TSW 7.24.04

TSW returned to the Knights of Columbus, but attendance was hurt by the Pond Hill Rodeo. I had the following matches:

“Buttery” Burt Williams def. Thornn

Eric Downs def. Hayden Walters

Cheech def. James Newblood (which was a really fun match)

I also managed to get into an argument with Tony Devito as to weather moose were real. I asserted that they were real as I have seen them in the woods on occasion. He said I was a liar, and moose were fictional characters and the ones on TV were robots. “Is everything you see on TV real?�

West Branch Iron Mine (GC6D34)

This was quite an adventure. I found the trail head ok, but I wasn’t sure where to park. I finally decided to venture a ways up the “road closed” part, but didn’t get to far before I started bottoming out. I found a pull off and backed up into that and left the car there.

The trail is an old road so it was pretty easy going, except for the dozen or so trees that were blown down across the road.

I ended up walking right past the mine. I didn’t actually see a sign or anything and my GPS said it was still a ways away. I did see the location and thought it would be a nice place to stop and eat lunch on the way back. I followed the road some more and it started getting really steep. I then checked the GPS and saw that I was close to the spot before I started going up hill, but now was going in the wrong direction. So I turned around and headed back to a clearing where I thought I saw another path. The other path ended up dumping me in the river. It looked like the GPS spot was really close the river so I decided to follow that. After a ways I looked up and saw a path that was also following the river, but was about 20″ up the bank. I somehow managed to climb up to it and follow it for a bit before I realized that this was the path I was just on that was going the wrong way. I started to think that I had picked a very bad hobby. I started looking for side paths that might lead back down toward the river, closer to the cache. I thought I found one, but ended up bushwacking back down to the river and was quite annoyed that I didn’t see a mine anywhere. Turns out I was misreading the directions, as the mine was nowhere near the cache. Anyways, I found the area of the cache, but couldn’t find the damn thing due to all the downed trees, and my thinking that the coords. were off.

This is where the cache should be.

I followed the river back to where I had been before and went to that nice place I saw for lunch. Oh! There’s the mine!

I forgot my flashlight so I couldn’t see too far in, but I didn’t trust that ladder thing to get up in there anyways.

After I got home I found out that I was actually in the right spot more or less. The tree cover gives the GPS fits so I have a few more “close” coords. to try later.

Price Chopper Hot Dog Buns, Now With More Bolt!

So I’m sure you’ve probably heard lots of stories about people finding strange stuff in their food and dismissed it as urban legend. Well, I can add one true story to that list.

Today we decided to have a cookout at the lake and stopped at the Price Chopper in Rutland, VT and pick up some charcoal, hot dogs, buns, and fruit. We arrived at the lake and everything was going great, we were eating hot dogs, yummy yummy, when I went to grab another bun out of the bag when something caught my eye.

“What is that?” I thought. I thought maybe it was some mold or maybe a bug had crawled in there. Nope.

It was a 3″ metal bolt! Needless to say, we were stunned, and not very hungry any more. We packed up and headed back to Rutland to see what Price Chopper had to say about this. I did stop and take the photos you see here as I was sure I wouldn’t get to see the evidence again.

After talking to three managers the amount of concern that Price Chopper has to offer me started at $0.89, the price of the rolls. Come on. It’s not like they’re stale or something, there’s a piece of machinery in there. Next offer was a $5.00 gift card, then a $10.00 gift card, and that was “all they can do.” What good does a frickin’ gift card do me? It’s very unlikely I will ever shop there again if this is the kind of quality control they have.

Update 6/14/04: Store Manager Gary Trudo called to talk about “the rolls.” Basically he let me know that the rolls are not made by Price Chopper but by Boyea-Fassetts and to make sure that my money was refunded. Yes, I got my $0.89 back.

Update 6/15/04: Price Chopper Corporate Claims Adjuster Lois Johnson called me today to check if anyone suffered an injury from the bolt. No, there was no direct injury from the bolt that remained in the package. She also said that the rolls were actually Freihofer made, and someone from there will be speaking with me soon.

Update 6/19/04: Recieved a letter from Lois Johnson, Claims Adjuster informing me that they are passing the matter on to Charles Freihofer Baking Company, Inc.

Update 6/23/04: No contact yet from Charles Freihofer Baking Company, Inc. They don’t seem to be too concerned with this.

Update 7/1/04: Called and left a message with Lois Johnson saying that I was concerned that it had been two weeks and I hadn’t heard from Charles Freihofer Baking Company, Inc. The next morning, before 9am, I recieved one call from her, apologizing, and two from Charles Freihofer Baking Company, Inc. with status updates. Basically they recieved the rolls and bolt “earlier this week” and are “analyzing” them.

Update 7/12/04: Received a letter today from Toby Arrow at George Weston Bakeries, the parent company of Freihofer’s. Mr. Arrow apologized in his letter for my “unpleasant experience”, and assured me that they have procedures to monitor that nothing enters the “product or package”, specifically metal detecting equipment. I guess it wasn’t working. He also hopes that “the enclosed reimbursement ($3.50) and store coupons (3 $2.00 off Freihofer product and 2 $2.00 off Arnold product) will encourage (me) to continue to use and enjoy our fine products.” I guess they’re just happy that nobody actually bit into that thing.

Houk-tauk

Newest member of the household. BTW “Houk-tauk” is Korean for “food”, and I’d be much more amused if we named a dog that, but it works pretty good for a cat too.

Twe Kwon Do Uniform

Sunghee’s back from Korea, and look what she brought me:

It’s actually from her brother, but this is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever been given.

Close