Category: Leisure

August 10, 2023 – Finally

August 10, 2023 /

Happy Father’s Day to me. We purchased a safe for Father’s Day and it was pretty cheap by all standards. It was already on sale and then we were able to by gift cards at 10% off. We used those gift cards to purchase the safe. So all told we bought the safe for $800. Buying it is one thing, but actually getting it in place is completely another thing. Today, I am going to talk about what to know when hiring a safe mover.

First of all, I never wanted the safe in my shop. This was an alternate choice. I wanted it in the basement where I currently store all of my sporting goods. While negotiating the delivery, I was told by the safe mover that it was too big to negotiate down the stairs and make tight turns. He told me when he showed up for delivery that safes of this size were too big to move up or down stairs (in general). Quite honestly, I don’t believe that. But, you should know that size matters when dealing with some individuals.

I think that if I had known this, I possibly would have purchased a smaller safe. The reason I bought this one was three fold. Conventional wisdom is purchase the biggest safe you can afford. The second was that this size was only $100 more than the one that was 20% smaller. The third is that I had no idea that people would say no. I assumed that I would say I want it here and the price would reflect the effort or manpower.

I wont go through all the gyrations that we went through to negotiate delivery. Suffice to say, I would not recommend this company to do further work. I mean, six weeks for delivery, who runs a business like this? I will comment on some of the more egregious parts of the process.

When he showed up to the store to pickup the safe, he called said that it wasn’t there. Mind you, because this was for Father’s Day my wife started the negotiations. Then he calls back five minutes later and said that she told him the wrong store. I had taken a picture of the receipt and sent it to him. But, my wife had already done that over a month ago. Since I wasn’t involved in the discussion, I don’t know who said what but the fact of the matter was that he already had the correct information. That wasn’t the worst part of it, he charged me an additional mileage fee because he got the wrong information.

He did do his best to position the safe where I wanted. He spent time to level the safe, check the door operation and give me some quick instruction on how to deal with batteries and change the code on the lock. I had assumed that this was full installation so I didn’t ask questions, but when he was done he said that we did not discuss anchoring the safe. He charges $25 per hole (and there are four bolt holes in this safe). By that time, I was so fed up with him that I said no. This is a job that I can easily do.

Another irritating thing was that when he drove off, he left all of the packaging in the driveway. Fortunately, most of it is cardboard and I can recycle it for free. But, I have never had an installation where they left stuff for the customer to deal with. This is poor business practice I would say. Here are my suggestions on what to know:

  • If you are hiring a mover, you might want to check with them before purchasing a safe on what they will or wont do in terms of placement.
  • You might want to look at more than one option if you have any. This was the company that the store recommended. I am sure they have no idea what this experience is like.
  • Make sure you get an itemized list of what you are paying for. I really didn’t appreciated getting sprung with extra costs on the spot.
  • I bought the safe at a farm and ranch store. Maybe you get what you pay for. They are not safe experts, just cheap, safe sellers. Probably had I purchased from a safe specialist, I would not have had all of these experiences.

This was a purchase that was long time coming. While I really don’t own that many guns, the current cabinet was at its full capacity. It is full of ammunition, accessories an all things shooting related. I even modified it when the kids were young adding a gate clasp with padlock for ‘extra’ security. It offered no fire protection and is always a chore getting stuff out that is not in the front. So despite the fact it isn’t totally what I wanted, I am happy for the extra security, protection and room.

End Your Programming Routine: In retrospect, I should have paid the $75 delivery fee and looked for movers that would do what I wanted after it was delivered, especially when I didn’t get a good feeling early on. I my case, I paid a third of the overall cost to have the safe delivered and positioned. I did learn a few things watching and so I will definitely not pay for this service again, especially to not get what I wanted. I have a few more things to accessorize before I start seeing how everything looks. I am eager to get started.

June 29, 2023 – New Rules in Baseball?

June 29, 2023 /

I used to love baseball as a kid. I used to play it, watch it and listen on the radio. I was never good and so I quit before high school because I couldn’t make the ‘A’ team as a youth. I still like it, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it. If I could listen to it on the radio and do something else, that would be my ultimate. Maybe when I will retire, I will be one of those that catch every game while I sit on the porch.

I have been following the College World Series. As you know, I am a Oregon State Beaver fan and at least in this sport they are a perennially a good team that makes it into the playoffs most years. The Beavers were a good team, but I knew that they were not the best. They got beat in conference tournament before the finals. This is never a good thing because you want to end the season hot. Actually, in the regionals they lost to LSU (the future 2023 champion) so I don’t feel too bad.

When I was in Minneapolis last week, we had a team outing to the Minnesota Twins. I was excited because this was the first major league game I had been to since 1980. My dad spent some time in Milwaukee on a project and we went with him. So, to date my first and only MLB game was with the Brewers who instantly became my favorite team.

Incidentally, 1982 was the last year they went to the World Series. They have only made the playoffs six times and lost in the first round each time. Not a lot to get really exited about. Nevertheless, I was ready to enjoy this game.

Since I lost ultimate touch with baseball, I forgot that the Twins used to play in a dome. I was reading and in fact it actually closed in 2013, ten years ago! I thought that this stadium was new, but really it is not.

I was always kind of Twins fan. I rooted for them when they played the Cardinals and Braves in the World Series (1987,1991). I guess I have always been a American League guy since my dad was a Yankees fan and the AL Central has been a powerhouse of good baseball in recent history. Since I have been following it, Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City (formerly the Brewers as well) have all made multiple World Series appearances.

The first pitch was at 6:40pm. The game went pretty quickly with a 20 second pitch clock between pitches. I didn’t notice the exact time but by 8:45pm we were headed to the tenth inning. I could hardly believe that the game went so fast. The clock I knew about but I had not seen it in action. I think it made a difference in the speed of the game.

When we got to the tenth inning, I saw something odd. A runner started on second base. I looked it up and it is called a ghost runner. This is an attempt to put a runner in scoring position and speed up the end of the game. This really isn’t much different than what college football is doing. It is not sudden death if the visiting team scores but it is when the home team does first.

As it turns out, the Twins held the tenth and scored on a sacrifice and won the game. This is the way that you always want to end a pop in experience. It was fun, quick and my team won. Despite traffic, we still got back to the hotel by 10:30pm. I would call it a good night.

Before our kids were born, we had more time but less money. We considered buying season tickets to the Salem Volcanos. This was a San Francisco Giants Single A club. For those couple of years, we caught a couple of games a season. Nevertheless, we saw some good teams. For two years, they dominated the league with the likes of Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum. Fast forward a few years and this was team that was crushing the World Series.

The league collapsed in the Covid years and I am sad about that. They ended up replacing the team with a non-affiliated, four team league (all based out of the same stadium). In comparison to the glory years, these teams look like they could be beat by higher caliber high school teams. It is not really what you would want to watch in a semi-professional environment.

End Your Programming Routine: Now that experience is over, I will resume ignoring baseball until the fall comes. I wish that I could follow it more closely but I won’t prioritize sports over important things. I feel a little sad because I think that people used to really enjoy baseball. I know that I did. I guess the silver lining is that there are a lot of games so it is not impossible to catch one.