Just Our Luck!

About a month ago, we ordered some new family room furniture online (cocktail table, end table, and 2-piece entertainment center). All pieces are made and sold by Ashley Furniture so we checked them out at the local Ashley Furniture store before ordering. Finally, we got word that the pieces were going to be delivered. Unfortunately, two of the four pieces were badly damaged during transport, but we didn't know about the damage until after the deliverymen had left for two reasons: 1) we weren't home for the delivery and a friend had to accept them for us; and 2) they were boxed up and left in our livingroom. We didn't discover the damage until we started to unpack the items. This first photo is of the damage on the upper portion of the TV surround.

This is the box that the cocktail table was in. No wonder it was damaged. This is the underside of the cocktail table. The support bar was unattached.

Another view of the underside of the cocktail table showing the wooden pieces broken off.

We are still waiting to hear back from the furniture store we made the purchase from to see what they are going to do about it. Until then, we are exercising our patience in the matter. To make matters worse, I found out today that our order for the two accent chairs we placed three weeks ago was cancelled because they don't deliver to our area. Why did they wait three weeks to tell us that? I guess you could say that luck has not been on our side lately.

Yay! I did it!

I hate to take tests, but last night I buckled down and took my first in many, many years. For the past 8 weeks, I have been taking a ham radio course. Normally I wouldn't have participated in something like this (I really had no interest at all), but since I am on our Ward's emergency response team in case of an earthquake or other disaster, taking the course became necessary. Assuming I survive the disaster when it happens, I am prepared to cover my area of the ward. Our ward is very spread out, as you can imagine, but with so many of us covering our areas, the response should go rather quickly. We will need to report injuries, etc. to our dispatch unit and our best method of communication during disasters is through ham radios, thus the necessity for me to take the class (along with many other ward members). Last night we had our licensing exam. It consisted of only 35 questions, but those questions were taken from a pool of about 396 questions. Since we didn't know which questions would be on the exam, we had to know the answers to all of the questions. Anyway, long story short, I passed so now I just need to wait until my name appears on the on-line data base where I will receive my "call sign" and then I can legally use the radio I got for Christmas. I must admit, I don't really know how to use it yet (the course was mostly just doing and learning what is necessary to get licensed), but I'm sure I will pick it up with time. Should I pray for a disaster so I will be able to put my training to good use? I don't think so! The thought of a real disaster scares me to death, but when you think about it, what happened to Japan could happen to us too. It always pays to be prepared!