Law School Dad

Realising how little time (and money) I'll have for those endlessly accumulating household projects once school starts, I've dedicated myself to trying to get as much done around the house as possible in the next couple of weeks. This of course means regular visits to Home Depot and Lowes, which, for handily unhandy folks like yours truly, are the most intimidating stores in the world. Aisles full of fabulously arcane products. Singularly scarce and unhelpful salespeople, trained to respond to your every inquiry with a derisive snort. Fellow customers conversing knowledgeably about gate valves and reducing couplings, while you're just trying to find a watchamyjig to fix your toilet. And clearly both stores want to make returning items as difficult as possible. Have you ever looked at your receipts from these places? It's like they deliberately encrypt the descriptions of the products you purchase so that there's no way you can later identify what you bought. For example, last week I bought a can of primer, some painter's tape, and 2 paint brushes from Home Depot. Here's how these items were listed on my receipt: 1 PR34BM16 14.99 1 SCP23T85 4.50 2 35INPT3B 5.80 No doubt perfectly intelligible to a licensed contractor, but heaven help me if I want to return something in a month's time. -LSD