I had an experience I remembered that shows why I prefer to go to somewhere rather than call in.
This was in my short stint in Minnesota (I lived in N1imrod, MN of all places) and N1mrod to Park Rapids was around 30 miles. I lived there for a variety of excuses; but I was refurbishing the shed in the back yard and I had my rusty 1999 C3500 5.7 and needed lumber.
Called a lumber yard that I can't remember the name of in Park Rapids; Me: "Hey, I need four 5 foot by 5 foot sheets of plywood" employee #1: "What are you building" Me: "I'm building a utility shed that is 5' x 10', 10 foot front and 5 foot sides" employee #1: "What so there won't be a roof?" Me: "I already have the roof and frame, I just need to wall it in" (Before anyone says anything about me using plywood: this was a cheap way to wall it in before it started raining for 5 days) Employee #1: "We have 5' x 12' and 10' x 12' if that helps" Me: I'm thinking "how do I say 'That doesn't help at all' without saying That doesn't help at all". Employee #1 "let me transfer you to my boss".
I wait around 45 minutes, enough time to let the truck get the A/C going. Boss: "Hey this is Boss with Lumber Yard. I hear you need some plywood" Me: "Yes I do. I need whatever you can get that is 5 foot by 5 foot, and I need 4 sheets of it". Boss: "We don't have that exact size but I can hook you up with 5' x 8' plywood and have Jason cut it (whoever Jason is)". Me: That's perfect, how much? Boss: "We don't know but it'll be less than $1,000" Me: "Good. Thanks, I'll see that in 1-1.5 hours".
I get there with my daughter to pick up the wood from the lumber yard. "Jason" (the guy was named Ron), and cut 3 of them to 5 x 5 and left the other one 5 x 8. Then a forklift loaded with 5 x 10 oak beams and the driver says to me "Where do you want it?". "Wrong truck". "No, says Ezra on this ticket". "My name is Ezra but I didn't order that" "Oh, well it says here that you needed 5 x 10 oak beams for a utility shed". I said "I don't know anyone who needs that for a utility shed, but this Ezra doesn't need that much wood". Then it hit me; The first guy thought I needed that, so that's why a bill for some plywood was going to be less than $1000. I had to talk with boss about how employee #1 added that and I've wasted over 2 hours only to get 3 pieces of plywood and an order of 5 massive oak beams that I don't need.
For those wondering, the shed followed me to the hunting club and is being used as a "get out of the cold" building.
Really? N i m r o d is blocked?