still living in the red light district

you know the phrase “no news is good news”?

well, apparently that doesn’t count for pelican parts, my preferred place for bmw parts. they had the best price (and guaranteed compatibility) for the parts i’m thinking i need to fix my ride…but, of course, i was looking at their site on the saturday of labor day weekend, so even though i was willing to do the sucker move of paying $66.50 in overnight shipping for a $67.50 parts order it wouldn’t ship till tuesday due to the labor day holiday.

and i REALLY needed them.

i called the place early tuesday morning to confirm my order went through and that all was well and good to ship out THAT DAY. i was told “no problem” and everything looked “awesome”. when i joked about a discount on the retarded 99% shipping charge i was paying for overnight i was told “it can only go down if you don’t want the parts tomorrow”.

my response?

“well, i needed them saturday, so tomorrow will just have to do!”

but as we sat in a bar waiting for the kiddo to get out of mma class it occurred to me that it was 6:45, which is 4:45 in cali – fifteen minutes before pelican parts closes, and i had NO email confirming shipping. none. and i had fifteen minutes to go with plan “a” – which i only call “a” rather than “b” because the “a” stands for amazon. i had found what i’m 90% sure is the right voltage regulator and 100% sure is the right water pump pulley there…and they would only ship two day, not overnight (what the fuck?) but the shipping was free for us prime members. so it wouldn’t get in till THURSDAY, but on the up side it would arrive for half the price and if it didn’t work i could fucking return it!

(pelican doesn’t allow returns on electrical parts, only exchanges for the same thing if it’s defective).

at 6:50 i pulled the trigger on plan “a”. i figured, worse case scenario, i would be returning the shit to amazon for a full refund. well, i’m glad i did it because barely thirteen hours later, at 8am today, i called pelican only to be told that my order DIDN’T ship yesterday because one of the parts had to be ordered and arrived from the vendor to late to make the tuesday ship out. i got no email. i had no call. ZERO fucking notification – if i hadn’t called, i would have just been waiting all day for a truck that never showed. but i called, got a light apology, and was told they could ship today for arrival tomorrow and they would give me half off overnight shipping bringing it down to only $33 dollars. i told them to zero it or cancel my order – it was THERE fuck up that was gonna cost me a day of work, the ufc a half day of work, and a lot of hassle for our family.

given that option the elected to cancel my order. fuck them.

i got to put the ufc and the kiddo on house arrest by taking off in her car saturday and sunday, then we got family time for labor day, then she went in late to work tuesday so we could drive the kiddo to school, i could drop her off at her office, and then pick her up after while i used her car to run from tattoo shop to tattoo shop all day. she took today off so i could fix my car and, if i needed it, have access to hers.

i married a saint.

so now i’ll be on house arrest tomorrow. i’m not gonna bother to go in because what i need to do isn’t that fucking crucial for anybody involved and, quite frankly, if the parts get here earlier than later i can get started quicker. it did that annoying thing amazon orders sometimes do whereby one part is coming via the mail and the other one via ups. with some of the disassembly hiccups i dealt with saturday i’d prefer to have the extra time. and if it doesn’t arrive till after three when ufc gets home anyway, that’s okay, too. i won’t get to go to the gym. i won’t get to go to his class. but, in theory, it’ll be done. and if not? i might just lose my shit completely…

…we’ll see how it goes.