Tom has a way. I don’t know what it is, although I should by now, but somehow he’s a live, walking advertisement for costing and/or spending money. Credit card companies love him!
He always has a deal going. Always. And it always involves spending very little or no cash. Yet, being that it’s Tom, it always ends up costing me a fortune. I say me, because I’m the bookkeeper, bill payer and manager of this two person unit. In fact, Tom tells everyone that his main purpose in life is to get everything he wants and my purpose in life is to keep him from getting at least half of that.
He’s kidding, of course, but not by much. I mean . . . y’all remember "The $313.65 Dollar $10 Dollar Christmas Gift," per chance? Prime example right there.
And I had to take the checkbook away from him a long time ago after he somehow mistakenly wrote a check to Texaco in the amount of the balance in our checkbook rather than the amount of the monthly bill for gasoline. Neither one of us realized it for a while until Texaco cashed the check and we began to bounce checks right and left and had no idea why. Not a clue.
If I remember right, it wasn’t until we got the next statement from Texaco with a huge credit on it that we were (I was) finally able to piece together what had happened. And it took stupid Texaco forever to send us our money back, which intensely irritated me so that I stopped using Texaco.
He’s tried to reform. He really has. But, it seems to be some sort of disability for him somehow. He is "thrift challenged." He knows that, so works hard to overcome it. He is doing much better, over all. I even let him have a debit card. Reluctantly. But I keep close tabs on him and on the bank account online every day, without fail, so it works for us. That is, most of the time.
Which brings us to his most recent "deal" gone bad. Friday the 13th just past.
To say that my initial response to any of his deals any more is one of intense skepticism would be putting it mildly. Combine that with a Friday the 13th (and I’m not superstitious by nature, you understand) and you have a calamity waiting to happen.
Tom comes home and says his friend Curtis can get them into the House of Blues on Decatur in New Orleans to see the outstanding Texas blues guy, Delbert McClinton, a long time favorite of ours, in concert for free. Free. Yep. Free.
What could I say? I mean, other than gas in the car down there and back, it sounded okay. I fixed him an early dinner because they were leaving at 6:00 p.m., so a meal wouldn’t be involved. Even though it was Tom.
Things began to unravel the next morning when I found his receipt for parking. $14 bucks. Then, there was a second receipt for snacks and drinks for he and Curtis (who’d gotten the tickets). $24. So, the free concert was now up to $38 dollars. I wasn’t happy (money’s been tight lately), but could live with it. I guessed.
Until about an hour later, when Tom said, "Dee . . . I hate to tell you this . . . but, I can’t find my ($2,000+) hearing aid." He’d taken it off before they went in (loud noise shuts the aid off) and put it in the deep opening on the bottom of the dash board. At least, he thinks he did. The next time he thought about it was Saturday morning, but when he went out to get it, it was gone. Vanished. His wallet was lying there where he’d put it on the way home, but no hearing aid.
He did not remember for sure when he put it in the car and has no recollection of taking it out, again, although he must have. (It’s like losing car keys, you know? Something you handle so automatically you don’t think about what you’re doing.) Even so, the car was in the garage and the only places the aid could have been was either there or in the house. Nope.
We searched high and low. Even dumped out the contents of two trash cans. It was not to be found.
So, that’s how he came to be with me seeing the ENT doctor and audiologist last Friday. The good news. The new hearing aid for his severe loss in his left ear is much better, being a small slim piece lying just above and behind his ear with a very small tube going down into his ear. It’s not noticeable at all. And, it’s only $1,600.
The bad news. In the 3 1/2 years since he got his hearing aid, his hearing has deteriorated in his right ear (no doubt due to 3 more Jazz Fests and other concerts) to the extent he now needs one for it, as well. $1,600 bucks more.
So, in the end, his free Friday the 13th concert cost me a whopping $3,238. Insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids, either, so it’s our loss.
What’s more . . . seven days of the expensive New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival are coming up the last weekend of April/first weekend of May.
But, not to worry. Tom has a deal. Says he can get in every one of the seven days for free.
Me? I’m calculating. Seven times $3,238. Although, I’ve already told him – the new hearing aids are staying home with me. Locked up!
Cheers! And many blessings to you all today! Dee
It’s not like he came home with a signature guitar! That would be cause for concern. But that and old man (sorry, Tom, but I’m just pleading your case here) forgot where he put his hearing aid only to discover that he now needs a second one, is something over which we have no control. Not like the wife discovering that over a five year period a certain husband spent over $15,000 at Guitar Center! (I’ve heard that has actually happened to an otherwise very healthy marriage.)
Being the friend I am, for a mere $1,999 I can record some hypnotic memory tapes to help Tom so that this does not happen again. That’s a savings of $1239 over a new set of hearing aids. Or, for an additional $250, I will record them on CD … still a savings of $989. Just let me know ….
I would make a comment but I made a similar but much larger mistake in $ that involved some Hotel accomadations. Lets just say that Tom and I could be kin.
Tom sounds like my kinda guy! I so relate!