Drove to the real big city yesterday: not Manahawkin, but Toms River itself. Went to Modell's Sporting Goods to exchange the birthday gifts Alison had gotten me, from herself and from Pat. The "stand-alone" jacket was snug and the other jacket had a defective zipper, plus the pants with it were too big.
What a hassle! The sullen, unhelpful salesperson seemed annoyed that I dared interrupt whatever the hell she was doing--contemplating her navel, maybe. I wanted to try several sizes of the bad zipper jacket to get the best fitting one, and unbelievably, they were all attached to the pants by one of those round security things. She had to take each set up to the counter to detach it before I could put it on.
Every one was hard to zip--she found it hard, too, although she managed because she wasn't wearing the jacket. She then told me they must all be "left-hand zippers."
Wh-a-at?! Does that make any sense? I never heard of zippers put in for left-handed people and even if such a thing exists, why would all these jackets be made that way, especially when there was no indication to show that? They didn't even have any more of the single jacket, so I finally decided to just return all the items.
Naturally, because Alison had used a credit card and I didn't have it, they would give me only a store credit--grrr! I'm sure not going back to that store, so I'll have to go to the next closest one, which is in Lawrenceville, an hour and a half away. Oh well, I'll combine that with lining up a friend to meet for lunch.
The trip wasn't a total loss, as there was a Kohl's in the same shopping center and I found a great pair of slacks--size "small," thank you very much--and a blouse, which I bought with the gift card Ellen had given me. The slacks are long, so I will have to have them hemmed.
Stopped at Home Depot to get a furnace filter; then, as requested, called good neighbor Dennis who said he'd come down this morning to put it in. Went to Acme and got shrimp for myself for dinner; gave Pat a pork chop.
Got a nice, long e-mail from Leslie, telling us her son, Pete, is home, back to work, and seemingly recovered--thank heavens. After losing older son, Anthony, she was naturally terribly worried when Pete was hospitalized.
Judy K. called close to nine last night to ask if it was all right that she sent me a George Straight web site. Her computer is having a problem and she wants to come over at 10 today to get tickets on-line. Hookay by me, I said, although I had planned to go to Weight Watchers. However, I decided to switch to tomorrow (Saturday) since Dennis is coming, too, so I guess I should be here.