More stories about Stan. For whatever reason I was elected to buy a fleece vest for my dad's friend's birthday. A gift from Dad and Helena. Dad did not want one of our Moose vests, that I offered to him from the store, he wanted one from L.L. Bean exactly like the one my brother Ben bought him a couple of years ago. In Navy, with nothing on it. No L.L. Bean written on it, absolutely not. He had wanted me to go online and buy it for him when he was out here, but I never did, and his friend's birthday isn't until the end of September anyway. So every time I talk to him he tells me I need to go on line and buy this vest for him. So a couple of days ago I asked him for his friend's name and address, but he can't read his own address book, his eyes have gotten that much worse, so he asked me to call Helena and get the information from her. Finally this evening at a decent hour in New York I remembered and called Helena. "Is everything O.K.? Yes, everything is fine, I just called to say Hello." And so we spoke for awhile and then when Helena said, "It's been really nice talking to you," I replied, "well there is one thing I wanted to ask you - I need Bob's address..." And then she asked me if I knew which vest I was going to buy, and I told her, no, but I can go on line right now and you can help me pick it out so that's what we did. Figured out which was the nicest vest, she had already called and had a bunch of item numbers, so I looked at each one and we described them and we made a decision. We talked a bit more and then I called my Dad to get his credit card information. He can hardly see his card to give me the number. And then he tells me that the cable guy came today, made him wait all day, showed up at 4:30, he fixed his t.v. in the bedroom, but he messed up his remote in the living room. He wanted him to fix the volume controls, but now something else doesn't work. So I coached him through using his remote, but I have no idea what he was trying to do or why it wasn't working or even if it wasn't working. Why does it have to be so complicated, was my Dad's lament. It was a beautiful day in New York so after the cable guy left he took a walk. So I told him we picked out the vest and I would buy it now and see if I could get it shipped in mid- September. Yes, don't send it to him yet, it's too early, he'll get it too soon. And miraculously I was able to order it and have it shipped later, all done on line with a customer service rep.

That was this evening. Today at the store I dealt with a down computer system, planning for the winter, a meeting with Jackie and our manager, ordered xmas trees, got my new computer set up with the store printer, took Howie to the bank to purchase his first certificate of deposit (he's saving for a car). It was a bit of a crazy day, very frustrated by the internet, but in the end with the help of the phone guy and the network guy over the phone got it all back on line.