If it's Monday, it’s definitely Murphy!

Or the light at the end of the tunnel is probably a train.

Did you ever have one of THOSE days? Boy, I’m having one. I have been quite happy with progress on the Lotus Blossom Tank and was hoping I could finish later this week. That may or may not be possible. Even with downsizing the pattern and what not, it still looks like I may be short on the yarn needed to finish the project (less stitches should equal more yarn, right?). I still had the contact from the Las Vegas yarn shop where I bought the yarn a year ago and have sent a desperate email to them hoping there’s still a lonely ball or two sitting around the shop. I do have a plan B if I can’t track down more of the same yarn (but don’t want to go there if I don’t have to). So far none of the nearby shops carry that particular yarn. Whine.

Caution: Upcoming rant… This month is the first month that I’m learning to budget on one pay period a month. So naturally, there was a small glitch in my retirement pay (like the check was smaller than it should be). So, I had to call the dreaded Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) that’s the pay office that handles all military pay for active, reserve and retired members. If you haven’t ever served you might be thinking, so what’s the big deal? Well, I’ll tell you, they do not generally hire customer service folks for their customer service abilities or problem solving skills. So, after waiting on hold for about 9 years of listening to the most annoying voice telling me that my call was very important and it would be taken in the order in which it received and then alternating with possibly the most amazingly horrible muzak ever (my ears might not recover), I finally got a live person to deal with. Now, as DFAS employees go, her skills seemed to be above average…she was able to pleasantly and quickly determine that my problem was due to a simple clerical error. But then I made the mistake of asking how long it would take to fix that error, and then it was like, “can I put you on hold while I talk to my supervisor?” I wanted to know if the deficiency would be made right during the month of September (like it’s all in the computer – do it today); she assured me it would be done as quickly as possible. Which in DFAS speak translates to the earliest I can expect any resolution to my problem will be around the 20th or so of the month, hmmm; so much for fast and efficient. Fast and efficient are words, of course, that are not in DFAS’ dictionary.

Now I don’t want you to be concerned that I’ll have to choose between food or yarn the rest of the month, it’s just that I can’t (will never) understand why the employees that DFAS hires just can’t do their jobs right the first time and save all of us the agony of having to contact them, investigate the problem and then take the time to go back and fix the thing.

On top of that I was also trying to deal with another company about an investment issue that somehow got mucked up and waiting for call backs and confirmations and so forth; which ended up in us taking a moderate loss in the short run, but saving a bundle in the long run. (Actually about the same amount my check was short… double hmmm).

So in a nutshell, I spent most of the day on the phone trying to solve problems that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

And actually, I was supposed to be making a valance for the kitchen….


Let’s just hope that shop in Vegas has my yarn!