A Richmond Year

Cold cold cold

Thank you, Richmond Gas. It’s 58 degrees this morning because you couldn’t be bothered to give us a disconnect notice and because your phone system is awful. Gotta love monopolies.

The man is coming to turn on the gas sometime today. When? Sometime today. And yes, someone needs to be home. [sigh]

No accident

Almost caused a news story today. Made a right turn out of a parking lot onto a three-lane road. No cars in the right lane (which I was turning into), but one in the middle. He panicked — I guess he doesn’t know how to make a right turn into a right lane and figured I was about to crash into him. He slammed his brakes, the car behind him slammed his brakes (neither had ABS, I noted) and there was much smoke and burning rubber. Oops. These people gonna have to learn.

Really no gas

Tried to give the Boy a bath, but the water was cold. Richmond Gas shut us off. I can remove the lock if I want, but I call instead, wanting to avoid fines and jail time and all. It take three tries to get through. First try, I listened to the loooooooooong auto-attendant intro (English and Spanish), but ended up being sent to a dead line. Great. Another time with the long intro, then transferred to some queue in the Spanish section. I don’t know what ’cause I don’t speak Spanish. Third time I get through.

Vent some frustration on the poor woman, then apologize and explain. She’s incredibly helpful, even offering to wait while I kiss a boo-boo. Sorry for the problem, we’ll have someone turn it on tomorrow. Billing is set in my name, and includes a $35 “Welcome to Richmond” fee. Whatever. Tomorrow we’ll have heat.

Shopping

Got to PetSmart, got a pooper scooper. Soon the yard will be less of a mine field. We (the Boy and I) also hit the Shoppes at Shorte Pumpe or whatever they’re called. The place was empty — yay for weekday shopping. The mall is outdoors — great in good weather, otherwise not so much. Walked around, noted stores, at lunch. The place is huge, but it doesn’t feel like it has many stores. It’s also hard to get around. Maybe it’s empty because it’s a poor design rather than because it’s a weekday.

Pooper scooping

So, I need a pooper scoop. Badly. That’s not something you put into a moving van. PetSmart is around here, thankfully. The company’s store finder and Microsoft maps both say so, and both put the dot right there. And there is in an obvious place right near here. Drive, drive, drive, back and forth. No luck; no PetSmart. Even went through the mall parking lot.

Came home and did the obvious thing: Called the store. “Where are you?” Ah — it’s behind the mall. So the address is on Broad Street, but the store is about a quarter mile off Broad. Sneaky.

Worked out some of the funky electric stuff. Found switches that control wall sockets, so the number of mystery switches is down to four. Somewhere in Germany is an old woman whose lights are blinking on and off.

Ukrops

Got to Ukrops today for the first time. (The one in Roanoke was too crowded and I never bothered going.) It’s a local grocery chain with a certain cache. Well, I won’t be going back. Great meats and veggies, sure, but the rest of the food selection is awful. The self-checkout, which is great in Kroger, sucks at Ukrops — there’s simply not enough room. We had to get cashier assistance something like five times because I couldn’t fit things on the tiny bagging area. Finally got out, and there’s no place to put your cart in the lot. You’re supposed to walk back to the store with it. Yeah, right. Left mine behind the largest SUV I saw.

Speaking of SUVs, there are a lot of them here. Either they get a lot more snow here than I thought, or there’s an epidemic of  small penises here.

Still no gas

Tried again to get the gas transferred into our names. Busy, still. Grr.

This is the same number you’re supposed to use to report a gas leak. Wonderful.

Gas and painting

Tried again to get the gas transferred into our names. Busy, still. Grr.

Painted the master bedroom today, the same mocha as the office. Still amazed at the choice of yellow paint. There’s also a hospital-esque TV stand in the bedroom — a metal bracket shelf thing in the corner. Tried to remove it, but the thing is bolted in pretty solidly. One of these days I’ll get a plasma torch and take care of it.

Painting

Richmond shoppers are like New York drivers. I can work with this. :)

Today was a painting day. Much of the house looks great, but the office is orange and the master bedroom is yellow. Who does that? I mean, how does that conversation go?

“Honey, let’s paint the small bedroom.”

“Great idea. How about bright orange?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Now the orange room is mocha brown, which goes with the carpet and, you know, everything else.

Gas, again

Tried to get gas hooked up, but the phone number for Richmond public services was busy (!). Over and over. (Garbage is private but gas is public. Got it.) Evidently the old tenant is still paying, but that won’t last forever.