This past week I had called around for prices on a replacement range hood. Nothing fancy. I got what I thought was a good price on it: $89 for the product itself and another $60 for installation.

"Tony" and I scheduled a time last week on the morning of one of my days off for him to come and do the installation. He called the night before and said he couldn't make it so we rescheduled for the following day at 6 pm. He said "Perfect, I get off work at 6 so I'll be right over after that."

That was Wednesday night. Do you know he never showed up? I keep looking out the window, rushed through dinner so he wouldn't catch me in the middle of it. Wondering what happened. Called the office number I had for him but it just rang and rang; not even a recording.

He never showed, and worse, in my opinion, is that he never even had the courtesy to call to say he wasn't coming.

I figured MAYBE the next day he'd call with some sort of explanation, but nope. Haven't heard a peep from him! Very disrespectful, IMO.

So Thursday morning I initiated a "dispute" with my credit card company and told them I wanted the $80 charge cancelled since I never received the product and in fact the guy has gone AWOL. I received a notice this a.m. from the credit card company that the charge has been cancelled.

So that's that. Now I'll have to start all over again to try to find a reasonably priced installation. The one place I'd called years ago wanted $150. I'm just surprised at the actions of this other guy since the company, family owned, has been around for years. The guy I placed the order with over the phone was the same guy who was going to install it. Anyway, good riddance.

I'm also thinking of finally getting around to having some fencing fixed/repaired. It's just a waist-high, wood picket fence that is rotting in places.


Here's a portion of it.

I don't think it requires total replacement, just portions of it. It comes in 6 foot lengths. I don't know what kind of wood it is, I'm guessing pine (?) but it's a nice, weathered gray, and of course the new wood needs to weather gray as well or it will look ridiculous. I may have Bill the handyman do it. If I can get away with spending $100 or less, I'll be satisfied.

Looks like we had a frost last night. I hope it hasn't zapped my many tulips. This is the FIRST year in 18 years that I've had them (!) because last summer I cut down some overgrown shrubs near the front entrance and in their place, the only place in the yard protected from deer, I planted tulips.




Each year, these hyacinths seem a little bigger.

I posted a bunch of perennials and my hypertufa for sale on Craig's List 4 or 5 days ago. So far, no takers. It may be a bit early.

I got a coupon for a $6 haircut at Great Clips in my news circulars the other day. Perfect timing, I really need a haircut.

My co-worker and I went in and talked to HR about getting on the company health plan, as part-timers. I doubt anything will come of it. They could replace us in a heartbeat but they'd have to retrain. Nothing lost, I suppose.

The same woman (my coworker) brought in her adorable English springer spaniel puppy, just 9 weeks old, to work yesterday. Really, really adorable.

I realized I have 2 Home Depot gift cards worth about $36. I had been saving these solely for vegetable seedlings, mainly tomato plants, but I AM tempted to use some of it for 3 small perennials in the area I recently dug up invasive vinca. There's plenty of perennials around my yard I could divide, but I feel like I've done that many times over with the same plants, and I'd like something new.

This weekend I also need to plant the rest of my lettuce, put out the hummer water (the males arrive first, as early as late April, according to my records) and in desperation, I will try painting the stubs of awful invasive brambles too hard to dig out when growing in pachysandra with RoundUp. And a haircut is definitely in the plans.

It's 7:24 am and I just have one more day of work to get through. It's so boring and unfulfilling and mind-numbing. Hate it.

Two of my other co-workers were telling me they found what appeared to be a large bear print on a walking trail right behind our office building. Yesterday I walked and looked for the print and found it; they'd marked it with a stick and day-glo tape. It did indeed look like a bear print, either that or a very large dog with very long claws. That's why I think it's the former. I must admit to feeling a bit squeamish after inspecting that print, and finding 4 or 5 other more faded prints nearby. I think bears are more active at dusk, but who knows? These trails can be completely deserted when I walk there. They're not at all far from civilization, and in fact, I can walk briskly to the left (before it narrows into a much smaller trail) or to the right trail and back to work in exactly 30 minutes, my lunch time.

There are periodically photos in the local paper of assorted wildlife including black bears, wolverine and bobcats.

More common are coyotes, wild turkeys, foxes, woodchucks, possums, skunks and deer.

I rarely see rabbits because there are too many cats roaming around.

Every once in a GREAT while there's an errant moose that wandered down from Canada. There was just one time I saw a pheasant in my yard.

I saw a coyote pup in my yard 2 summers ago eating apples fallen from the tree and there was a large, unidentified cat-like creature (pointed, feline face and long tail, solid tan coat) I saw in my backyard before I startled it and it ran into the woods.

And once, my neighbor up the hill behind me saw a human being laying down on their lawn, sleeping!! She called the cops, then called me to warn me. He moved on before the police found him, but that was mighty strange as my neighbor's place is set well into the woods, up the hill and off the road. We don't have homeless people around here that I know; this is a small town. Maybe he was drunk. or something.