My mother bought the boys new bicycles for which I am very grateful. Tigger's bike is a Mongoose, which is a fairly big name for older kids who handle their bikes well and want to do tricks on them. The bikes were fully assembled by the store where they were purchased, a chain store with an outlet not far from us.
As it happened, Tigger's bike needed the seat adjusted because it was too high for him. No one in our house who tried to adjust the seat could get the screw loose. So after my mother sent us the receipt, I took the bike back to my local version of the store. The plan was to zip down to the store, get the bike fixed or exchanged, go to the grocery store to pick up a roast chicken, and head home to put the roast in the oven so we could eat at a decent hour and have some reading time before the kids went to bed.
The store had a nifty little tool that allowed them to loosen the bolt, but even at its lowest point the seat was too high for TIgger. The seat sits on this pole-like thing that allows it to be adjusted, but the pole was too long to go low enough for Tigger's needs. I could either buy a new seat with a shorter pole, or have them cut the existing pole to a more usable length. They checked with their manager but they were not allowed to cut the pole for me. Tigger and I left his bike at the store and went all over town looking for a store that had a different seat with a shorter pole. Turns out all the stores I went to (I couldn't find an actual bike store in all the mall madness, but I'm pretty sure they still exist), only had seats with no pole at all.
Finally, I wound up making another unplanned stop at the Home Depot looking for a pipecutter. When I asked some guy if the thing I picked out was the right thing to have for the bike seat pole, he offered to cut the thing free of charge. OK, mission accomplished, but it took until nearly 5 PM to get what I needed. Don't worry, Home Depot, I bought nearly $100 worth of gardening stuff to make up for your guy not making me buy the pipecutter. After all, what am I going to do with a pipecutter after this? I guess I should have gone there first.
When I finally got to the grocery store, it was mobbed with lines of people with their carts overflowing. and it was nearly 6 PM by the time I got home.
So dinner was late, and by the time we got it too the table we had two tired and hungry and fussy kids who didn't enjoy one of their favorite meals.
Definitely a "harder than it had to be" day.
