TRAGEDY

TRAGEDY

Well, I really did it this time. Yesterday, I took a day off of work to do a home improvement project. The other guy in my department is taking off today for his little honey-do. I wanted to install a tub-surround to replace the ugly walls around our bath tub. It seemed easy enough.

I tore down the old walls in the morning, took down the glass doors and cleaned up as best I could. It wasn't too bad. I did a little patching of the dry wall underneath. It didn't have to look perfect since it was going to get covered up again anyway. Everything was ready so I took off for Home Depot just after noon.

There was no one there to help me at the time. The person in charge of the department was with another customer. I waited about an hour and figured out what I wanted and pulled out this big box. This was a 3-piece set that they had marked down. It was the only one of its kind in stock. The women in charge of the department came over while I was putting my stuff together. She had no clue as to what this stuff was or how you used it. She helped me load this big box on a cart - that was her big contribution. The surround (walls) are very light but the box is about 5 foot by 5 foot. I couldn't fit it in my car. I called my son who was making a sales call not too far away and he came over to see if it would fit in or on his car. It wouldn't. I had to rent Home Depot's truck to get it home. Its 2:30 in the afternoon and I finally get the thing home.

I drove the truck back to Home Depot and my son went back to work. When I got home, I took the surround out of the box and there were only two pieces instead of three. One of the ends is missing. This unit had evidently been returned by a customer who broke a piece and it was put on the floor for resale without being checked. I was fit-to-be-tied. I drove back over to Home Depot and told them the story. I picked out a new unit of a different style and told them they would have to deliver it today and pick up the defective unit. The truck that I had used earlier was out at the time. I went home.

The new unit arrived about 8:30 at night. I took it out of the box and right into the bathroom to dry fit it. It wont fit. It was after 9:00 and the store was closed. There would be no showers in this bathroom tomorrow or the next day at best. Tragedy. The saga continues...