i should know better...
than to go to home depot on a saturday morning. but i need a plastic drop cloth, some vinyl covered wire and other goodies, so the trip was a must. as i gritted my teeth listening to awful michael jackson music on the way in...i fought crowds in order to get to the hardware isle. i carefully inspected the cable i wanted, and a friendly gent came to assist me with cutting it into 4 5" segments. the cable is thick, and i don't have anything to cut it with at home. the nice man suggested i purchase bolt cutters so i could cut the cable at home if i ever needed to.
he measure out the first 5 foot segment, and tried to feed it into the heavy duty cutting machine.
he went at it for a while, until he discovered the machine was broken.
"it's broken." he said, standing there holding my uncut wire, just standing there.
"do you have bolt cutters?" i asked.
he fished around on the shelf..."they're stolen too." he answered. and then he just stood there and said "i can't help you."
hello! home depot is a hardware store, where there is inevitably hardware, and usually hardware that they would recommend you to buy, like bolt cutters! i don't know if the thought crossed his mind. i politely left the store and finished my errands at lowe's, which was an equally unpleasant experience, but for different reasons.
home sweet home!