For quite a few years I've been taking care of annually getting a certain winner's name engraved on a certain plaque. The engraver I used was right across the street from the bank, on my way to the grocery store or the library or the butcher. Nice small-business fellow who did good work for a good price.
We moved. I keep giving myself the speech that I need to get settled HERE and not keep solving problems by running back to where we lived before. We found a doctor, found a dentist, found a mechanic, found a hardware store. Now, where am I going to find an engraver? I have looked through the Yellow Pages and online. I have made phone calls. There's something just not right. After multiple phone calls and attempts to "make an appointment" (what? to drop off a little piece of metal with the spelling of the name to be engraved? an appointment with a salesman??) I finally got to one of the prospects today. I had a bad feeling about it, but kept telling myself that I can't expect things to work the way they do in Podunkville. (Read: the right way the work in Podunkville!) As I drove closer to the place where the company was located, I'm thinking, "This is a huge industrial park. This is not what I'm looking for." Sure enough, they couldn't do the job. And what big company would want to mess with one $5 job per year anyway?
Every now and then I get a jolt as to how close I'm walking to the edge of the cliff. So I spent 20 minutes driving there and 20 minutes driving back and 5 minutes waiting to meet with the salesman who said "Nope, can't do that" but refused to tell me that on the phone before I came in. And I'm driving home, crying. Buck up, Susan -- this is nothing to cry about.
But sometimes it truly seems LOADS easier to make the two-hour roundtrip to drop off the plaque and the two-hour roundtrip to pick up the plaque than it is to keep making the stupid phone calls and driving to companies that aren't going to do the job anyway. I've probably already spent four hours on this and am still no closer to getting the tiny little engraving job done. It would've saved time to just get in the car and drive to the place I know, the place that is reliable, the place that is far away.
Surely there must be somebody around here who is capable of doing this little job. But I'm tired of trying to find him.
Friday, January 30, 2009
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This is the part of moving that I hate. We are fortunate that my parents still live in Fort Wayne. We still ask my parents to pick something up for us or deliver something for us a few times a year. Currently we have no plans to visit Fort Wayne this year and it is driving me crazy to not have something to look forward to AND accomplish a few little tasks that are there. I hope you can find an engraver.
ReplyDeleteAdd in a qualifier based on "how often" something has to be done.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, since it's only once a year, I'd say: drive to Podunkville. Things like going grocery shopping and getting an oil change? Well, those you need to do often enough to make yourself find a new place.
BTW, I would've been cryingas well, and I might have read the dude the riot act before I left, too!
I know exactly how you feel being The New Kid On The Block! Sometimes I wonder how I ever got through it (and I suspect I had some tears of frustration on occasion too!) - but alas, I have. So if I can help, just let me know.
ReplyDeleteNational Trophy & Awards
(262) 255-3620
http://www.natawards.com/contactus.html
I'm a little familiar with a few places around Meno :) - the company I use to work for used this place a few times for little stuff. If you haven't found a place yet, give them a call.
R & J -- well, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who sticks with the old things rather than spending time shopping around for new.
ReplyDeleteLisa, this looks great! Thank you so much. Just from the pictures on the website it looks like the kind of place that I'm looking for. And when I called, I got an answering machine with a person saying the office is closed today, but it didn't sound like some big corporation thing like the other places I've called so far. I figured there had to be a place like that around somewhere but I kept bumping into the "bigger is better" companies that were confused by a peon like me.
And Lisa, you have had enough "New Kid on the Block" stints to be an expert, and I'm sure your advice is valuable! (Plus, you know the area here...) Wow, thanks again!
How about a jewelry store. They engrave medical bracelets for so much per letter?
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel for you! I've cried over stuff like that! Aht about mailling the tiny little piec eof metal to your trusted engraver, and having them mail it back to you when they are done?
Lisa, thank you !!! National Trophy was just what I was looking for. He said he'd have it done by Wednesday morning.
ReplyDelete