Saturday, July 01, 2006
So what’s the deal?
The family’s finally here so now I have no time to blog? Well that just can’t happen, right? Right!
Yesterday was Rylee’s official 8th birthday, and we celebrated firstly by taking advantage of those seasons passes I bought to Calaway Park. And like the jerk that I am, I forgot my @#$&ing camera. Why do I even have that thing? Anyway, we learned an important lesson today: Rylee likes rides that spin and make it seem like you’re going to smash into the ground but doesn’t like rides that have big drops and make it seem like you’re going to crash into the ground. This means rides like the Scrambler and the Adrenaline Test Zone are a go, but the Vortex roller coaster and the Shoot the Chutes log flume ride are not. Makes me a little sad because I was hoping she’d want to ride the coaster with me, but I’m not going to make her go on rides she doesn’t want to. Kristen got into some of the rides, too, but she will not go on anything scarier than the Carousel. But she had a blast at Calaway and was very happy to learn of the season’s passes.
To finish off the day (we spent almost 6 hours at Calaway Park) we took in some dinner at Montanas where they put the lodge hat on Rylee (again no camera…STUPID! STUPID!) and sang her some sort of song you had to be a lodge member to understand. I didn’t even know Montanas was part of the freemasons. Then we took in a viewing of Cars only because Over the Hedge stopped playing during non-matinee times. It was cute, but definitely not one up on the Incredibles. I’m not saying it was bad, it’s just that Pixar had up to this point made a movie that dwarfed the previous, and I guess it was about time that stopped. Still, it had its moments, but when I asked 10 year old Kristen how she liked it, she just shrugged and mumbled something that resembled, “It was okay!”
Ahh, returning the U-Haul. I swear the next move will be done U-Haul-free. First off, when I picked up the unit, the girl behind me had absolutely no interest in helping me, and decided to let her I’m-stuck-here-going-no-where attitude shine full-force upon my little pre-booked transaction, but she tried to stick me with a gas bill that wasn’t rightfully mine in the first place. They marked down that the truck was 5/8ths full, but when I got in to the truck, it was clearly less than half a tank. One of the guys working there claimed that it must be due to young punks siphoning during the wee hours of the night. I was later told by my dad that most modern day vehicles have baffles to prevent siphoning, and since the truck I was driving had just a little over 24,000 miles on it I figured it could be considered a modern day vehicle.
Trying to return it was even more of a hassle. First I look in the phone book for locations near my very North-West Calgarian home and proceed to call them. There are like four. I phone one which promptly goes to a message stating that Bowness U-Haul will be closed June 23rd. It was June 26th, but, oh well, I had three others to choose from. I phone two more in the NW which lead me to the same message, and I’m thinking, why in the heck does one place have three listings under one U-Haul heading in the phone book? Oh, and why are they not answering, too? So I decide to phone the 1-800 number under the same heading but get some very-American guy with a Southern drawl who says I need to look at my contract to see my list of return locations. He said it like I was a moron for phoning this number, and who knows, maybe I was. So I get my contract from the truck, and I notice there are only two locations to return to, one in the NW close to downtown and one in the SE nowhere near where I live. But there is a main office number, and I decide to phone that first.
Some girl picks up and I immediately ask about the non-answering Bowness U-Haul to which she says they must be to full for pickups. I figure they must be to full to get to the phone to tell me this themselves, too. She gives me two locations to return to, one in the very NE and one on the way out of Calgary towards Airdrie. What!?! That’s nowhere near me, I say, but this does nothing to make the girl on the other side of the phone want to hang up any less. I say, what about Kensington, the location in the NW nearest me. She says they’re too full, but there’s Bearspaw which is out of Calgary on the NW. It’s closer to me than any others, so I ask her for the address. I’m not even exaggerating when I say she let out a sigh of contempt and said, dripping with venom, “Give me a moment!” Isn’t this her job? Whoa, I might have gone too far with that last request, but she actually gives me the address for Bearspaw U-Haul.
After I hang up I figure if I had the phone number to U-Haul in Bearspaw that I could phone them and ask for directions seeing as I had no map and only know Bearspaw as some sort of paw on a bear. So, grudgingly, I phone the girl back at the main office. We go through the same ordeal as we went through when I first called seconds before, I try to interrupt, but she is determined to do her job by the book because she probably figures it’ll get her off the phone quicker so she can chew her gum more loudly, not that being on the phone with me stopped her chewing any less. It went a little something like this:
Needless to say, I returned the truck even with an eighth more of a tank than they gave it to me. Next, hopefully I’ll have pictures of our second venture to Calaway Park, and I’ll have a story about Shaw Digital Phone. Cheers!
Yesterday was Rylee’s official 8th birthday, and we celebrated firstly by taking advantage of those seasons passes I bought to Calaway Park. And like the jerk that I am, I forgot my @#$&ing camera. Why do I even have that thing? Anyway, we learned an important lesson today: Rylee likes rides that spin and make it seem like you’re going to smash into the ground but doesn’t like rides that have big drops and make it seem like you’re going to crash into the ground. This means rides like the Scrambler and the Adrenaline Test Zone are a go, but the Vortex roller coaster and the Shoot the Chutes log flume ride are not. Makes me a little sad because I was hoping she’d want to ride the coaster with me, but I’m not going to make her go on rides she doesn’t want to. Kristen got into some of the rides, too, but she will not go on anything scarier than the Carousel. But she had a blast at Calaway and was very happy to learn of the season’s passes.
To finish off the day (we spent almost 6 hours at Calaway Park) we took in some dinner at Montanas where they put the lodge hat on Rylee (again no camera…STUPID! STUPID!) and sang her some sort of song you had to be a lodge member to understand. I didn’t even know Montanas was part of the freemasons. Then we took in a viewing of Cars only because Over the Hedge stopped playing during non-matinee times. It was cute, but definitely not one up on the Incredibles. I’m not saying it was bad, it’s just that Pixar had up to this point made a movie that dwarfed the previous, and I guess it was about time that stopped. Still, it had its moments, but when I asked 10 year old Kristen how she liked it, she just shrugged and mumbled something that resembled, “It was okay!”
Ahh, returning the U-Haul. I swear the next move will be done U-Haul-free. First off, when I picked up the unit, the girl behind me had absolutely no interest in helping me, and decided to let her I’m-stuck-here-going-no-where attitude shine full-force upon my little pre-booked transaction, but she tried to stick me with a gas bill that wasn’t rightfully mine in the first place. They marked down that the truck was 5/8ths full, but when I got in to the truck, it was clearly less than half a tank. One of the guys working there claimed that it must be due to young punks siphoning during the wee hours of the night. I was later told by my dad that most modern day vehicles have baffles to prevent siphoning, and since the truck I was driving had just a little over 24,000 miles on it I figured it could be considered a modern day vehicle.
Trying to return it was even more of a hassle. First I look in the phone book for locations near my very North-West Calgarian home and proceed to call them. There are like four. I phone one which promptly goes to a message stating that Bowness U-Haul will be closed June 23rd. It was June 26th, but, oh well, I had three others to choose from. I phone two more in the NW which lead me to the same message, and I’m thinking, why in the heck does one place have three listings under one U-Haul heading in the phone book? Oh, and why are they not answering, too? So I decide to phone the 1-800 number under the same heading but get some very-American guy with a Southern drawl who says I need to look at my contract to see my list of return locations. He said it like I was a moron for phoning this number, and who knows, maybe I was. So I get my contract from the truck, and I notice there are only two locations to return to, one in the NW close to downtown and one in the SE nowhere near where I live. But there is a main office number, and I decide to phone that first.
Some girl picks up and I immediately ask about the non-answering Bowness U-Haul to which she says they must be to full for pickups. I figure they must be to full to get to the phone to tell me this themselves, too. She gives me two locations to return to, one in the very NE and one on the way out of Calgary towards Airdrie. What!?! That’s nowhere near me, I say, but this does nothing to make the girl on the other side of the phone want to hang up any less. I say, what about Kensington, the location in the NW nearest me. She says they’re too full, but there’s Bearspaw which is out of Calgary on the NW. It’s closer to me than any others, so I ask her for the address. I’m not even exaggerating when I say she let out a sigh of contempt and said, dripping with venom, “Give me a moment!” Isn’t this her job? Whoa, I might have gone too far with that last request, but she actually gives me the address for Bearspaw U-Haul.
After I hang up I figure if I had the phone number to U-Haul in Bearspaw that I could phone them and ask for directions seeing as I had no map and only know Bearspaw as some sort of paw on a bear. So, grudgingly, I phone the girl back at the main office. We go through the same ordeal as we went through when I first called seconds before, I try to interrupt, but she is determined to do her job by the book because she probably figures it’ll get her off the phone quicker so she can chew her gum more loudly, not that being on the phone with me stopped her chewing any less. It went a little something like this:
GUM CHEWING U-HAUL GIRL (Or GACUHG)
For what city please?
VEIN ABOUT TO EXPLODE IN FOREHEAD GUY (Or ME)
I just talked to you a few sec…
Gacuhg
For what city?
Me
Calgary! I…
Gacuhg
What part?
Me
(Exasperated)The North West…Silver Springs.
Gacuhg
You can return it to Kensington
Me
(Flabbergasted pause)But, but you just told me they were full.
Gacuhg
If you head down there someone will be happy to receive your truck. Good day, sir.
(CLICK)
Me
...
Needless to say, I returned the truck even with an eighth more of a tank than they gave it to me. Next, hopefully I’ll have pictures of our second venture to Calaway Park, and I’ll have a story about Shaw Digital Phone. Cheers!
