It began in October… in actuality it began last winter when poor hubby had to shovel ourdriveway. All 2 times.  He had enough of that crap right off!

So it was something we needed to do before it snowed again this season, 2006.

Hubby’s dad works for a car company that also makes snow blowers. So that means we get said machine at cost, or some sort of fancy discount. I dunno, I just write the check, I don’t have to use that contraption when it does arrive!

We got dad-in-law to get the paperwork in order, all we had to do was determine tax and send a check. A check?  You mean, no 30 day delay for such a large payment, simply send the money out right away…  sigh…  So that delayed the purchase till there was the correct amount of money not to freak me – the bill payer – out.

Hubby got the tax percentage wrong. So we had another delay.  (side note – why the heck does every county have a percentage points difference in this thing? Can’t we all just get along? At least by state?) 

Finally the order is in, the machine is going to be sent to a local store for pickup.

We forget about said machine.

A major storm is scheduled for our area.  Hmm…  Hubby didn’t make the time to call the store to see if the machine had arrived. So during first really big storm since 2003….  No snow blower. I take pity and assist with the shoveling. We hope that is really isn’t in, cause that would simply be a kick in the teeth, now wouldn’t it? 

We call during said big storm and the store had the snow blower! Yeah!!!  (now why the hell couldn’t these little nincompoops call prior to said storm to tell us that the stupid machine had arrived?)

We call the next day when we can actually get to the store and get the machine and… 

Clerk – Oh, I’m sorry sir, it appears that someone from one of our other branches came in yesterday and took it

Hubby – excuse me?

Clerk – um, yeah, I wasn’t here, but it appears that they took it.

Hubby – so we cannot pick up our pre-paid purchase?

Clerk – no sir.

(me screaming in the back ground….)

Hubby – well since I had the truck today to pick up the pre-paid for merchandise, it would be nice if you could deliver it when it did arrive.

Clerk – sure thing.

Dad-in-law called that night to see how our new toy was.

He was less than thrilled when we told them that they sold it out from under us.

We joked about it over Christmas, but he was pretty annoyed. I think he wanted to be able to do something nice for his boy. See his boy doesn’t take advantage of the family deals with his brand of car, so he can’t help with that…  This was something he could do to help us save a buck, but it wasn’t going so well.  :( 

We cut our trip there short because of another snow storm, another snow storm during which we would not have our pre-paid for snow blower.

 

By the time we landed his dad had raised such a ruckus at the store that they were going to drop off a loaner snow blower for us. Yeah dad-in-law!!!

 

We arrived 1 hour before the snow hit, it snowed all day, and into the next. The store called around noon (the first day) and said they would drop it off by 5pm.  5pm they called and asked if the next morning would ok (me, starting to get worried). The next morning (still snowing) they call to say that the truck broke down, would noon be ok?

(I’m envisioning poor hubby out there shoveling 2 feet of snow….). 

At 11:30am I hear something…  The truck with the loaner snow blower, the loaner to replace the pre-paid for item that was taken by the other store, was here. There was enough snow that the guy had to park in the street and use the snow blower to get to our front door!

But in the end, we have a snow blower, all to ourselves until our own arrives (remember, the one that was pre-paid for? Check cashed a month ago?). Yeah! 

See Virginia, there is a snow blower fairy!