An All-Too-Typical Experience

stickywicket

We set out for our local Homebase for some of Dulux's 'light & space' paint for a room which has just got darker. (Far too long a story.) This range actually enhances the available light. Allegedly.We know which colours we want but take the booklet to be on the safe side. And what has this to do with Living With Arthritis I hear you ask. Keep going.

After 3 circuits of the Dulux shelves, it seems our local, small, store doesn't do the light & space range. We need one of their bigger stores, a helpful assistant tell us.

We drive 5 miles to a big one. They have the range just not in any of the colours we'd considered. Mr SW wanders off to ask if they will make it up for us with their machine and I move my weight from one foot to the other as stuff starts protesting. Several minutes later Mr SW returns with a small child in Homebase uniform. The child looks in the cupboard underneath. It seems they don't have the base paint for that range so he can't make up any of our potential colours.

I've had enough. I make for the exit but Mr SW is annoyed enough to want to complain to an adult so he waits by a long queue at the till while I pace around the foyer as, by now, shifting my weight will not cut the mustard. He waits and I pace for about five minutes. Finally, he signals to me. Apparently, the do have the base and the assistant has gone for it so I walk, very slowly now as that is all I can manage, reluctantly and some way behind him, down the long aisle to the mixer. I arrive simultaneously with the assistant who has been to the back of the store. Sorry, no they don't have it.

I turn again, carefully now, and head for the exit again. I tell Mr SW I'll find a store online that does it when we get home. We reach the foyer. “I won't be a minute” he says. “Just popping into the gents. Catch you up” He won't. It takes him longer these days though he's blissfully unaware of that. He offers me the car keys but the handle is too stiff and wet for me. I lean against the wall of the trolley park. Finally he arrives. “Why didn't you get in?” he asks, brightly, for the 21,749th time. I decline to answer.

Now do you understand that it really is about living with arthritis?

Slosh

Oh Sticky, what can I say? Except I am due to meet up with friends this afternoon and put off getting dressed until I knew it was definitely happening. Just hope your paint does the job once you finally get it.

theresak

Oh dear, Sticky, indeed I do understand - what a trying morning. Going to Home base for paint on a Sunday morning is the stuff of nightmares.

Hope you can put your feet up for the rest of the day.

Tezz x

dreamdaisy

Am I right in thinking that he's been living with you for around forty five or so years only (all of which have been arthritic) so of course he hasn't 'got it' yet. :roll: He lives with the reality of this disease but obviously not in the same way as you. Our Homebase is a little one too but I can no longer hack it with just my crutches. DD

barbara12

Oh SW...sorry you didn't get the paint after all that palaver..has for Mr SW..think we all know the answer ..something to do with being male...must say I like the sound of the paint....

stickywicket

Yes, 44 years of arthritic marriage, DD, so I'm hoping the penny will drop soon.

Yesterday started badly when I read several posts on here which implied I would feel better if I changed my diet :roll:

Not to worry. I see my dishy young GP again tomorrow.

villier

Awww poor you................men do they ever learn, hopefully seeing the dishy GP will have helped make up for yesterday xx

stickywicket

Today I let my fingers do the walking and I'm so glad I did. Dulux need to get their act together.

I phoned about eight relatively local suppliers as provided by the Dulux website. Some didn't answer. Some did but didn't stock that range. The really idiotic thing was that only a few stockists have the mixing machine. We discovered yesterday that one branch had the machine but not the required base paint for that range whereas our nearest supplier had the machine and the base paint but were not able to mix that range :?

We're still thinking :roll: I see my lovely doc tomorrow. Might have some energy by the weekemd

bubbadog

A similar thing happened to me once with the OH and that's why I don't go out with him unless he has already been to the shop and scooped it and knows there are a few items and he needs me to make a joint decision with him or he photographs it to show me so I can agree on it. Now and again I do go in the car with him and he will pop in the store and comes and gets me if a selection of items to choose are in the store. He doesn't like me going on trips that are pointless so he does the foot work to see if it's worth bringing me out.