whine

We're going to see my mother today, and take her to visit my oldest brother, who is severely autistic. I haven't seen Jeffrey in more time than I want to admit, so it's a good thing. We were going to rent a car - preferably a nice sized one like a Camry - and drive out and back and so on. But all the car rental places are closed. I know. I called them all. And many of them are open on Sundays, too - they advertise being open Sundays or seven days (there is a difference in this area, as many places are closed on Saturdays.), or I've used them on Sundays.

Oh, word to the wise. Don't cough with a mouth full of coffee, but if you do, do it in a black shirt. That way you don't have to change afterwards. :)

But they're closed. I have two theories about this. One is that it's summer and a lot of people spend time out of the city, so they have summer hours. The other is along the same lines, actually - today is Camp Visiting Day. It's entirely possible that they have no cars available, as parents rent them on Friday and drive up Saturday night or something.

Which maybe we should have done. Instead, we are going to take the subway to the train to New Jersey, where my mom will pick us up in her Hyundai. At which point, I take over the wheel and do not let her have it back until we go back to the station. I hope my mom's car can hold four full sized (two *more* that full sized) adults.

Well, at least it wasn't a wasted trip

We never made it to New Jersey. They changed the train schedule and the next train out would have been too late. So, still holding the lunch we'd purchased on the way to the subway station, we decided to, you know, just look at furniture at Macy's. Which was having a sale. And was, mostly, air conditioned. I thought we were going to get a sofa. We need a nice three seater.

Instead, the first thing that really caught our eye was a dining room table. It was large, solid and pretty - Mission style with a cherry veneer. So, we looked at other tables, including a similar but smaller one designed for apartments. However, our apartment has a full sized dining room.
We eventually looked at most of the other tables in the store, but they all had problems, even if was only the price. We eventually came back to the first, and after due consideration, bought it as a set with six chairs - four side chairs, two arm chairs. The chairs are large enough that big people like us are comfortable. And we got tablepads to fit. We're quite pleased all around, even if we did just spend a pretty penny.