Totally Stupid

Do you ever do things that make you feel totally stupid? Like when you finally figure out the way it really goes, you should have known that all along. That just happened here, to me.

We decided that we would purchase a new carpet cleaning machine yesterday afternoon. I researched it on the net and chose the Bissell 2X pro. They have several of these that have different model numbers that are called the same thing.

The one at Wal Mart is $10 cheaper than the others but has none of the features that most of the others have. Wal Mart cheapens most products so they can have the lowest price, but be careful that you are not cutting off your nose to spite your face.

The one at Target is a standard model that is available most everywhere else, and has most of the features. It was only $10 more, and I would bet that Target makes less money selling it than Wal Mart.

But that is not why I feel stupid. We drove here to the Lake today and burned some more of that $3.79 fuel. Took about 7 gallons again, and at one point a Mo highway patrolman took an unusual interest in us, turning around and following us for about 10 miles.

He never stopped us, but he was stuck like a trailer to the back of me. Must have figured out I wasn't his guy. I never went much over 55 all the way down here, so that couldn't have been the problem. But just like that, he must have turned off. I looked back again in the mirror and he wasn't there anymore.

Its the cleaning machine, that made me feel so dumb. Took it out of the box and laid all the pieces out on the work bench. All plastic. Read the instructions which said to screw the top handle onto the bottom part of the machine with the three screws.

I went thru all the bags and the instruction pouch, the box and all the packing, what screws? I looked and looked at the motor, the cord, the hose and suction end thingy. Still no screws. Went all thru the process several times. No screws. Reread the instructions, use the attached screws.

I went inside and pouted for a while, looking on the internet to see who I had to call tomorrow, to get some of the special plastic screws. Went back to the garage again to look the whole works over again, gave up and started to put the stuff back in the box.

When I picked up the upper handle by the loop that had the trigger inside, I felt a bag. About 1 inch square, taped to the inside of the handle, With RED TAPE! Stupid!

The machine is now assembled with all of its parts ready to go, and I need a beer or something.

The carpet cleaning will have to wait until tomorrow, or never as far as I am concerned. The DW will have other opinions however.