Made in China.

Why do simple things always turn out to be the hardest to do? Today I was going to put together the new gazebo on our lovely rebuilt deck. I read the instructions and it looked easy, all I needed was a nut driver. Nothing is ever easy, within thirty minutes I had just about every tool in the house out on the deck. This is of course because the gazebo I was sold is defective.

I hate stores that take broken returned items and put them back out on the shelf without fixing them. This time it was Target, but I have run into the same thing at Home Depot and Lowes. The worst is a place called BrandsMart where their motto is ‘If it aint broken, we didn’t sell it’.

So our first plan is to go to Target and get the right part from another gazebo. No. They have emptied the store of all summer merchandise and shipped what was left back. Because lord knows people in South Florida have no use for summer things in the winter. The next plan is to go to Home Depot and find the parts we need to make our gazebo go together. I hate Home Depot. You can’t buy just a single nut, bolt, or washer. Every thing is in a prepackaged plastic bag. I, However, found what I think will work and return home.

After hours of screwing with the gazebo I realized the parts I got are not going to work. At this point I gave up for the day because I didn’t want to venture back into the hell that is Home Depot for more parts. I went into the house, sat down in my big comfy recliner, turned on the TV and, Poof!! The electric goes out and stays out for a couple of hours. This happens quite often here in South Florida and can be caused by anything from a lightening bolt to a squirrel farting while walking on the wires behind the house. This time it was a bolt of lightening. I think it hit the squirrel.