Mondays now have turned into the day when we take care of a whole bunch of little things. Take, for instance, cleaning the motor home. Four small rugs to shake outside, the kitchen and bathroom floors to mop, and the living area to sweep. If it takes more than twenty minutes, then we’ve been slacking.

Errands take quite a bit longer, however. Since we’re very limited in storage, refrigerator, and freezer space, Nina has to go shopping once a week and then usually pick up one or two small things during the week. We’ve enough clothes for a week, so laundry is quite imperative on Mondays. The campground has four washers and four dryers. We usually have a load of whites and a load of dark colors, both of which can go into one dryer. Four bucks later, we’ve got clean clothes.

My errands today included checking on the status of my motorcycle, checking on the status of the window replacements, and checking on the status of my glasses. I essentially struck out on all three.

I took the motorcycle into the dealership on Friday afternoon because I didn’t think it was idling right and the exhaust smelled like it was running very rich (this after having had the gas tank drained and the carburetors flushed). I hadn’t heard back from them, so I went over this morning to find the place all closed up. Noon and no one there at all.  That was very strange. Me phone call went unanswered and eventually the system said the mailbox was full. Very discomforting.

The glass shop said that the side window glass would probably take 3-5 weeks, but he’d check on the status. If it was going to take more than another week I told him we needed to cancel the order. The glass across the front, however, might be able to be cut here in town, and he was going to check on that and call me back. Haven’t heard back.

The glasses are the worst story. Flandro Optical here in Pocatello is a well-respected and highly rated company and Dr. Flandro is an excellent optician. However, in my current case, their customer service has absolutely sucked. We’ve used his services since we arrived in Pocatello ten years ago. My mother and dad have both been his patients. Since I was retiring and my optical insurance would expire at the end of September, I decided to get my prescription updated and get new glasses.

So, on August 8th, my Friday off, I went in to get the eyes checked and new optics ordered (just the optics, I didn’t need new frames). Ten days they said. Three weeks later when I called, they said the lab was having problems and I needed to come in again to have the current frames “traced”. I reminded her that she had done that already. She checked, sure enough they had been traced, she just hadn’t sent the tracing to the lab. Finally, after several more reminders, the eyepieces for one of the glasses had arrived.

I have two sets of glasses. One for normal, everyday wear, and a second set specifically for using at the computer and at the organ. This second set hadn’t arrived yet, but supposedly the first set had. I went in, and the glasses had been made incorrectly. The lenses were sized for the computer frames, but with trifocal lenses. That didn’t work. It’s now four weeks later. I went in this morning. The person who would know is out to lunch, but she’ll call me “for sure” immediately after lunch. It’s now four hours later. She must be taking a very long lunch. Nine weeks … almost ten … just for lenses. And, of course, no insurance any more. I’m also on hold. Again.