I flew into Laguardia Airport in NYC last Wednesday and was expecting a nice vacation of 10 days. I stayed at a hotel for two night; I was planning to stay at my daughter's house for the remainder of my trip and only stayed at a motel those two nights to surprise her at her graduation.On Friday she graduated from Nassau County Probation Officer training. That was nice but she saw me walk in the front door. I would have been more stealthy had I known she was in the 2d floors hall overlooking the entrance. Of course I had expected my wife, who was inside already, to let me know if the coast was clear and all she said was they were inside. So no surprise. My wide daughter & grandson seemed happy to see me that day.
After the graduation we went to a restaurant my daughter had planned on celebrating at before she knew I would be there. That was fine by me until I saw the bill which I had offered to pay, almost $400. That seemed a bit much but oh. well. Things seemed to be going okay although there was some friction coming from my daughter since that Friday in the form of snide and or sarcastic remarks that she made to me. I considered just leaving on Saturday because I anticipated worse was to come. Sometimes I have to listen to myself.
On Sunday, she asked me to help look up pricing & availability online for a washer & dryer because her dryer went out of commission and the washer as old. So I got on the net and Consumer Reports and looked them up. The number one listed with the best score of all washing machines cost about $650 as per CR. I told my daughter that the next best was between about $900 & &1,000. I recommended the less expensive one because it had a better rating across all things tested. Shortly after that she went bat shit crazy saying things like who was I to be telling her how to spend her money, she would buy the most expensive because it had to be best because only the best costs the most in her mind - and so on. Then she started ranting about topics that had nothing to do with washers & dryers. After ten minutes or so of that I finally said 'why the fuck did you ask me to help you if you obviously do not want my help' or something extremely close to those words. That was it, she went to the washer & dryer getting place. Even my wife was utterly gobsmacked as to that exchange. Regardless, I also looked around at different retailers and the best price by far was at Costco for the one but it could not be delivered and installed until June 5th at which time she'd be away on vacation. So she went to PC Richard where she asked for a specific set they supposedly had in stock and they talked her into something else and then asked for $500 apiece for an extended warranty on each! She declined but my bet is they did the bait & switch and talked her into getting a much less expensive washer of lessor quality that they overpriced.
While she was out I sent her a text message asking if she wanted or needed anything from a local supermarket I was about to go to because my wife told me she needed some things for that evening's barbecue. My daughter texted back saying: "don't go to HMart just leave my NY". So that evening I checked into a motel near LGA after changing my airline reservation and I Monday, I returned home. I had hopes of having some time to spend with my grandson - maybe a saltwater fishing trip, coming back to Arkansas with a lot of German cold cuts & smoked meats from a German butcher, of eating in Chinatown once of even three times, of going out with friends I have not seen in 5 years and of seeing my brothers-in-law in upstate NY. None of that happened. While I could have stayed and paid a fortune for motels in NY, or gone to by BIL's place upstate - I was in a sour mood. So, I just left. Having to explain to others why I was no longer staying at my daughter's and wife's house (co-owners they are) each time I saw someone new on my trip would have just ruined it much more for me so I went back to Arkansas because to be frank it was already ruined more than enough.
I wasted about $1750.00 on that trip and am sure I will never do so again, at least not to visit my daughter. Oh well, life goes on but it is somewhat worse than anticipated without at least a couple of weeks worth of wursts, schinkenspeck, landjager and some Lithunian rye bread or corn rye bread.
All the best,
Glenn B
No comments:
Post a Comment