I Need New Glasses ....Still

A couple of nights ago, my family (minus the boy child) went to a little family diner in a neighboring town. We had been there before and remembered that the food was good and it was inexpensive so we decided to make the trek. Nearly an hour after we ordered and everyone else in the restaurant had come and gone, we got our food. All I can say is it is still fairly inexpensive.

We had to pick up some dog food (we were still unsatisfied from our meal and thought this might help) as well as a few other household items, rubbing alcohol, fabric softener, toothpaste. You know the kind of trip. You go to the store for $20 worth of stuff and come out missing an arm. Well this trip was no different, so off to the "store that has it all" to shop.

While we were at the store, we saw some pre-paid cell phones. Now my husband and I have phones, but our daughter is getting ready to make a trip to NY next month to sing at Carnegie Hall and we are probably NOT going to be able to go. I'm not too sure about sending one of our phones off with her, but neither do I want to be unable to reach her or her me if need be so we're checking out our options. Two of the young men there politely answered all of our questions, but told us that this route is really expensive. They were right, so we decided to continue weighing out all the options.

My husband was looking for one of our listed items while our daughter had spied something of interest. She had found the portable DVD players... and they're on SALE! "This can be my Easter, birthday AND Christmas present, Mom! Daniel won't go in on it with me and let it be one present for both our birthdays so I'll just put everything together and it will be just mine, PLEASE!"

To placate her, I went to look. As luck would have it, they really did have some good prices. Unfortunately, the $100 off would end Saturday, there were only two left, and no more were on order! We had been looking at buying one for trips for some time so this really wouldn't be a "spur of the moment buying decision", right? We convinced ourselves it was a good decision. Only one obstacle remained. I had no extra money to buy it at this time. I looked to Darrell as if to say, do you want to take it out of savings? Do you want to put it on a credit card and pay it later? Yes, it's a great buy, but "you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip" as my DH likes to say. Well, apparently you can because we told the young man to take it to the service desk. We had made the decision to buy!

We brought our new treasure home. Oh yes, and the dog food, too (Cinnamon was quite pleased with that purchase). And we put it aside. Ashley kept bringing it out wanting to “look" at it. "I just want to look at it!" Then it was, “Can’t I just cut the plastic off? I'll be really careful! I promise I won't open the box!" Then, "We really need to make sure it works, Mom, please!"

After two days of a little fox working on this vine, we're sitting on the couch last night and I'm trying to read the instructions on how to charge the battery. Now the instruction manual is in FOUR languages, 28 pages each all compacted into ONE 1/4 inch thick book that fits into the length of my hand! In addition to having microscopic print, for some reason the printers decided that the actual instructions had to be written in pale gray on a grayish white background!

As you all know, I have just had a birthday and I am old now, so seeing print like this is difficult even WITH my glasses on! I decided to make the effort anyway. I succeeded in finding the page which stated how to charge the battery, but was shocked to find that it had to be charged for 45 to 65 hours! Unbelievable! I turned the light up. Yes, that is what it said. I put my glasses on. Yes, I read it right. I had never heard of such a long time needed to charge a battery. My family and I reasoned it must just be for the initial charge. Surely it would not take that long every time! I proceeded to put all the pieces together and set it up.

Meanwhile, my daughter took the manual and started to read about the charging process. "Mom! It says '4.5 to 6.5 hours not 45 to 65! HAHAHAHA!"

The math teacher in me couldn't resist, "See the importance of a decimal point!" Yeah, it would have been really nice if the printers had made it BIGGER!

My lesson? I'll be making an appointment to see the eye doctor next week.