Saturday, January 18, 2020

    I got up before the alarm went off but not at my usual 6 am.  Bikram is at 8:30 on Saturdays rather than 7:30.  I saw Yvette leave early to pick up a friend before they headed off to the class. When I arrived, the room was already pretty full, but Yvette had laid down a towel in my spot.  I replaced it with my mat and headed out for my final bathroom run before the class. When I came back, my yoga towel was laid out on the mat. Bill is my usual yoga fairy, but he wasn't here today.  Yvette pointed to Jeff. I went up and told him he had been outed. Thank you. These little acts of consideration mean so much to me. 

    After Bikram, I went to Lowes to check if I could buy the toilet I wanted there. I had checked out Home Depot only to face sticker shock.  The toilet I wanted, chair height with an elongated seat in bone or bisque, was available in white in the store.  That toilet cost something like $150. The toilet in bisque or bone had to be order and shipped; it cost $470, including a seat and shipping costs. I was going to give up when it occurred to me to check out Lowes.  

    The system for special ordering at Lowes is different from Home Depot.  I first checked with the customer service desk, where you have to go when you walk into the store to place a special order.  She sent me to the plumbing department.  The man there told me that I had to go to the building department because he was a part-time worker and he didn't have a computer available even to make a special order. 

    I had to wait for the man in the building department to get off the phone. I heard him say, "$850," and then he looked up at me and said, "He hung up." I guess I'm not the only one with sticker shock. The associate told me that it is hard to buy toilets in colors other than white because no one buys them anymore.  I don't want one with an intense color, like grey or black, but off white.  He said he couldn't order anything that wasn't in the warehouse. I asked, "A warehouse here on the Big Island or in Honolulu?" He looked at me and laughed. He said all the Lowes warehouses were on the mainland. He found a toilet in bone that was chair height with an elongated seat that he could order for me.  It cost $271, including tax and home delivery. I took it. Hopefully, I will like it when it finally arrives. We'll see. If not, Josh needs a new one, and he has a lot of brown in his bathroom. If he doesn't like it either, it will go to B., who says that the tank on his toilet is cracked.  So many options.