Is it me, or are there just too many incompetent people employed these days?? I swear either everyone thinks I'm an idiot or they don't care that they're screwing over the public in general. The big bed that I bought the end of January was not the bed I had ordered. When it was delivered, I called and questioned whether it was a mistake and the salesman tried hard to convince me that it was the one that I had selected. It was not - nor was it the brand I had ordered, so after trying to sleep on it and suffering from sore back and lack of sleep, I asked them to take it back. After some negotiation, I finally received a call from the manager of their other store who agreed to have someone pick it up and give me a credit back on my charge card. She wanted me to follow them back to the store to re-swipe my credit card for the adjustment, but I thought that was a little strange and told her I could only do that if they came early enough that I could get out and back before my caregiver had to leave. When they finally arrived to pick it up, it was 1/2 hr. before Kelly was due to leave, so I couldn't follow them back to the store. The guy in charge of picking it up said he was pretty sure he could make the credit card adjustment without having to swipe my card, so they took the mattress and box spring and left. That was two days and I have yet to see the credit and was told by my credit card company that they could take as long as 30 days to release the funds back to my credit card. Since I filed a dispute of the charge with my credit card company, and told them the items have been returned to the merchant, they have at least issued me a temporary adjustment on my card. Pain in the ass to have to go through all this - I feel as though I have been defrauded, but not going to let them get away with it.

In the meantime, I went out and found a good mattress set w/box spring from another merchant and we waited around that evening for the delivery - delivery time was scheduled between 5 p.m. - 8 p.m. After having slept on our recliners for two nights already, I was anxious to get the bed set up and get Gary to bed at a decent hour. My elderly neighbor had a friend/caregiver helping her squeeze oranges for juice, so she offered to have her stay and help me set up the bed when it came. By 8:20 we still had not received our new bed, so I tried calling the merchant and they were closed at 8 p.m. I had no way of getting ahold of the delivery people to find out where the heck our bed was. Finally, at about 8:50 I got a call from the delivery driver informing me they were running "a little late and would be here in about 45 min." Why didn't they just tell me "sometime before midnight".?? They finally showed up with the bed at about 9:30 that night and Krysta came over and helped me set it up and get Gary into bed - he was exhausted by then and there's no way I could have handled him alone. I offered to pay her for helping me, but she would not take any money - I'm pretty sure Lois took care of it for me. I fear we will go through the same thing tomorrow when the other - smaller bed that I ordered for the study is due to arrive.

I also got a call the other day about the hoyer lift that I had ordered for Gary. I had called our family Dr. on at least 3 or 4 occasions after I went in with the frozen shoulder problem the first part of January and asked if she could write a prescription for Gary for the hoyer. Someone finally put the order in to a local health care agency and that's who called me, but to inform me they had an order for a hoyer lift for me. I told her it was for Gary, but I would be using it to get him in and out of bed - and I was shocked that someone actually finally wrote the order, but not at all surprised that they screwed it up. Am I being a smartass here???? You bet I am - why, because it is so typical of all the B.S. I have dealt with over the last 10-1/2 years since Gary's stroke. Nobody follows up, nobody cares, it's not their problem, and as I've said many times I could write a book about it. While I am waiting on the hoyer lift, I am still having pain in the right shoulder as the cortisone shot that I got a month ago is probably wearing off.

We got our bill from Gary's ENT appointment a few weeks ago and I had to call and question the amount he still owed. I asked the gal why they didn't show that he had paid a $45 co-pay at the time of the appointment and why it wasn't applied to that bill. She looked it up and it appears they billed the medicare HMO the total amt. - got paid by insurance the allowed amt. per their contract and then tried to bill us the difference - all the while ignoring the fact that we already paid $45 co-pay. She decided we actually didn't owe any more money....go figure!!! I'm pretty sure we owed the co-pay amount so chances are they collected more than they should have from insurance, and nobody on that end caught it.

The handyman finished up the ceiling work in Dan's room and we will paint it ourselves. I hired the more reliable handyman to do the back bedroom drywall. He stopped by earlier today to disconnect the electrical from the vent/fan/light so the roofers can replace the top vent cover with plywood before doing the foam roof. Grant is very thorough and efficient in his work even if it takes him forever to bill me for a job that lasts more than an hr. The roofers can't get here until the 18th of March to do the foam roof, but we will keep our fingers crossed it doesn't rain before then.

Tomorrow our friend from Boulder, CO will be here for a few days. This will be her first trip pulling her little camper down here without Mike (who passed away about six months ago). I hadn't realized when she called that the main road to our place will be closed tonight from 10 p.m. through Friday morning at 5 a.m., so she will have to take the long way around to get to our place. When I saw the sign about the closure this morning, it was already too late to call and let her know since she is on the road already and I don't have her new cell number. I'm hoping she calls from wherever she stops tonight, so I can let her know to go straight to the casino parking lot and call us from there. Then we can drive our vehicle over and have dinner with her there, or bring her back to our place. One more thing to worry about .............do I need a chill pill or what??? My son says I worry to much - I should just chill out ......maybe he should walk a mile in my shoes...... lol

Sarah