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I feel like I need to write this down because someday all the roads in Seward will be fixed and I will have forgotten about it completely. 

Sometime long, long ago, they began a BUNCH of road construction in Seward. For Lloyd and I it began a block north of our house when they tore up a road that needed to have some new storm sewer lines put in. This was something that needed to be done before they could start The Big Work on Highway 15, which runs north and south through town. I needed to take a different route to work.

Behold these incredibly accurate diagrams:

My new route to the CDC: south to Lincoln Street, then north to Hillcrest (that top street).

Sometime in the spring, they began the process of actually fixing Highway 15 (6th Street) and they worked on a short, two block section of Highway 15, but it was the section that led out to Walmart and I-80. The detours for that were a couple of miles in either direction, one on gravel road, and one on paved road. The town was all up in arms. If you’re bored later, you can read all about that HERE.

Once that section was done, they began to tear up one lane of Highway 15 through downtown. Around that time, they also started to work on the new water tower (a couple of blocks south of us). Lloyd and I got to see that when it was still on the ground. It was pretty cool .

Once the water tower was actually up, they closed off seventh Street a couple blocks south of us, so – one more direction that we were cut off.

Next, the Highway 15 project left one street for us to cross over on the way to work: Lincoln Street. Also, traffic on Highway 15 is Southbound Only, so I had to cross over to 5th Street.

Things were looking up, though. After several weeks, I had a workaround to get home:drive west on Hillcrest, cross Highway 15/6th St, south on the newly-opened 8th St. to Lincoln St., east to 7th, and then north to my house! Woo-hoo!

Two weeks ago …… they blocked Hillcrest so they could install some water mains .

I am beginning to feel personally attacked. 

On Friday I came home to a flyer stuck in the door. The city is hosting a meeting Monday night, and we are definitely going. I joke about what an inconvenience this is for us, but the people at the corner of 7th and Park Avenue have not been able to access their driveways for months – they are parking a block away and walking. I hope the city will have some compensation for them.

On the upside? My street is very, very quiet now. Cats sleep on the road. (That will have to change…)

(blows dust off keyboard) Does this thing still work?

The main thing I’ve come to appreciate about the website is that it gave me a record of stuff that has happened. Unfortunately, too much has happened and there will be no flowery explanations right now – just a list of things. Good enough.

• Sam’s knee is ok. I’m writing this many, many weeks later and am glad to say that he is doing great.
• Sam took a call to be principal at St. Paul, Utica – a little town about 15 miles west of Seward.
• We have some tree issues. We had some guys cut down some branches (from the storm) and a tree out front. As it turns out, the buckeye tree in the back is also dead and will have to go.
• Upcoming house needs: new water heater, new a/c, possibly new dishwasher. None of this is urgent.
• I plonked one tomato plant in the weedy side yard and it is growing like gangbusters. It pleasantly supplies me with a daily dose of tomatoes.
• Work is work.

I think that’s it for now. Talk to you in ….. another month or two?

I am never going to get back to regular posting, but it is awfully handy to have a record of what’s been going on in life so that Future Lauren can have some memory about the past. Let’s see……

Weather. It hasn’t been too hot, and we’ve actually had some rain. In fact, over the past few weeks we’ve had tornado warnings at night. We actually went down to the basement for those – Lloyd set up the hammock and I had an air mattress the first night and the camping cot the second. I cleaned up the basement a tiny bit so it would feel less like sleeping in a dumpster.

We lost a big branch in one of the storms and Lloyd chopped it up with our little electric chainsaw.

Health. I had a colonoscopy. Yay. One little polyp but other than that it was fine. I also have had a rash that first cropped up in 2020, but this one raged all over. Little fluid-filled blisters that itched like mad, then progressing to just red itchy bumps. I went to the clinic and a dermatologist, but all they found out was that it wasn’t a gluten allergy. Useless. Notes for the future: Mometasone makes them firery, Dapsone and predisone seem to be helping.

House. Lloyd cleaned out the front entry and I ‘improved’ it by putting in a shelf to corral the stuff for Morning Fires by the Lake. It’s awfully handy to just have that stuff upstairs and ready to go. We’ve gone a few times this spring/summer. Gotta get that park pass cost down to a few bucks per use.

Sommerer Stuff. Anna and Luke got married! The wedding was lovely – my first outdoor wedding attendance. They had lots of friends and family and thankfully the weather was good. A little windy and hot to start, but it cooled down nicely.

Other Sommerer Stuff. Sam had a knee replacement. That family is going through rather a lot – Anna and Gracen both graduated and Sam took a call to be principal in Utica. Rachel is holding it all together, God bless her.

I think that’s about it from here. See you in …. July?

Well, you know there was a big ol’ solar storm on Friday, right? I found out about it on Friday and wondered if it would be possible to go out to the lake and see them in the night. We’ll, it had been a pretty rough week at work, so I asked Lloyd if he would be up for camping.

He was! It was a pretty abbreviated trip – we ate at home and didn’t leave the house until 7. We set up the tent and settled in for the evening.

It was peaceful and pleasant. We had a huge flock of low-flying ducks fly right overhead and the sound was astonishing – like several small fans going through the sky. I saw a couple of bald eagles, which is always my favorite.

The plan was to sleep until 2, then get up to see the lights during their predicted peak time. We started to go to the tent and wondered why the sky was still so bright so long after sundown. Lloyd said, “Um…. I think they’re happening…”

Yep, they were. Now, the photos look so much more colorful and amazing because of the long exposure on the phone’s camera, but it was different. Think ‘slightly overcast evening with a city’s light pollution, and some of those sky spotlights that need new bulbs’. But the camera photos? Super cool.

We took a bunch of photos for half an hour, then went back to the tent. I moved the rain fly so we could see out from bed.

In the middle of the night the alarm went off, and I looked out the window. It was just overcast, so I was going to give up. I sat up and looked up to see a whole munch of stars. It wasn’t overcast, it was the lights. We are so dumb.

We got up, and saw many more ‘curtain’-style lights.

In the morning, I made fire and got breakfast ready. Lloyd’s chair had a pan of coals underneath to keep him toasty warm, and he propped his feet up on the fire ring.

Later, when I was getting ready to pack up, I saw the soles of his boots smoking. “Your boots are on fire.”

He just looked at me.

“YOUR BOOTS ARE ON FIRE.”

He pulled up his foot to look at the bulging, smoking sole of his boot. I told him to GET UP AND WALK ON THE WET GRASS. This photo was taken after he had walked on the wet grass for a while. Still smoking a bit.

All in all, it was soul-restoring, and we were home by 9.

Well, if you took all the time to read those old posts, here is the payoff:

Citibank re-opened the dispute, contacted the merchant, and we got our money back! Huzzah! Hooray! I even wrote a thank- you note to the dispute people thanking them for doing a thankless job.

Now, I don’t know if it was because of the Google doc or if the merchant agreed that they were in the wrong or if Citibank was just tired of hearing from me, but at least I said my piece.

Oh, I forgot something that you might have seen if you read the Google doc: The information and screenshots that the merchant provided about their terms and conditions and return policy? They were from a different website. Thepremiumleather.com instead of leatherings.com. Good grief.

So, the moral of this story is: Don’t let Lloyd buy anything off the internet unless it’s from Amazon.

Also, I would really like to get this jacket back to the manufacturer, I just don’t want it to cost $300. Anyone headed to Pakistan?

(Note: I started to write this whole explanation out, but then I realized that most of the information is in the Google doc link that is in the letter. I think you can read it, but you don’t have to.)

When I found out Citibank’s verdict, first I was sad. They said that they’d send us a letter with the information the seller provided, and when that came through, I was LIVID. The seller said many, many untrue things! (I’ll share some of those tomorrow.)

I wrote a letter to the dispute center at Citibank. I told them….. well, I’ll just copy what I told them……

To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to express my concern and confusion over your decision regarding case ********. My husband purchased a leather coat that was not what was advertised on Leatherings.com’s website.I provided a Google document link with the timeline of the process, including the multiple times we contacted Leatherings. The information they replied with was not truthful. From their response to you

“The item in question is the same product described on our website and/or not eligible for return/ refund. The customer accepted the merchandise and no complaints were recorded when the merchandise was delivered which makes the dispute invalid. In addition, the customer did not make any reasonable, good faith efforts to resolve the dispute with us directly prior to raising a chargeback. The customer never reached out to our support team for any issues or to request a refund.”

I provided a Google document link with the timeline of the process, including the multiple times we contacted Leatherings. The information they replied with was not truthful. 

I am providing the link to the Google document again:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IF8vdO0A2c441hugQ-SyFWoX4psQygdBzxc7RhZOOxQ/edit?usp=sharing

Again from Leatherings’ response to you: 

“An official online receipt was created and sent to the customer’s email address and available online at any time making sure that the customer is fully aware of the items they purchased as well as the charges in the account.”

There is NO record of that email in my husband’s email account. We searched for the receipt immediately after receiving the jacket, and again after receiving your verdict. We also did not receive any confirmation number, as their website states they will send. (I can’t copy that from their letter to you because it’s a photo.)

My concern is that when Leatherings provided their response, that was it. We could not respond and show you – again – that they are not telling the truth.

For me, it is not about the money, it’s about the lack of honesty on their part. I am a teacher and have a strong sense of justice and feel that people should do the right thing. This company has not done the right thing. I ask you to read through the Google doc again and just know that they were contacted multiple times, their company information on their website is a dead end, and that they are not reputable. 

I would really appreciate it if someone would write back to me. I understand I am of no real concern to anyone there, but I just want someone to know how I feel.

Tiredly,

Lauren Sommerer

(I’ll tell you the rest next time.)