Setbacks in New Orleans

A couple of days ago the fridge stopped working so we got a local fridge man to look at it yesterday. Unfortunately his diagnosis was not correct and after buying a new element we found we needed a new fridge. Would have been nice to know that yesterday, but we have one ordered and have fingers crossed it will turn up tomorrow. It cost $2k but we need a fridge and the van would be worth bugger all without one when it comes time to sell. We could maybe have gotten away with just a cooling unit, but there were green marks inside the covers which means that ammonia had leaked, so better to do it properly.

When we bought the Ford Expedition I should have had it thoroughly checked, but there just seemed to be so many other things to do at the time. Today we took it to have the brakes looked at and the pads are worn right down so that the discs are grooved. We are just putting new disc pads on now. They don’t machine discs here and they are about $130 each to buy. At least in two hours or so we will be safe and won’t do any more damage. Might get new discs down the track but just the pads set us back over $300.

Waiting for a pair of arctic waterproof gloves. Ordered them on Amazon and paid for quick delivery to the RV Park. I had been to Dicks Sporting Goods and found what I wanted but they were out of supply in all local stores. Could I pay for a pair and order them in? Yes, but not to the store. You can only have stuff delivered to your house. They say that if they had them delivered to the store they would be piled up with goods customers didn’t collect. I did suggest that would not be a major issue as they would have received the money for them. Flexibility? Not on your Nellie. The manager said it was impossible. I suggested that customer service would surely allow a customer to pay for something and pick it up in the shop later. Nope, but you have a nice day sir. I had whatever day I felt like. One thing I have learned is that Americans are very systematised and you don’t buck the system.

Many people shop on line and that is a major part of something like Dicks Sporting Goods. Unfortunately their on-line store is not as good as something like Amazon or E-bay. As someone with money to spend and finding the store service lacking they missed a sale. This may well be a salutary lesson about the future. My belief is that if you want to compete with on-line stores then you better have excellent customer service. One thing I noticed in the store is that employees only have access to the web site, just like anyone. Seems to me they have lost the plot. There is no reason to go to their store at all.

The temperature today rose slowly to 8 degrees so you can see why gloves might be necessary. In Victoria in August and the same back of Bourke my hands used to ache until 10.00am, but then they would be fine. Over here there are days that stay below 5 degrees so I reckon they would ache all day without decent gloves. Having just typed this, the sun has come out and the forecast for when Connor arrives tomorrow evening is for things to get warmer with Monday  low 17 deg C to high 23 deg C.

To understand just what is happening here and why the temperature fluctuations are so great try this link that I got from a Climate Reality Leade:

http://theconversation.com/a-melting-arctic-and-weird-weather-the-plot-thickens-37314

Maybe eventually the Antarctic will suffer the same because both poles are warming faster than lower latitudes. That would mean some really cold weather in Australia. Of course the deniers use this as evidence that global warming is a hoax but what can one say if they are simply not smart enough to understand, or too arrogant to accept what experts tell them.