When everything sucks.

To tell you the truth, this has NOT been a very good day. Aside from the fact that neuropathy is flaring up like mad again in my left foot and left hand, I also have had to endure the following assorted crap.

I ordered a spice online and they shipped the wrong one. I fail to understand how MySpiceSage.com screwed this up. I ordered a 4 oz. resealable bag of caraway seeds — and it’s printed correctly on the packing list they enclosed in the box — but they sent whole cloves instead. CLOVES. Who the devil uses cloves?

I think we’re getting ripped off by AT&T. The frustration level is climbing steadily here. First, we signed up online for paperless billing weeks ago but continue to receive mail from them nearly every day either asking us to “go paperless” or promoting various U-Verse deals that cost less than the one we just signed up for. I’m also concerned about the monthly bill that arrived today for our AT&T landline phone. The amount due jumped from $28 to $61 because I asked them to remove a couple of services I didn’t need. According to what I’m seeing on this stupid statement there’s a charge to REQUEST a service change and another charge to actually MAKE the change. No doubt there will also be a charge to ARGUE about the change. And apparently AT&T still adds a surcharge for “touch-tone service,” although I seriously can’t fathom what the alternatives are to a touch-tone phone. Stop by tomorrow around 10 a.m. if you want to watch me get into a screaming match with an AT&T bureaucratic idiot. Bring a coffee cake.

The corn dogs that got away. My Schwan’s delivery driver accidently forgot to include a bag of mini corn dogs with my order yesterday. I didn’t miss them right away because Sam is the one who shoveled everything into the freezer, but today when I wanted mini corn dogs for lunch they were nowhere to be found. I searched through the freezer for half an hour, emptied three shelves, dug through three bins, and finally asked Sam if he remembered seeing them. He said no. So I called Gary, and he showed up tonight at 8:30 to drop them off. I actually held off eating dinner because I still wanted those damn little corn dogs. Know what? THEY’RE ABSOLUTELY LOUSY. I had a can of cream of mushroom soup instead.

As long as we’re discussing Schwan’s I suppose I should review the OTHER lousy product I got from them this week ... Breaded Chicken Breast Patties. From this photo (above, left) you assume it’s a solid slab of chicken that’s perfect for sandwiches, but it just isn’t so. These are just giant chicken nuggets on steroids ... strange, ground-up mystery chicken in a tasteless breading. I tried one and didn’t like it at all. But I’ll try again, next time on two pieces of bread with lots of barbecue sauce and lettuce to obliterate the flavor and texture. As a last resort I can use them as coasters.

There’s a severe thunderstorm rolling in right now so I think I’ll shut down the computers and wait in the window for Sam to get home from work. Shalom, y’all.