it's getting cold. the weather has turned and the mercury has headed south. no more warm days until april. it's been in the 40's and snow is promised in the forecast.

all that to say this:

over the weekend, i put up our christmas lights. i know that it isn't even thanksgiving, but i really didn't want to put up the lights in the snow with ice on the roof. i pulled out the strands and plugged them in to see if they were "working". some bulbs were burned out, and other strands weren't working, so i figured i would go to the store (which shall remain name*less (hint-hint) ). i really wanted to get those new led lights but they were expensive, so i picked up some of the same ones we already had. got home with the newly purchased items and opened the garage door to find rin working on the old strands. she was able to get them working. we worked on getting them up quickly and afterwards i took back the new lights. i walked in to the store, up to customer service, waited in line and finally got called up.

me: "i need to return these."
customer *ahem* service: "do you have a tag?"
me: "a what...?"
cs: "you need to get a tag to return them."
me: "i have a receipt."
cs: "you need a tag."
me: "where do i get a 'tag'?"
cs: "at the front doors."

so i go back to the front doors.

me: "hi. i was told i had to get a tag to return these."
front door workers: "do you not want them?"
me *thinking*: "nope, i want to keep them, i'm just returning them for the exercise." "uh, no."
fdw: "do you have a note?"
me: "a what?"
fdw: "a note so you can return them."
me: "a note to return the lights?"
fdw: "you need a note from customer service to get a tag from us."
me: "what?!?!"
fdw: "let me try this without a note." gets on walkie talkie. inaudible talking. scanner in hand. codes scanned and tags magically come out.

head back over to customer service desk and wait in line (again).

cs: "can i help you."
me: "i need to return these." hand over receipt, bag of lights and tags.
cs: "anything wrong with them?"
me: "nope, just don't need them."

the girl puts the tags to the side (this is the only time she touches them) and scans in the barcodes, prints out a return receipt and hands it over for me to sign. sign away and the money is back into my account. all that to return $10 worth of lights. . .