I assemble the New Grill... in 17 so called easy steps

     On a recent Sunday afternoon Mrs C and I went Grill shopping, The grill on our deck is one we purchased the summer we married in 1996. Trying to light it involved holding a flame close to the propane tank, and I decided it was time for it to go to a better place.....like the junk yard.

   We had been looking around the last few months, getting prices and surveying the selections at local stores, so off we went. The first stop was Lowe's. Nice selection, but nothing really spoke to us. Then we went to Home Depot. The selection there was pretty diverse, but the ones we liked cost more than we wanted to spend. Eventually we ended up at the Sears Hardware Store in the Trexlertown Shopping Center near our home.
    There wasn't as much of a selection, but there was a Kenmore brand grill there that met all our requirements. So we took one home.(After paying, of course!)

   I get the box in the garage, and I clear an area to work in. The first thing I do after opening the box is read the directions.
   Now if they are correct, all I need to assemble the grill is one phillips head screwdriver (supplied) and to follow the 17 easy steps.
   Oh, if it were only that easy.

   Why is it that they (manufacturers) provide multiple pictures and diagrams for the blatantly obvious steps, but for the more complex ones, such as use 4 D Screws to attach the side mounting plates. they don't supply any pictures, not even a few words of encouragement.
   Those plates are odd shaped with multiple choices for how to be mounted. I ended up getting in the car, driving over to the store, and looking at how the model we viewed was put together. Something I should have done in the first place.
    But the good news is that the grill is all together and ready to go. I felt pretty good about getting it together in under two hours. And that was with the two spaniels bouncing around in the garage helping me sporadically.
    That turned the 17 easy steps into more like 34, because it is difficult to assemble anything with two dogs begging for attention and wanting to play. Even if they are old dogs, it's hard to ignore them.

   So the grill is done, and I'm sure the dogs will be waiting at the foot of it for that first wayward piece of meat.

  

A visit to the OVERpriced Going out of business for last 6 months furniture store on MacArthur road.

   Sunday afternoons are a time for spouses to do things together. (At least when the NFL isn't on TV.) So today Mrs Casey and I were out shopping for a new grill for our deck. The grill we have, we purchased from Sears way back in 1996, the year we were married. So it has a bit of wear and tear, the burners don't work quite right, and igniting it last year involved holding a flame near a propane tank. (HINT: That's not SAFE!)

   It was time for a new one. We did buy one today, but in between stops at Lowe's and Home Depot to check selection and pricing, I made a stop at a store that has been going out of business since last September. "Everything must go! All Sales are final!" Those ridiculous posters were everywhere. Three weeks ago we stopped in, and we inquired about a big plush chair that Mrs C liked. The chair had a price tag of $549, and a big red tag of $369. Then the salesman said there was further discounting, and told us he could sell us the chair for $269.

     Mrs C and I are very discerning shoppers. She lets me do all the negotiating, because I don't put up with Bull. I told the guy he was dreaming, and we left. But we made a note of the offer and decided to come back in a few weeks to see if there were steeper discounts.

   So we ended up there today. As we entered, we were attacked by a locust swarm of salespeople, who I brusquely ignored, while Mrs C told them we knew what we were looking for.
    We go right to where the chair is, and guess what? THE PRICE WENT UP! Now it is $649, and the discount price is $399!
    And this time a saleslady came over and told us it was marked down to $294!

    When my wife remarked that it was cheaper on the last visit, the smart ass saleslady cracked, "Well you should have bought it then."

   These people aren't even trying to hide how dishonest they are. I am sure people go in there and see stickers seeing something priced at $3000 marked down to $1500, then told they can get it for $1200, and think they are getting a deal. But if they shopped around, they would find the stuff marked as $3000 likely is worth $400 in a legitimate store. They had a few quality pieces, but much of it was mass produced junk that wouldn't hold up for more than a couple of years of use.
    I know junk, we purchased a sofa about ten years ago at an outlet and we knew exactly what we were getting for the low  price, It held up okay, considering we had three dogs that thought it a good place to sleep when we weren't looking, but it finally became too ugly to look at. I took an axe to it in the driveway, chopping it into small pieces so it fit into the Township supplied 90 gallon garbage bin.
   I enjoyed doing that.

    I think I would enjoy doing it again to much of the junk being sold at the Overpriced Furniture Store on Macarthur Road behind FedEx Kinkos as well. But we will never know, because money is tight, and we don't buy crap. We look for quality and getting our money's worth.

     By the way, we purchased a new Kenmore grill at Sears. I am going to try and assemble it during the week. That should be a barrel of laughs. And the topic of my next post.

Working in the warehouse world

   I am a professional Logistics person.In my previous job, I managed Warehouse operations at a facility near Philadelphia. In my present job, I oversee a team of employees who unload containers from overseas.. One thing that is really making me wonder is how much stuff we buy each and every day that is from China.
   It has all been hand loaded and when it gets to us, we have to get it unloaded, palletized, and ready for shipment to the retail concern that ordered it.
   You know those Martha furniture collections you see at certain big box stores? Tonight we unloaded three of those, ending up with close to 350 total pallets. All of it made IN CHINA. One of the difficulties of the job is that while the stuff comes in Steel containers, they have cheap plywood floors, and we can't risk taking a forklift in many of them because they will break the floor and get stuck in the container.

  It happens regularly. And some of the containers smell so bad with unidentified chemical fumes that I give the guys surgical masks to help them bear being in the damn things. Sometimes it makes you want to throw up, and some people do. I doubt China has much of an OSHA agency/

   But it is all made in China, and the guys joke that someday all the food will be made in China. As long as they make good Chicken fried rice, I could get by.

   So there's a little bit of trivia for you.

   Please note, I appreciate your comments and I will answer most emails. ct.casey@ymail.com

   I have had to engage the Comment moderation because a blog spammer is using the comments to defile a friend of mine. But please feel free to email me.

An entry two months in coming

It seems kind of ironic, but I write more now than I ever did. I just don't post as much. The biggest reason for that is I have had a lot of change in my life the last three months, transitioning to a new job and different hours. But I still spend more than an hour each night before going to bed at the computer letting out whatever is on my mind.
   This past weekend was the Greater Lehigh Valley Writer's Group annual Writer's conference, "The Write Stuff." I couldn't attend for two reasons, one because of my work schedule and the other being my finances. I really couldn't afford to take time off, let alone spend the money. With a double edged sword like that hanging over me, I made an early but difficult and disappointing choice not to attend. This was a sad weekend for me in that regard.

  But I do have good moments, such as this past Wednesday, when Morning Call Columnist Bill White had Blogger Kathy Frederick and I address his journalism class at Lehigh University about what it takes to have a blog. As part of the course the students have to start blogging, and I hope to eventually read, and maybe even link to some of their product.
   It was really rewardring to do, and I was honored and grateful to be asked.

   Spring has come to Trexlertown, even if the air temperature says it hasn't. I know Spring has come because the first Skunks have come out of their dens to spread their scent across the swamp/retention pond in the field behind us. Plus there is news that the Black Bear population in Pennsylvania has quadrupled in the past twenty years. Last year we had one just down the road on the south side of Mountain road in Lower Macungie raiding the bird feeders for food. I won't be surprised if I go out one day and see one in the Swamp behind the Trexlertown Shopping center north of Church Lane and East of Trexlertown road. Even better, how cool would it be if one scampered out of the woods at Rodale park and visited the Velodrome on a race night? That would be a sight to see! Macungie is the Lenape Indian word for Bear Swamp, and whether you live in Macungie Borough, or either Upper or Lower Township, we shouldn't be shocked if a bear shows up and starts drinking out of the Iron Run creek.

   That's all for now, But I promise to post at least twice a week for now on, since the distractions that held me back from posting regularly have now passed.

Once Again, I rant about out municipal government supplied, Tax dollar paid for Snow removal.

   Will the damn Snow ever end? I don't know what is worse, getting a behemoth two feet of the white stuff in one shot ot getting 4 to 6 inches every few days for a month. This much I do know:
   The wall of snow along the curb on my steet is now as high as the car windows, and backing out of your driveway is an adventure. You really can't see very far, or if anyone is coming. During the day it is worse because of sunglare on the White snow, but at least at night you can see the reflection from an oncoming car's lights.
    Once again I would like to ask the Township Snow Plow Drivers what is the point of plowing all the snow in the development onto my side of the street?
    Do you take a perverse pleasure in creating a four foot high, three feet deep frozen wall of ice at the end of my driveway, (and That of my neighbors?)
   I broke the wooden handle of a Steel shovel trying to break it down and make it manageable to move. My Neighbor's Snowblower literally blew up trying to penetrate that thing.
    Then the Township had the nerve to send someone around to make sure we had cleared our sidewalks, or face possible fines? The Township Dump Trucks/Plows go down the street with such speed that they threw the several feet of acculated snow not just to the curb, but they also buried many of the sidewalks that had been cleared with more than a foot of slushy ice, which as the temperature dropped into the teens, became rock hard. Try Shoveling that!  Thank you Township!

   Okay, I am done now. I spent several hours this weeken Shoveling the excessive snow and ice off my back deck. I don't want the excessive weight to buckle it.  I'm glad I dropped the gym membership last year. God knows I get more exercise now outside in the elements.