Lauren

The coat story:resolved!  ….er…twice.

Where were we? Let’s just sum up:

Lloyd has owned the same leather coat for 30 years and it is in pretty bad shape. A while ago we went to Overland Sheepskin Omaha where he found a very nice leather coat. It was pricey -$400 – so we decided to wait.

In February, he searched online and found THE EXACT SAME COAT for $239. How do we know it was exact? Well, look at these photos! Here is a screenshot from Overland.

Here is the screenshot from Leatherings.com. (Same model, same coat! If you look closely, though, there is one different guy.)

He ordered it, and here’s where the first red flag should have been noticed. Leatherings.com didn’t send a confirmation number.

Time went by and a small package arrived ….. from Pakistan. I asked what it was. “I’m afraid it’s my jacket.” Yep. It was a knockoff, and it was too small. The jacket wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the quality of the jacket he had tried on in Omaha, it wasn’t the brand he ordered, and again, it didn’t fit.

We decided to return it and search elsewhere.

Well…. That’s when we discovered that there wasn’t an actual return address on the leatherings.com website, and that Lloyd never got a confirmation number. I sent multiple emails asking for addresses and information. I was first ignored and then given addresses that didn’t make sense. To ship this coat back to the UK or Pakistan would have cost $300. Yikes!

I opened a dispute with Citibank and they said to gather documentation, which I am great at, thank you John Harlan.

(I just want to say at this point that Lloyd was useless. He wanted to just eat the cost and learn the lesson. I wanted to throttle him.)

I put together a big ol’ Google doc with dates, emails, screenshots and the kitchens sink and sent it to Citibank. They contacted the seller and then we waited for them to get back to Citibank. We waited a good loooooong time – nearly a month?

Finally, the seller contacted Citibank! Hooray!

24 hours later, Citibank made their verdict and said I was responsible for the charge.

What?

What the What?

WHAT?!?!?

I was livid. Tune in next time to hear the rest of the story….

Part of the problem of not updating this website very often is that, like Brad, I have relied on it to be an Online Memory Archive. Not having it has proved to be troublesome, like when I got an insurance letter this week about a doctor visit back in March on a Sunday. Sunday? That’s crazy! I was ready to write back to them and say they had me mixed up with someone else, but then I remembered that I had pink eye and went to urgent care in Lincoln…. on a Sunday.

So, here are some things to record:

We went to the lake again. This time I was prepared with everything under the sun to keep Lloyd warm: the behind-the-chair foil reflectors, his sweatshirt and a giant down jacket and tongs to move coals under his chair…… and then we didn’t get there until well after the sun came up and it wasn’t very cold at all. In other news, I bought a collapsible kettle (on clearance) to use with my tiny stove, and I love it oh, so much.

Part of the reason that we were late is that when I was loading the car, the neighborhood orange cat who has been skittish of me was 100% not skittish that morning and would not leave me alone. So many scritches! No photo, but I’m writing it down so you’ll know him later. I’m calling him Little Ralph, but I’m pretty sure he lives a couple of houses down.

The construction in Seward is in full force. North of us they still have Park Avenue torn up and are laying GIGANTIC storm sewer pipes to mitigate any future flooding.

The Highway 15 project is also in full force. I asked for the community (via Facebook)to help my class see what was going on and lots of people sent in photos. I made a little video of them. (Ugh. After uploading I see that I have some random photos from a video I made for parents. Just ignore those.)

As if that weren’t enough, one of the water towers in town is getting replaced. On a walk to see the downtown construction, we saw what looked like a spaceship – and it was the new tower under construction.

There was some terrible weather this week – so many tornadoes and lots of destruction around Lincoln and Omaha. Thankfully, Seward was safe, but pray for those who are dealing with the aftermath.

Ok, I’m unlikely to update daily, but at least this will help me. May is going to be a big of a whirlwind with graduations and Anna’s upcoming wedding. See you later!

I have thought about having a fire by the lake for the longest time, but morning temperatures on the weekends have been below 30 degrees, and I knew Lloyd wouldn’t tolerate that. Well, this Saturday it was supposed to be around 50! Hooray!

I was mostly excited because I bought two new gadgets – a low table and a windscreen for the stove. The table is so that there is one place for all the stuff instead of two or three, and the windscreen so that my little stove has a fighting chance in the wind.

Out in the wild, it worked great!

I especially like the little wings. This table adjusts by a whopping two inches to transform from ‘very low coffee table’ to ‘low coffee table’, but it’s perfect for me.

We had a good time. Well, I had a good time. Lloyd was cold, and I spent most of my time keeping him comfortable. I need to remember gloves and hats and to get him a travel mug that is warm on the outside for his hands. (Or just one of the many handwarmer options I have in this house – charcoal, catalytic, exothermic/endothermic? reaction….) I also need to remember a dedicated coal pan for under the chair – the Bunwarmer pan.

After the fire dies down, it’s ‘Good Citizens Clean Up After Bad Citizens’ time. We bring a trash bag and gather up all the beer bottles and trash left by fishermen and drunkards. This time there was a sizable crop.

In other news, our taxes are 99% finished! Lloyd just has a question for the financial person my my work, and then they’re done. Thanks, Lloyd!

Monday’s eclipse was only supposed to be partial – 84% in Seward – but I was still pretty excited about it. My big reason? Those disco balls! I have one hanging in the classroom window all the time and the afternoon sun makes lovely reflections.

I had prepped the children that it might be cloudy and that we should be prepared for disappointment (all of this was really for myself), but God blessed us with a sunny day! I told them that we would have short nap, then go outside on the porch so we could sit safely in the shade and watch the reflections. As it so happened, I could aim a couple from the playground, through the windows and onto the ceiling:

We were outside for about 40 minutes, and the kids were champs. I had little rugs for us to sit on and a LOT of paper for drawing. It was pretty cool.

Thanks, God.

In other news, we have not yet done our taxes, but 91% of the legwork is done. We just have to get this show on the road.

Lloyd and I drove out to Colorado over Easter to visit my Dad. We had our new schedule down pat: We leave as soon as I can get out of school, drive to Denver for the night, then get up early and high-tail it to Western Colorado, arriving a little before noon.

It was a good trip. My Dad is doing well at assisted living, but whenever me or my siblings visit, we bust him out and head up to the house for the day. We got a few errands done with him – a trip to the bank and the post office – and then just hung out. It was delightful.

Back in February, my sister visited and helped my Dad upgradto a larger bed (full size) so he could be more comfortable. She had loaded the twin-size mattress and adjustable platform into Dad’s truck back and we said we’d get it into the house when we were there. Here’s a screenshot from the cameras we have all over the house. (Don’t try to rob us – we’ll know it’s you.)

Saturday morning, Dad called us to say that he hadn’t slept well and was going to take a nap, so we shouldn’t rush down to see him. We actually had a box spring from the twin bed we replaced that needed to go. Sooo….. We went to the dump! I’d never been to this dump, but it was quite the adventure. See, Eckert is on the side of Grand Mesa – the largest tabletop mountain in… America? (The world? The universe?) It’s high up, but not ‘steep’ high. There are lots of ‘dobies’, too – dusty hills that look like cloth draped over old furniture, like this stolen image from the internet:

Well, we found out that at least one of those dobies is made of garbage. We drove into the dump, then up and up and up and up until we were on top of a mountain made of trash. It was hilarious, and I kept singing ‘High on a mountain of love’, only changing the lyrics.

Afterward, we tried to stop at a thrift store in Cedaredge, but it was closed. I did manage to get a stunning photo of Lloyd, though.

On Sunday, we went to Easter services. This was the first time Dad’s been to church since his fall in October, and it was so nice to be there with him. (He even went up for communion instead of having it in the pew!) Look at us – so stained-glassy.

After church we went back to the house for naps, a family Zoom, dinner with his neighbor, then more hanging out. It was a delightful day.

On Monday we were up early. We stopped by to say goodbye to Dad and then were on the road by 7 Mountain time. The landscape was eerily foggy – beautiful when it was far away, boring and creepy when we were in it.

I drove until we hit wet weather, then Lloyd took over until Denver. Denver to Ogallala was me, then Lloyd took us home. We drove the return trip the fastest we’d ever gone: 10 ½ hours instead of 11 ½ or 12, but holy cats: I was DONE being in the car. I was rather crabby the last couple of hours.

I hope your Easter was lovely!

We had a little bit of winter last night and apparently the roads are a little slick this morning. I’m going in early to check and see how the parking lot is.

Speaking of the parking lot, the man who takes care of it is in the hospital. Ron is our facilities guy, and he has a brain hematoma and is in the hospital right now. Your prayers for great medical care and a swift recovery would be wonderful. He is the husband of my director, and is just an incredibly great person. Thank you so much.