Tuesday, June 16, 2020

For Father's Day

A Few Ideas To Celebrate With Dad or Grandad

Still in Quarantine or Not

June 16, 2020

It's just unbelievable how quickly time is flying. It seems I'll just never catch up with everything, as it's one thing on top of another lately. And these new COVID19 ways of doing business.... All I can say is GRRRRRRRRRRRR....... The colossal waste of time you spend on the phone these days trying to get things that you normally do in person done, is just freaking ridiculous! I'm about ready to strangle more than a few "functionnaires" at the RAMQ & SAAQ, not to mention someone at the bank who classified a house tax payment as a phone bill payment...... 

And arggghhhhhhhh, talk about sitting on hold for hours on end to get ditzes on the other  end of the line who doesn't know their ash from their elbow, who talks to you for all of 30 seconds and tells you to call another number which you do and which answers right away but is totally useless as it doesn't have any options for your dilemma that you're dealing with. At that point after being on hold for nearly 2 hours at the first number and while being answered right away but being directed through a telephone maze that gets you nowhere, you want to either strangle someone or bang the phone receiver up and down on the desk a few times in someone's ear (except you can't as there's no one on the other end of the line). What a colossal waste of time and it's not like I don't have other things I need to do besides sit on the phone for the entire afternoon. 

Oh and while I'm airing some of my COVID19 peeves here's another one directed at our local Metro store..... IF YOU HAVE NO INTENTION OF TAKING BOTTLE REFUNDS (LIKE ON BEER & WINE BOTTLES) POST A SIGN IN THE BEER & WINE SECTION OF YOUR STORE TELLING CUSTOMERS THAT SO THEY KNOW THAT BEFORE THEY BUY ANYTHING! OR IF AS IN THE RIDICULOUS REQUIREMENTS TO RETURN THEM  THAT I WAS TOLD YESTERDAY, POST THAT TOO! That ALL returns must come in their original cases (good luck with that because most cases are impossible to use after they've been opened) and all bottles washed. POST THOSE EXIGENCES ON A SIGN IN THAT DEPT WHERE THOSE BEVERAGES ARE SOLD SO WE KNOW BEFOREHAND!
 
Then I went to our city hall to try to ascertain whether or not they got the full property tax payment or if my payment was indeed diverted to the phone company, where they wouldn't open the door to me at all. It's a good thing they have a glass door and I could show the woman who came to the door the paperwork through the door who was kind enough to go to verify and come back to me to let me know that yes everything was paid in full and they got the payments. Phew!  But imagine if that had've been a solid opaque door with no transparent sections in it. I probably would've had to sit on the phone on hold for another 2 hours one afternoon, just to find out something that took all of 5 minutes to find out in person.

And another one.... As another birthday is coming up this weekend and on top of that it's Father's Day, I went to look for greeting cards. So I saw some that the parts that I could see looked interesting, so I picked them up to see the full front of the card and what it said inside and I was informed that I shouldn't be touching them unless I intend to buy the one I touched. Talk about insanity..... How the heck is anyone supposed to know if they want a particular card or not, if they can't see or read it?  I was forced as a result to buy the one I had in my hands when the clerk came to tell me that, which is totally inappropriate as it's for a sister and actually it's for my daughter-in-law and not a sister that I don't have anyhow. For a stupid card, it's freaking expensive too! There's nothing fancy about it, but yet it was $10.00.  I'm wondering if that's even legal, making me pay for it because I touched it, without there being any sign saying anything to that effect there. Now as a result of that, I think I know what my next purchase at Michael's will be - one of those Cricut machines or something similar so I can make my own cards without worrying about what I'm touching or not touching. Geez, there's no end to the COVID insanity out there it seems. It's just unbelievable!

But yet, it's apparently alright to go to riots and rallies and shout and breath heavily (from running and heaving heavy objects at things) on each other. Oh but don't touch the greeting cards because you're going to cause a super upsurge in the COVID19 outbreak.

After going through all of that I went to a grocery store to buy the ingredients I need to make the birthday dinner for my daughter-in-law, which is a lasagna (what she requested). When I got to the cash after standing in line waiting my turn, I realized I had the meat, the noodles and the sauce ingredients but had completely forgot the cheeses. So I slapped my forehead and cursed a little and the cashier asked me what was wrong and I said I forgot the cheeses (and she could see the ingredients were for a lasagna and that there was no cheese there). So she pushed my stuff aside and said, it's okay go get it and come back and I'll pass your bill then. So I did and when I came back (because I didn't want to be herded into another cashier's checkout) I stayed slightly off to the side but at the front of the line near the cashier's checkout that I'd gone through already. So the cashier saw me when I came back and gave me the signal to come in right away. Oh My Gawd, this set the woman who was at the head of the line (which stretched all the way to the back of the store by now) off, screaming at the top of her lungs at me in French, telling me to get to the back of the line and she was first and calling me all kinds of names. At this point in my day (my last stop before coming home after the day I've already had) I'm not in a very nice mood and in no mood to translate all the nasty things I wanted to say to her in French so I just let her have it in English. Oh boy, was she livid then. So then the cashier asks her what she's flipping out over and she tells the cashier about me cutting in line, so the cashier told her I was there before and my stuff was put aside already and I forgot something so she told me to get it and come back. So then the livid witch calmed down (but her uproar caused other people further down the line to get upset and start yelling too) and apologized to me. I guess that shut the others up because I didn't hear any more moans and groans and curses in both official languages coming from the people in line.

But this is what COVID19 is all about now people. A few months ago if someone forgot something and went  to get it and come back to the cash, it wouldn't have caused someone to flip out like that and others behind her to react in kind. It would've been alright because everyone of us would've been lined up at different cashiers checkout counters and not standing in one line stretching to the back of the store like that. Which I find totally ridiculous.

So the only thing COVID19 has done that I can see is collapse the economy, kill a bunch of seniors and others with compromised immune systems, and force the rest of  us to have to deal with idiotic nonsense like I described in this post.

As my daughter would've said..... So, um, yeah....

Now that I've finished ranting about my last day and a half.....

I want to digress and get back to the subject of this post. That being Father's Day with ideas for gifts little ones can make for Dads and Grandpas, to nice meals that older kids can cook up for Dad & Grandpa and other ideas to celebrate the day with him or remotely with him.

If the stores you frequent are as insane as the ones I've been to lately, you're probably better off making your own card or printing one out for Dad/Grandpa. Don't get rooked into buying a totally inappropriate card for an exorbitant price, like what happened to me today. So at least for the card, some of these ideas at some of the links might actually be of value to you, to save you time, trouble and money. Chances are Dad/Grandpa will appreciate the card more because you made it for him. So it's a win-win situation for you. So now on with the ideas and links to help make Father's Day nicer for your Dad/Grandpa!

Every Day Should be Father's Day: 50 Ways to Honor, Appreciate, Indulge, and Amuse Your Dad (Every Day Is Special)   is an ebook in epub format downloadable at the longfiles link.

15 DIY Father's Day Cards That Dad (or Grandpa) Will Cherish Forever Do yourselves a favour and avail yourselves of the ideas given here - it'll save you a big hassle at the store, let me tell you.

25 Easy Father’s Day Dinner Ideas to Honor Dad

32 Father's Day Cakes and Cupcakes That Will Satisfy Dad's Sweet Tooth

Here's What to Write in a Father's Day Card to Let Dad Know He's #1 in Your Heart Of course you write your own heartfelt verses in your card instead.

10 Quarantine Father's Day Ideas to Give Him the Celebration He Deserves Hopefully even though there's still quarantine rules, where you live they've been loosened enough to allow you to visit your dad or grandpa in person, but if not, maybe this link will provide some means of celebrating with him anyhow.  You can also click on the links for Mother's Day in the right hand column and you'll be taken to pages with ideas for Mother's Day that's adaptable for Father's Day in Quarantine, as Mother's Day was during full quarantine rules around here. So there's more ideas for remote quarantine celebrations there, probably.

24 DIY Father's Day Gift Ideas That Are Easy Enough for Kids to Make

20 Funny Father's Day Puns Only a Dad Could Love

36 Father's Day Instagram Captions to Celebrate Your Favorite Guy

32 Easy Father's Day Craft Ideas

65 DIY Father's Day Gifts for the Guy Who Has Everything  But I bet he doesn't have whatever it is you choose to make for him.

15 Father's Day Crafts That the Kids Can Make for Dad If anyone knows crafts it's Martha Stewart. Here's some of her suggestions for things that kids can make for their dads for Fathers Day.

25 Handmade Father’s Day Gifts from Kids

Great Father's Day Dinner Recipes More dinner ideas to treat Dad with.

56 Father's Day Dinner Recipes That Will Show Dad How Much You Care

Father's Day recipes From the BBC

31 Classic Father's Day Recipes for the Awesome Dads in Your Life

Father's Day Recipes Yet more Father's Day recipes from All Recipes. com

50 Father's Day Dinner Recipes Dad Will Love

30 Classic Father's Day Recipes the Whole Family Will Enjoy From Martha Stewart's site.

Hopefully, you'll be able to find some good ideas in those links to help you celebrate Father's Day with your father and/or grandpa.

Here's wishing all Fathers and Grandpas the best Father's Day and may they enjoy their day with their brood!