Knock knock,
knocking on heaven's door.
By the way, am I the only one,,,,,,,
this really bothers?
You tell the clerk you want 20 bucks on pump six, you hand over the twenty.
It takes about a minuted and a half to pump in 19.40 worth of gas, then, the pump goes into super slow mo operation mode as if it's ticking off liquid gold, and ticks off the last 60 cents, one stinking penny at a time. I wonder how many people get tired of waiting and hang the handle back up with 30 cents or so left on the counter because they get ticked off and don't want to wait?
Yah, the gas isn't the only one who get's ticked off at the end.
_____________________________________________
Breaking news,, how wonderfull, the Bears win their fifth in a row yesterday, now Cutler needs thumb surgery and is probably out for the year, our hopes and dreams now lie with somebody named Caleb! Spiffy, absolutely spiffy.
Oh, and his last name is Haney, as in, Mr. Haney! Marvelous, maybe we can get Oliver to do the long snapping since he went down for the year, also.
_______________________________________________
We were just starting on our food when of course, the phone rings. She answered it, said, "Hold on", and handed it to me.
I guess it's always best to deal with the Beast directly.
I knew this wasn't going to go well when after I said hello all I got in return was a demonic laugh.
He then turned back into the counter guy we originally dealt with, and with cheeriness in his voice, he tole me the car is ready.
It was when he told me the final cost that I started drooling.
Do you remember the original quote? That's right, 1260 I believe it was, which was a heart attack right there, in itself.
And his new number after spinnning the big, "What'll we charge this schmuck" wheel?
1670.
Oh wait, not 1670.
It was, 1670 dollars!!!!!
How come there's no cute little smiley of someone slashing their wrists? Or having orange Kool-Aid poured into a cup for them?
I tried to keep my cool at first, but it was impossible, so I said we'd deal with it when we got there.
We have to call them back when we get to the TTC and they'[ll send someone over to pick us up, but don't call before we get there.
Want to guess who's rest of the day was shot?
I had a couple of fries, then pushed the rest away which eventually ended up in the trash can nearby. I think maybe, two bites of the burger, I just didn't want it anymore.
We still hadn't finished doing what we had intended to do, so after we were finished we packed our stuff and headed over to the lake side pool to check it out.
The "we" I'm referring to now, would now be, Smidgy and the Grump.
We then found out why it was so quiet over where we were;
the yellow jackets were over here!
I took a couple of pictures, and tried to look at this with what would have, should have been an open mind. If not for the phone call, this is really nice over here. Cell phones ruin everything!
Really, I would have loved to come here with my coffee and paper in the morning before it got crowded and you would have it to yourself, especially with the beach and lake right next to it.
(yes, I know it's that way at the Contemporary Resort too, but that's with a bland stark building behind as a backdrop, here it's mostly trees, water and sand with a poolside bar and walking paths leading from and to it.
Or was it to and from it?
The pool has a slide, a pretty good one at that, and waterfalls and fountains. It's not a big pool, but it went nicely as a compliment to the one we were just at.
If it wasn't for the yellowjackets.......
The only other problem here was the concrete, for some reason it was of a different mix that retained heat to the point of melting the bottoms of clip clops. You were good for maybe 5 steps before you had to either jump in the pool or jump on a chair.
Lava would have been more comfortable to walk on.
Oh yeah, pictures:
I tried to get back into the mood again, but uh uh, all I want is our car back, I want this to be over with.
Understand, this has been hanging over our heads since a week ago Sunday, this is now Tuesday and it seems that the longer it's taking to be resolved, the more expensive it's getting.
We put our clothes back over our wet suits and headed back to the monorail and over to the TTC where she called them up and said come get us. They said it will now take about a half hour before they can pick us up which is not improving my mood at all.
While we were killing time there, I went in seacch of a bottle of pop for us to split, I don't think there is anything more of a secret at Disney than the price of a bottle of soda in one of their vending machines, I can NEVER find it posted anywhere on the machine, I just keep sticking in dollars and pressing buttons until something comes out.
I believe a 20 oz. bottle ended up costing 2.75.
Finally we are face to face with the jerk behind the counter at the CCC.
Believe me, I really got hot there, wasn't easy to keep cool.
His explanations for the extra cost was that first of all, he didn't give the estimate, it was from the guy in the shop.
"No, don't give me that crap, YOU were the one that dragged me back to the car and stood right next to me as your mechanic read it all off to me."
Then he said I approved the charge originally to which I replied, "Ok, show me my signature saying that," to which he just stared at me in stupid confusion.
"HEY, show my my signature!"
Then he said the charge now includes tax, which wasn't in the estimate, and a "Shop fee" which wasn't in the estimate. "So, you gave me an estimate and did't include everything?" He just ignored this.
Shop fee was 120 dollars alone, this includes the use of rags for the mechanics, the use of lighting and soap for the mechanics to wash up afterward,,,,,and the use of the hoist,,,I'm not kidding.
Then he told me that 25 bucks is for fixing the flat tire, too, you may have bought the tires from Goodyear two weeks ago, but warranty doesn't include taking out a nail you picked up on the road.
That was when I really lost it.
"You're just a two bit thief, you know it"
"I told you it was a leaky valve that needed to be replaced under warranty, there was no nail involved and you f***ing know it! Now you're trying to charge me for a fictiional nail?"
"What, replacing an exhaust system isn't enough for you? You gotta try and rip me off for pretending to fix a tire, too?" I was ballistic!
That was when he remembered and looked back at the work order/reciept.
On it all it says is, "Repair Tire."
"Ok, tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm just going to waive the tire repair, you won't have to pay anything for that."
"Oh, is that what waive means?"
"What I want to know, now, is if this valve was replaced or not!"
"Oh, I'm sure it was."
"If that's so then you are admitting to being a thief and trying to rip me off for pulling out a nail that didn't exist!."
I really, honestly, truly wanted to beat the crap out of him.
In a nice way.
Then I looked down and almost cracked up:
apparently he's afraid I'm just gonna run without paying him because he has now got his hand back over my keys that have been sitting on the counter.
I wasn't done though; "Well which is it, is the valve fixed or not?" "Get the mechanic out here and ask him in FRONT OF ME!" "If this tire fails on the way back to Illinois because you lied about repairing it we will be in court with you front and center faster than you can say Judge Judy."
"Well, I can't get him out here cuz he's not here today, but I remember now him fixing it."
I thought for sure him being caught would get him to knock off the price somehow, but he kept saying there was nothing he could do.
But all I could get off the bill was that stupid 25 buck charge, the final cost was 1645! This just barely fit on the Visa card, again, the title, P aying O ff T he C ards.
I walked out of there shaking, and even now I'm shaking a bit reliving it in my mind and writing about it.
(wanna know a secret?
I still wanna hurt him)
But right before I opend the door and left for good, I let it close and walked back up to the counter, with him eyeing me warrily:
I made sure he was watching me as I carefully grabbed one of his stack of business cards that are sitting on the counter, after reading the card and making sure it matched the name on his uniform, I put it carefully in my wallet before I turned and walked out without saying a word.
Let him worry about that, if he has a conscience.
Sometimes I think I should have complained to Disney about this, but not really sure how much they have to do with the Car Care Center which is owned by Goodyear.
What's Disney going to do, comp us a free tire fill up with genuine Florida air the next time we are down there?
Besides, we just got plenty of the genuine Florida hot air!
Once again, all the way back to the resort and then some, I'm like, "it's done, it's over, it's done, it's over, it's done,,, put it out of your head, it's over."
If anybody has any thoughts or ideas concerning this, feel free to share.
Back in the room I got to play Happy Feet, in search of ICE again.
After changing into nicer clothes we went down by the pool again just to have a drink and maybe play Yachtzee.
I'm not spelling that right at all, am I? Yatzee? No, that doesn't look right either.
One stupid thing we didn't think of;
The mug station closes at 7, so much for getting our mixers down there, now if we want to fill the mugs up, we have to go "over to the 5 th floor of BLT, walk over to the Contemporary which then makes you on the fourth floor,,,,,,,yadayadayada.
The Contempo Cafe, that's it now, only place to refill the mug. We ended up back in our room prematurely.
Bah, give me a nice table in front of the fountain next to the pool bar by the beautiful pool that's across from the food court,,,,
That lived in the house that Jack built,,,,
at CBR.
About nine we left our room again to head on up to the Top of the World Lounge, in a half hour Scary Wishes lights up the Magic Kingdom.
Ok, this is a muchly contested issue on more than a few boards here on the Dis;
The security it is said is tremendous up here, and many questions still exist whether they will let a NON DVC Member up here, renting points don't count. Plus, only DVC members who are STAYING at BLT supposedly can come up here.
I thought surely things will be tighter tonight with the fireworks going on special like, so we'll see.
We walked down the hallway from our room to the staircase, but instead of going down like I have been doing for ice, we went up a flight to a closed door.
"Oh look, a closed door," she said.
"Yes, it is, " I wittily replied, "A good thing to it's closed and not just open a little bit, then we'd be in trouble," I said.
"Oh, Why is that?" she came back with, but I had a feeling she knew where this stupid conversation was going.
"Because it wouldn't be a door then," I triumphantly said, "It would be ajar." "Then what would we do?"
"Your greatly mistaken if you think your JARring wit is aDOORable."
I gave her the required sideways glance of acknowledgement and reached for the door.
The knob of the door turned, it opened and we walked into,,,onto? the 16th floor. 15th floor?
The top FLOOR!
But now comes the hard part, how to get past the door that leads into the TOWL itself, you see, we can't open it ourselves, so how do we get in?
Ok, I'm kinda fibbin here,,,, we can't open it cuz it's already propped open, we just walked right in!
Oh yes, the security is brutal up here, Alcatraz should have been so tight, it would still be in operation.
Barty Crouch would have died of old age if he was kept here.
No way he could have escaped and gotten Cedrick killed when they both reached for the portkey, which would mean that Pattinson would not have been free to get to go on and play Edward, which also means that then Lautner wouldn't have a reason to constantly take off his shirt and the world would have been a much better place!
See how that all works? All because the door was open up here.
The reality of the security here was more of a scenario set up by Otis Campbell, for his friday night binge to come and go. Yeah, that describes it well.
So, let's sum it up this way:
you need a key card to open the doors on the ground floor to enter BLT. You are also supposed to need one to enter the garden area that leads to the BLT pool area, but those doors were never locked when we were there. There is also a locked gate leading to the pool, to get past this major obstacle you may have to wait 20, to 25 seconds for someone to come through it so you can then go through.
But those 20 seconds can feel really long!
But, the reall joke was ok, how to get into not just TOWL, but BLT itself since it's locked on the ground floor?
Remember that walkway I've told you about that goes from BLT to CR?
Of course, there's no problem going from BLT to CR, but, for the other, off limits way?
When coming from the main level or monorail at the Congtemporary and you want to get into BLT, just enter the walkway and follow it along until you get to BLT building itself. Now comes the really delicate part, you have to do this just perfectly or it won't work:
As you get close, an electronic eye will sense you and automatically open the doors for you.
Ok, I lied, you just have to be a body to trip the eye.
Yeah baby!
That's security!
Maybe it's reading your room key card in your pocket?
ON the one occasion when it didn't open on it's own, there is a huge button on the wall just off to the side of the doors, " To open these extremely secret and impregnable security doors, press here." with an arrow pointing down to the fist sized button on the wall.
I love it!
Well Marita, here we are now, we didn't throw in the TOWL on TOWL, but we did order ourselves a couple of beers
instead of Mai Tais.
I am pretty sure this is the first night for the Halloween party, and I expected it to be crowded up here, but unless they do something, change somethings, have some specials, I doubt it ever really get's crowded up here.
In other words, I feel sorry for whoever has to work up there, compared to most Disney venues, tips have got to suck up there, it wasn't crowded at all.
Plenty tables left, plenty room outside to stand at the wall. Heck, I wanted to throw a Frisbee over to the people outside the California Grill on the roof over there.
(You know, I just had this image of a Frisbee thrown from way up here taking on nuclear velocity capabilities and traveling over to the end of Main Street and taking off Walt's head as if Oddjob had thrown it!) sorry, my mind does things like that
As for the fireworks viewing?
That is terrific, right on par with California Grill, and the soundtrack is pumped in there too.
We stood outside with our beers, got a good spot ten minutes before it started just in case a group came up but that didn't happen and we just stood there talking for awhile until it started.
Mostly, this time it was her helping me out.
I was having a hard time putting the car issue behind and moving on, that amount of a repair just freaked me out,,,
and I really wanted to hurt him.
I havent felt like that in a loooooonnnng time, but to this day I can still see that look, hear his smarmy voice......
AHHHGGGH!
But she got me past it by bringing back up what we talked about just two days ago, no point in staying if we can't enjoy ourselves, so, ok, yep, Icandoit, no problem, donl't worry, I put this behind me.
Easy Pea.......
Then the show started at 9:30.
I only took a couple of pictures.
For some reason, while it was a cool show to watch, it just wasn't a great photogenic show from up here for pictures.
The whole show was themed around Halloween, with much to do with/from the Haunted Mansion.
There was even an extended Grim Grinning Ghosts thing going on with what I'm almost positve was voice imitators or impressionists, including your "ghost Host" who died quite some time ago, I believe.
However, I still prefer Wishes, while what is cool here is that the shells are fired from many different areas around the MK, but there'w a lot to be said for the story, which really isn't here in this show.
As they say, Story matters, and only Wishes really has a STORY.
I think when I was up here once again messin with the camera, I finally got the date and time matched up with the real world. I'm not positive yet, but today is the 13th and I think that's what it says on the pictures.
The key will be what happens when the clock strikes midnight, then we'll know!
Or, the rooster crows, whichever comes first.
But anyway, this dreaded chapter is now officially over, I have my baby back, and all it cost was our first born male son!
So, have we made enough sacrifices at the altar for the Beast?
Has enough blood been spilled, can we relax now?
What do you think?
ni ni
but hey as long as they beat the Florida Gators next week my season will be complete (both my kids are gator fans)
The basic storyline was riveting as it is told through Mixtli, an Aztec who did just about every job that could be done within the Aztec Empire. I did end up recommending it to two other people....DH and a very close friend who I knew wouldn't consider me a deviant for reading it. Have I made you want to check it out or have you read it before?
I'm a bit quirky I suppose and I like to play foot loose and fancy free with words sometimes. Every now and then, something new just begs to be created.
That book isn't even worthy of a good bonfire!
I had some of the best years of my life there.
