L.R. Burt

This year was going to be the year.

With the exception of trips to Minnesota to visit Mr. Burt’s folks, we haven’t had a vacation since our honeymoon. Don’t get me wrong, those trips are lovely. But not quite the same as going on a trip as a couple and staying in a hotel and all that. So this year, since the tax return included the closing costs of our house, we were determined to take a little trip to San Antonio. Do a couple days at Sea World…Eat Mexican food on the Riverwalk…Try to convince Mr. Burt that the Battle of the Alamo really is an important historical moment even if we were sorely outnumbered and doomed to lose from the start…We found a hotel for a good rate, with great reviews, that would allow us to bring Dorrie with us instead of shutting her up in a pet hotel for the week, and were online last Saturday to book the vacation…

…when I happened to look out the glass patio doors and see something that made my heart stop.

“Jeff. The fence blew down.”

“You’re joking.”

You see, earlier that morning, when we were driving Dorrie to the vet for the last of her shots, I noted how the wind was really making our poor dilapidated fence bow and sway and look even poorer and dilapidated-er and remarked, “Maybe the wind will blow down the fence and insurance will replace it for us.”

Never say things like that when the winds are blowing at 45 miles an hour when you’re trying to book a vacation. Because your fence will blow down, and insurance won’t cover fences. Why would they, in Tornado Alley?

Anyway, even though only about twelve feet of fencing actually fell, we need to replace the whole thing, because the entire back side is only held up by the moldy, ugly swing we want to get rid of, and the whole fence really is the eyesore of the neighborhood. Early estimates from fencing companies indicated that even to replace the one that doesn’t have posts in the ground, much less cemented into it, with a low-quality spruce fence, would drain the vacation fund, and a lot more besides.

(Also rather drained was my creativity, due to trying not to feel like I’d jinxed us.)

Thursday brought hope, though. Jeff finally caught our next-door neighbor, with whom we share the longest side of the fence and wanted to see if would contribute to the replacement of that side, at home, and he said in broken English that he would go halves so long as he and Jeff (and some cheap hired labor he said in less…politically correct…terms than that) did the work themselves. We’ll save so much money on labor that we’ll be able to get a cedar fence that will last, and San Antonio could still be in the picture. Good thing I didn’t throw out my two-days-for-the-price-of-one Sea World coupons when I was cleaning off my desk the other day.

Apart from this being a little stressful, God showed us in some little ways that He felt badly about our fence situation. Not even a week before it blew down, Jeff found a deal online for a 19-inch flat-panel monitor which was supposed to be $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate, but due to Office Depot mis-advertising, he got it for $150 before a $50 mail-in rebate.

Then, when the monitor didn’t arrive when they said it would, he called Office Depot to find out what was up, they said it was backordered and promised him a $15 credit due to lateness. Which brought this monitor down to $85. (And you thought I couldn’t do math.)

Then, the next day I got a call from Office Depot wanting to know why we’d been given a $50 credit. Thinking I must have mis-heard the number (because I really am not good with them), I explained about the backorder and late shipping, and the Office Depot lady said she’d call back after she knew whether the credit was approved. She did five minutes later, and it was — for $50. So Jeff’s getting a brand new 19-inch flat-panel monitor for $50 after his rebate. It made him feel a lot better in the midst of not knowing what was going on with the fence.

Even after the fence thing got semi resolved, I got a little store error made in my favor. Very little, compared to $50 monitors, though considering how much lipstick costs, pretty big, percentage-wise. In the Sunday paper I clipped a coupon for buy one get one free Max Factor lipstick. Alberton’s had all makeup 40% off, which brought my $8.50-cent lipstick down to $5.10) Two lipsticks for $5.10, not a bad deal at all.

But then I got to the self-checkout and scanned my coupon. Which resulted in needing employee assistance. Which led to said assisting employee being asked to enter the cost of the lipstick. Which she did — for the regular price of $8.50, not the sale amount. So I got two lipsticks for more like…$1.70. And when I tried them on at home, they were actually colors I like. Which almost never happens with lipsticks.

The fence is still up in the air (or rather, down on the ground), and will still be an annoying thing to spend money on, but I think when the roses are in full bloom this summer we’ll be glad to have a new cedar one instead of that falling down piece of rot that lets rabbits and snakes into our yard. And I can already look back on this week and smile at the little ways God gave back to us even as we had something taken away.

And it really is tough to feel acutely the loss of something that was probably worth less than my $1.70 lipsticks.

Trackback URL

coupons, disaster, earthquakes hurricanes and other acts of god, fence, lipstick, slick deals