeks. The plumber is coming on Tuesday. Don’t ask me how much, but at least the one I scheduled gave me a price. One company said, “There’s a $65 charge to come out and then we’ll tell you how much it is.” I didn’t just fall off of the turnip truck yesterday.

Many people give up and learn how to do the work themselves. Well, since I’m soon to put this old house on the market, I don’t have time to begin a crash course on home repair--I'm in the middle of a paint marathon this week. And heck, I don’t even have time to be checking my email or writing this; but you see, I’m waiting for a man to come.