The Wild Boar (a.k.a. my husband) and I were having a little contest yesterday trying to decide who had a worse day. He won.
Since my day was really a series of frustrations...things like sitting in the bank with the operations manager as she posted 200 check stop payments on my account. The bank's check printing company lost my checks...somewhere between their office and my mailbox. That was fun.
Then there was my trip to the pharmacy where I went to pick up a prescription for myself. However, the pharmacy had mistakenly labeled another prescription for someone else with my name and phone number. I knew right away it wasn't mine as I was not there to pick up a prescription for a highly contagious STD!
I told the woman it wasn't mine and pushed it back towards her. She said, it has your name and phone number, it's yours. I pushed it back, it's not. She pushed it back, it is. Can you even believe this was happening?
In order for her to take it back and fill the correct prescription I had to say okay, I don't want it then (even though it wasn't even mine in the first place). This was all so she could indicate I declined the medicine and not that the pharmacy filled the wrong prescription. Sheesh, that is a whole other blog post right there...don't get me started on a mistake like that. How dangerous is that? Check your prescription's people, who knows what's in the bottle.
Then I went to the grocery store for lemon extract...they were out. Who runs out of lemon extract? I didn't think it was very popular.
So really, just frustrations. Nothing major.
The Wild Boar on the other hand had his whole day planned. He was in Oregon at the apartment we keep there, waiting for the delivery of an electrical generator. Since it's a large and heavy piece of equipment, he had to be there to receive it.
It was supposed to come in the morning and the delivery companies website indicated the generator was out for delivery. This was not UPS or FedEx by the way, but a shipping company out of Portland.
When it didn't show up the Wild Boar called them to ask for a delivery time update. They indicated it would be there at 1:30 PM. He waited and canceled/ rearranged two of his meetings. At 3:30 PM it was still not there.
He called again to inquire, and was nonchalantly told the driver who was supposed to make the delivery had been re-routed to start doing his pick-ups instead of continuing with his deliveries. What? This was so the driver could finish his workday on time. Or in other words, we have already been paid to make these deliveries, so we're going to concentrate on making the new pick-ups as this will translate into more revenue. Who knows.
The Wild Boar was mad. He asked to speak with the person who made this decision. Of course the phone mysteriously disconnected but the Wild Boar is not a push over. He called back and pretty much gave an ear full to the person in charge about business and customer service...how to respect your customers....blah, blah, blah.
And it's true. The whole work day was ruined and it is not as if the delivery company would have ever called to let him know the generator was not coming. His whole day was spent waiting for nothing, having all his meetings canceled. In the end the company said they would try to deliver it but the driver had to be back in Portland by 6 PM because this was when they closed. For the weekend. God forbid someone worked a little longer I guess.
I told the Wild Boar not to hold his breath. But at 6:01 PM there was a knock on the door. The generator and two very pleasant delivery guys were there. At least they made it, right? I guess standing up for yourself does work.
Overall, the lack of consideration of the delivery company is maddening. I think lack of consideration of other's time is one of my biggest pet peeves and is something I am always mindful about.
Oh well, the whole week was not a bust, a lot of good things happened too...
We made plans to have dinner with the family who has planted their vineyard on the ridge to the South of us.
I have also been getting to know the owners of another winery very close to us. It turns out we have a lot in common and I look forward to spending some time with them over the next couple of weeks as I check out their vineyard/winery and they check out my mud.
Also, I was asked to join the McMinnville AVA (American Viticultural Area) association where our property is located. This is a non-profit corporation being established to showcase the wines of the area while finding commonalities between them. This is very exciting for me even though we don't have grapes in the ground as of yet. I look forward to working with all the vineyard and winery proprietors in the AVA as we try to bring attention to this very special area of the Willamette Valley.
I am also working on our application for Water Rights. This is a highly political process but a necessary one in order to be able to irrigate our vineyard once it's planted. It's nice to finally be going forward with it. It all boils down to lots of mathematical calculations as we have to plan for water usage in terms of worst case scenarios for irrigation scheduling. Good times, good times.
So while I am quite overwhelmed with everything I have going on, it is still beyond enjoyable.
Cathy is currently in the development stages of her vineyard and winery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. She is a food writer for Davis Life Magazine and blogs daily about wine, food and everyday living. She currently resides in Northern California with her husband and two sons. You can visit her at noblepig.com.