I'M GOLDEN. OR ORANGE. OR SOMETHING.

The next time somebody (i.e. my mother, my brother) tells me to "shop local", I'm going to punch them right in the throat.

We have so many things we want to do around here. It's crazy. First call we made was to the water guy. They guarantee pretty much perfect water, which would be a real thrill for me since I've spent 12 years being annoyed by the disgustingly stained shower in my bathroom and the toilets I've tried everything on to get clean.  The second I do get new water, I'm getting new toilets. And a shower.

Anywho, that company is in Iron Mountain, which is an hour away. Called them, and they were here almost immediately to explain the system, test our water and give the estimate. Pricey...no decision made.

Next step, we're considering a new furnace, central air and a new hot water system, either tank or tankless. Kev stopped at the place I call whenever we have issues with the furnace. Told him they'd call to schedule a time to come out. Two weeks pass with no call.

Now, this kind of thing really pisses me off. I give Kev another company to call. I think he got ahold of them after a couple of days, and they set up an appointment to come out here Monday morning at 8:30.  And they don't show up.

So now I'm even more pissed off. Evidently in this shit-economy town I live in where businesses in general are doing horrible, these guys are so independently wealthy they aren't interested in our business? Seriously? We're not talking a few hundred bucks here, people. We're talking serious money.

Kev calls the no-show people, and the receptionist's response was, "Oh, shit! That was today." Well, DUH. Yes, it was today. Since they had guys not too far from my house, she called them, and they showed up about an hour later.

I then tell him to call the first place to give them one more chance to come out. I want more than one estimate for this amount of work. His response, "Oh, you were on my list!"  Well, gee, maybe if we were "on your list" you should have taken 5 minutes to make a damn phone call to schedule an appointment.  "Supposedly" they will be coming out Friday. Time will tell.

Poor Kev has been listening to me fume for two weeks about it. As I told him, do these companies seriously think I can't call someone in Marquette or Iron Mountain or Menominee to come here? I'm thinking there are people that would love to get a job like this.

So yeah. Shop local, my ass.

Now, on the flip side of these idiots is my roofer/contractor. I'll tell you what, if you live anywhere in my area and want something done, T. L. Brunette Contracting. Seriously. The owner, Tony, is the best guy ever. When my ceilings were getting wet from the ice dams, he came out here right away, went and bought the special salt, climbed his ass up on that roof and fixed it. And then came back the next day with another bag of salt and did the front half of the roof.  He must have been up there for almost 2 hours between the two days. I tell him to send me a bill, and he goes on his merry way, and I have a smile on my face because he rescued me while Kev was gone.

A couple of weeks pass, and we still haven't gotten his bill.  In the meantime, Kev called to set up an appointment with him to see about getting some work done around here.  New deck railing, storage attachment to the garage, new side garage door and a new front picture window.

HE shows up. Fast. In fact, he showed up 2 hours early, and I sent him away because Kev wasn't home. He came back right when he was supposed to be here.  We showed him what we wanted done. When Kev asked about a bill for the roof stuff he did for me, Tony said he had done it "no charge for the salt or the labor".  And for the record, he didn't do it for free because he knew we wanted other things done. He did it for free because he's just that kind of guy.

And that, my friends, is how you run a business. Or should, anyway.  He'll have our business for years to come because he actually gives a shit. 

VOTD over.

I did this mani last week, and yes, I actually did both hands because after I did one, I really liked it.  

I hadn't originally planned on striping it. I was just looking through my polishes trying to decide what to use. I wanted to use something I hadn't tried before. I came across the Kleancolor Holo Orange that I've had forever and decided it looked kind of pretty on the swatch. 

And it was pretty on its own, but it was also a bit boring. I thought about stamping and did try a few different colors with a pattern, but they just weren't showing up very well. I actually wanted to stamp with the China Glaze Harvest Moon because I liked the contrast. It was just vanishing into the orange, so I grabbed my striping tape and did this.

I love how it turned out. My striping tape skills were in good form, and I didn't even have to redo anything.

Whew! I feel better after all that venting I just did. It's one of the benefits of having a blog.