A Happy Return

It's the time of year that cluster flies appear in agricultural areas such as this one. Some of them always find their way into the house and keep me busy with the vacuum cleaner. Annoying for me but a welcome food source for warblers and flycatchers fueling up before their journey south.

A Yellow-Rumped Warbler hunting flies at my window.

This White-Breasted Nuthatch will keep me company all winter.

 

In answer to August's post, yes! This old dog can learn a new trick. I wondered if I could learn to knit my own socks. And I actually finished one thanks to YouTube tutorials. Granted, I made many mistakes and considered this first one just a practice sock. Turns out, wonder of wonders, it's actually wearable!

First, the cuff ribbing.

Then the leg and the heel flap.

Next is the heel turn and the gusset decreases.

Just needs a toe decrease and then a kitchener stitch finish.

My very first sock. It's mate is already started.

 

While knitting, I think maybe five minutes has gone by then check the clock and find it was actually an hour! It certainly is relaxing. I can picture myself knitting the winter away. First I want to make a second pair of socks and then I'd like to make fingerless wrist/hand warmers.

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Regarding the title of this post, I rarely return merchandise. In fact never.

But I did last week. I bought a magnetic curtain rod from Home Hardware for the window of my new kitchen door. When I went to put a curtain on, I discovered that the rod was stuck solidly in the telescoped position. I wanted my $26 back. Besides, there was a different brand at Giant Tiger for only $10.

So I took the item in it's original package along with my receipt back to the store. It was early in the morning so there were few other customers. At the cash, the young employee said she was new and didn't know how to handle returns so called for the manager.

Over he came and asked why I wanted to return the item. When he heard that I couldn't separate the two halves of the curtain rod, he tried to have a go with his much stronger hands. Nope! Wouldn't budge for him either. "Gosh, that's bizarre!," he said. "I'll do a refund."

So I presented by receipt and tapped my debit card for a refund deposit. "That's strange," said the manager, "The internet is down." And he phoned their technician.

After a brief discussion over the phone, the manager turned to me and said, "Sorry, but the server needs a reboot. This may take a while."

"No problem," say I. My mission was to recover those twenty-six bucks! I would wait however long it took.

While we waited, a third employee came over and stood behind the counter with the manager. She was perhaps in her thirties, with a warm and friendly countenance. 'Debbie' was the name on her badge. While we waited for the internet to revive, the two store employees behind the counter began to rotate their shoulder joints and stretch their arms while talking to each other about sore muscles.

"You two are way too young to be having sore joints," say I, making conversation.

Debbie: Oh, my husband and I went rock climbing for the first time and my muscles are still sore.

Me: That sounds like fun. Where did you go? (thinking there was an actual mountain involved)

Debbie: Oh, a gym in the west end that has a climbing wall. We didn't know but you need special climbing shoes that we rented there. My sister came along but had no interest in trying a climb.

Me: I suppose you wore a safety harness.

Debbie: Yes, but honestly you forget it's even there. Your instinct is to grip on to those little rock holds for dear life! So getting to the top was really, really hard. But when I got to the top and looked down I was shocked at how high up I was. Climbing down would be a whole other matter! At that point, I simply froze and couldn't move!

Me: I know just what you mean! (I was thinking of firemen having to rescue kittens stranded up trees.) 

Debbie (arms outstretched and trembling fingers clutching imaginary holds): Meanwhile, my sister is below, laughing and filming me as I clung, frozen and screaming at the top. I told her to quit filming and she said to climb back down and make her. Everyone was yelling at me to simply let go, but I just couldn't.

Me (wiping a laugh tear from by cheeks): Our instincts overpowering our brains, eh!

Debbie: Finally, I could no longer hang on and lost my grip. I began to fall. The harness tightened and I swung back and forth in it. I really couldn't help myself but scream and laugh at the same time, all the way to the floor where my sister was still gleefully filming.

Me (tears of laughter flowing now): Wow, that was quite an experience! Would you go again?

Debbie: In a heartbeat! We had so-o-o much fun!!!

Just then the Manager announced that the internet was working again and issued my refund. I thanked them and headed for the exit.

"Thank you for your patience," said the comedically gifted Debbie.

"Hey, thank you for the great entertainment," I replied.