The Lady of the Swan and Me

I like cheese. And good ale. And bread.
Perhaps it is the mystery of the symbiosis between microscopic and macroscopic in these foods that makes them so fascinating to me. Those of us who brew often claim that it is easy, but in reality it is not. It takes a lot of physical labor, even without growing or malting our own barley. And you can start with something that you believe to be a wonderful idea, and end up falling far short of the vision you held. You are at the mercy of the microscopic adjuncts, those invisible co-creators who begin to grow and multiply in the environment you have given them.

The SCA has guilds for brewing and cheesemaking, that encourage and instruct members to attempt to be as authentic as possible in their hospitable tasty endeavors. I joined the West Kingdom Cheesemakers' Guild when the Lady Aeschine Colquhoun revived it. So far, I've made cream cheese and neufchatel. I have the bacteria and molds and trays to make Brie, but I haven't tried it yet because it needs stricter temperature controls. And Lady Aeschine is also in the West Kingdom Brewers' Guild. We have never actually met in person, but we have exchanged email messages on the lists of both guilds, and obviously share a love of fermented foods.

Now, as you may recall, my consort Lord Miach of the Shire has been practicing his western martial arts prowess in the last few months. This has proven to be a real Godsend. It has encouraged him to do that male bonding thing that I really think most men need in order to be mentally and emotionally healthy. It has also encouraged him to be more pro-active in taking care of his physical well-being. He has developed muscles! And he has actually gone to see his doctor and gotten routine tests, which is kind of a miracle. For years, I've worried that he doesn't get out enough and that he doesn't have any social contacts beyond family. That worry is now a thing of the past, as he's become quite the social butterfly in the past year, since we became a part of the Shire of Mountain's Gate. As you may recall, we had been in the SCA for years prior to moving to the Shire, and we had mostly concentrated our interest in target archery and our household and close friends in the Kingdom of Caid. We had tried to fit in to a couple of other local groups, and it just didn't work out. As time has gone on, I have come to realize that the reason it didn't work out is because social events in the greater SCA all tend to revolve around Court, and Court revolves around tournament armed combat. As target archers, we were literally and figuratively on the far borders of any SCA events. Really gifted and dedicated craftspeople can get a toehold into the upper echelons, but that kind of skill and devotion is hard to develop. We tried. Miach continues to work on his Illumination skills, while I've really slacked off on my calligraphy. Miach actually won the Kingdom cooking award at the first Kingdom event we attended. And we've always been willing to volunteer for things. We probably got our Awards of Arms due to all the privies that I cleaned and meals that Miach cooked in Caid, not to mention his willingness to help out at all sorts of archery events and even to host one in Golden Rivers. But a true sense of community and friendship always eluded us until we landed in Mountain's Gate, and the smaller and more intimate group allowed us to feel that we belonged. Even at Kingdom level events, the Mountain's Gate sunshade and encampment gave us a base to hang out at and to welcome other folk into. Our contentment grew, and since there are two Knights and a Baron who are well-versed in armed combat in the Shire, and our Chatelaine is a gifted metal worker, Miach soon had a helm and shield and sword and was attending fighter practices regularly. I knew he was hooked the day I heard the epic heroic soundtrack from the "Conan" movie playing loudly, and found Miach on the exercise bike in the garage in full armor, swinging his sword.

Miach's first foray into competition was at the Golden River Pas D'arms, where he made a reasonably credible showing and exhibited a little flair for the dramatic as well. I got to carry his banner during the introductions. He had also fought as part of a group, and as a combat archer, in the Cynagua/Mists War. He had gotten some good critique and advice, and God knows he took it to heart and practiced. He also began attending fighter practice in Golden Rivers, where there were more fighters, and higher level fighters (including the current and many former Princes of Cynagua). So, at Fall Coronet he felt he was ready to actually enter "The List" (officially competing tournament fighters). He did really well, considering he's been at it for less than a year. One of the fighters he engaged and lost to was Lord Daniel de Blare, who fought like a crazed hypermonkey and just knocked the socks off everyone there, including one-shotting Sir Richard de Camville.
Lord Daniel de Blare thus won for his Lady, who is Aeschine Colquhoun (from the Cheesemakers' Guild), the title of Lady of the Swan and Crown Princess of Cynagua.
Now, this is awesome for many different reasons, but one of them is that the Lord and Lady of the Swan live in the Province of Silver Desert, which is on the far Eastern border of Cynagua. The Silver Desert folk are constantly trekking into the Central Valley of California from Nevada in order to participate in principality and Kingdom events. In Mountain's Gate, we're further away from most of the main sites for events than much of the Principality or the Kingdom, so we can relate. Miach and I were truly very pleased with the outcome. It would have been interesting if Sir Richard had won, but he's won before and he has squires and peers and all sorts of support. He used to live in The Mists, too, and that is pretty much the original SCA group. We would have offered our support, but he wouldn't have needed it, I think. (It should be noted that Sir Richard made a very impressive comeback from a bout of illness and just all-around horridness that would have likely thrown a lesser man. He nearly won the Coronet, surprising himself more than anyone else, it would seem.)

So with much goodwill I congratulated the Lady of the Swan, Her Excellency Aeschine, and revealed that Miach had enjoyed his bout with His Excellency, Lord Daniel, and offered any assistance in their endeavors.

Which is how I came to be invited to be a member of the Court of the Lady of the Swan. There is no running from the pointy hats any longer.

Wanted: Shoehorn

My youngest daughter and 2 year old granddaughter moved in with us in the last 2 weeks, nearly doubling our household and completely filling the last "guest" bedroom. We moved our SCA stuff into our master bedroom closet. Sig moved his car out of the garage, and my daughter's stuff into the garage. Since my oldest grand-daughter, who is going to college in Folsom and Sacramento, already lives with us, this effectively fills the entire house. It's a long story as to why. It has something to do with the economy, although there are lots of other reasons as well. The economy didn't help, shall we say? When people are living on the edge, as my daughter and her boyfriend have been doing for years, it doesn't take much to fall over. Her boyfriend is living with his sister. The two of them are very lucky; they live in a house that their grandparent's owned and their mother grew up in. And their mother is lucky; she lives in a house that she bought about an hour's drive away. In times like these, it would be great to have a house that you could just keep moving family into without it disrupting your actual house and routine.

Our rental agreement was of course only for Sig and myself. The owners of the property could demand that we move. I don't think they would do that, but they could. There are now 4 visible cars outside in front, and our old van in the RV camping in back. That's a lot of vehicles. Thank goodness my daughter is a neatnik, so at least I have a lot of help in keeping the house as liveable as possible. If it were my house, I'd not worry about any of that. But it's not, so I do worry.

We are only about 30 days or so into our 45 to 60 day wait to hear if the bank will accept our offer on the short sale, and already things have changed drastically for the worse. Aside from the greater economy showing obvious signs of a severe and perhaps prolonged Recession, the additional strain of gas, utilities and food for twice as many people is a burden. Frankly, I can't do it on my paycheck any longer, and my paycheck is the largest and my bills the least of my entire extended family.

If the offer is accepted, and I can still get the loan, we'll still go through with it at this point. But if it's not, then I think that's the end of the road for any hopes to keep the down payment long enough to find and put an offer on another house. There is just too much that needs to be done on too little money. My granddaughter may be able to find another job, but it was hard for her to find the one she had and the economy was booming when she did. My daughter has a job, with UPS, but it is low-paying entry level and part-time with no hope of full time for at least 3 years. It's a miracle to me that people will actually work it. I guess most do it for the benefits and the hope that they will sooner or later be promoted.

My family celebrates the end of October/beginning of November as the beginning of a new year. This has been a very disappointing year for me when family matters are the focus. I'm lucky to have friends and avocations that I find fascinating, and a career that is uplifting and meaningful.
I love my kids, and my grandkids. I don't begrudge helping them. And I foresaw that this would likely happen, so Sig and I were semi-prepared. But it still sucks.
And so much has changed in the past year that it makes me apprehensive about the coming year.

The Shire goes Camping

We went camping this weekend on a friend's family lands up in the Sierra, along with many of the denizens of the Shire of Mountain's Gate. It was very mellowing and relaxing. We had planned on being up there on Friday afternoon, but Life has been intervening lately and I was unable to be home until 6pm or so, and we knew we wouldn't make it down the back roads until it was pretty dark and cold. So we went up Saturday mid-morning.
No fires were allowed, and that was a bummer. It was also the first weekend of deer-hunting season in El Dorado County, and there were a couple groups of hunters up with us further down the road. Normally, this would make me anxious. It wasn't bad at all, though.
According to our friend, the large buck that haunts the meadow where we camped did make an appearance in the wee hours, snorting and pawing and rubbing his antlers on trees. Later in the morning, he spoke to some hunters out on the road, and they had bagged a large buck that we believe is the one from the meadow.
As always, we brought way more stuff than we needed. We spent Saturday and what time we had on Sunday sitting around and just being with our friends. I spoke a bit more with the couple that are short-selling their house (which I have put an offer on), kind of hesitantly, because I offered much less than the asking price. They're a bit puzzled that their agent hasn't held any open houses or promoted the house much. I reassured them that I had offered what I was pre-approved for (with reasonable bargaining margin), and that my offer did not reflect what I felt the property was worth to them at all. My friends are puzzled that their agent hasn't been promoting the house, but I am not; it needs work, and her commission is likely to be minimal. Their are also too many houses on the market, several in the vicinity.
My offer remains the only offer.
I still fully expect the bank to reject it. But we are now more likely by far to consider a property up in the foothills, and I anticipate ending up there.
An interesting side note, and one that was also mentioned in this article which was brought to my attention by the Sacramento Land(ing) blog, is that we were told that horses and other livestock are being abandoned by people who are also abandoning their rural properties. This came up because I was again asking for advice about browsers (like goats) and asking about upkeep and feed costs. We were told that if we are able to buy a small acreage, we will have no trouble obtaining whatever livestock we might be interested in, free.
Abandoning ANY kind of animal is heinous and immoral, but HORSES???

The Waiting

As of today, and after an additional 2 addendums by the seller's agent (mostly to make sure I understood that the ultimate sale was not in the control of her client, but was at the whim of the holder of the mortgage) we have now entered the waiting period. The papers, I am told, are now at the lender which holds the mortgage. And the average before hearing anything back on them is between 45 and 60 days.
All of which is cool with us. We're not in a big hurry.
I have concerns about the general economy, and sometimes I wonder if the terms will be anything like what we all discussed in 60 days. This doesn't really worry me too much; if things are much worse and the fundamentals of the sale are becoming more flawed, I don't have to go through with it, of course.
This is not a house I'm in love with, but it is a house and property that I feel we could work with and be relatively happy with. There is plenty of actual room, and according to the friend that owned it (nominally) , it is permitted by the county zoning folks for an additional 1600 ft of housing. Which could be another small house, an addition, a mobile home, etc. As strange as it sounds, that makes me feel better, because I always harbor the low-level notion that my children and Sig's family will somehow all end up out here. That used to be far-fetched, but it's not anymore. They'd have to sleep in trailers, of course, and there would be lots of disharmony but at least they'd have a roof over their head and food to eat.
I do find myself thinking about how various activities will fit in to the potential house, and pondering scenarios. A couple weeks ago I bought a few dozen canning jars with the odd notion that I was going to either go up to Apple Hill and buy bushels of apples or down to the Sacramento Farmer's market and buy bushels of whatever they have that's seasonal and can-able. I suspect it was more a subconscious reaction to this possible purchase of a rural house with acreage more than any burning need in the here and now. The Sig just started a batch of Cabernet Sauvignon which is currently fermenting, crushed skins and pulp included, in a new/clean 20 gallon plastic garbage bin with fitted lid. I think he started wanting to make this wine after talking to some vintners from the area of the house we're trying to buy, at a party.
The whole fermenting blob should yield about 5 gallons of actual wine, according to the Folsom Brewmeister. The wine should age for at least a year. In another month or so, we have to press the wine out of the skins, and Sig knocks the skins/pulp back down under the juice every day with a canoe paddle that he disinfects. We also have some strawberrry mead that is far from done aging.
If we end up being approved for this deal, we are going to have to move 10 gallons of fermenting beverages (which do not like to be sloshed around while still fermenting) about 40 miles. That's probably enough creative food preservation product to worry about. I don't think I'm going to be doing any canning to add to the mix. I do think it's amusing how we're each reacting to ideas that I'm sure were put into our minds by the possibility of moving onto a rural acreage across the road from a vinyard.

The Process

Well, I just signed and emailed an offer to my agent on the House in Hangtown. The asking price is 279K and I offered 230K. I was actually kinda surprised that it wasn't shot down immediately by the seller's agent, but we were told that no other offers had been made so far (it's been about a month on the market now) and to go ahead and submit and "see what happens". That, to me, is a clear sign of the general market right now, because a year or so ago people were taking offense and being insulted by offers that much lower than asking price.

So far, this has been the timeline: Friends mention selling house to us about 5 weeks ago during camping trip, the following week the Sig takes me up to look at the house (he'd already seen it while helping friends collect tools from it), the following week I think it over. Late in that week, I contact the agent that I'd decided I'd contact if I was ever looking to buy again, and he offered to write up an offer that day --- but I didn't know if I could get financing, given the current lending climate. I had two options: my friends gave me a mortgage broker's name that used to work with them, and my agent had a guy he felt was honest and trustworthy. I went with the agent's guy, David, and over the course of another 10 days faxed him my financial information and he submitted it and I was approved. I could have been approved for more, but my down payment is, indeed, paltry.
I notified my agent that I was approved, and gave him all my info and the additional stuff that David had figured up about closing costs, and he then contacted the seller's agent to see if it was worthwhile writing it up, which it evidently was. He faxed forms, I read and thought again for a day, and signed and faxed back today.

Meanwhile I've been seeking advice from anyone who will give it on how to manage a small acreage. Among things I have learned:
Goats will climb on everything, including your car, and poop.
Goats in milk need to be milked every day, which means you can't take weekend trips.
Goats are easy to take care of, and keep your property pretty clear of underbrush and weeds.
It's good to have an "outside" dog to guard your property.
Small dogs and cats can't ever be outside on their own, mostly due to hunting raptors and owls.
Wells are GOOD.
Wells are BAD.
Septic systems are complicated and can have problems if you're not careful.
Septic systems are simple and you won't have any problems if you don't put stuff in them that doesn't belong there.
Some husbands have never pulled a weed in their lives and wouldn't know what to do without a tractor.
Tractors are GOOD.
You don't need a tractor, but you do need SOMETHING to haul stuff around; an ATV with wagon attachment would work fine.
It's good to have a woodlot, and with careful management it will replenish itself. Which is very good, because firewood is expensive.
A rifle or two is mandatory. There are lions and bears. And possibly methheads.
It's OK to shoot a deer that is poaching your fruit, but you'd better know how to clean it. Do not email pictures of yourself holding any kind of recently deceased game animal to your friends with the heading, "What do I do now?"
Your friends will be there for you, with tools and advice, if you need help.

So far, the one thing that everyone agrees on is that they have enjoyed living in the foothills. One friend even opined that caring for a small acreage might actually be less difficult than caring for our current rental gardens, especially if we adopt the philosophy that the goal of successful land ownership in rural areas is to keep the land as close to natural as possible while maintaining fire safety.
Oh, and ponies are EVIL.

The Sweet Life

I guess I'm putting a toe back into the housing pool. Sig took me out to see our friend's property that is being short-sold. It's a nice size, with several usable flat areas. It's not a remarkable property, although our friend and his wife are very fond of it and obviously devastated that they have had to leave it. It frankly needs a lot of work. There are a couple cosmetic projects that need to be done to the inside of the house, and that we're probably capable of completing although they are a little more complicated than painting a wall. There are about half a dozen outdoor projects that are in very beginning stages of execution, the most ambitious of which is the construction of a small medieval stone building with attached small tower.
On the plus side, the house has several areas that would be ideal for our use. It's hard to describe this place, which looks like a typical ranch house on the outside.
The house is really built into the side of a hill, rather like our rental but even more pronounced. So, there is a main floor, then a short flight up to the bedrooms and guest bath. The main living area has a low, flat ceiling with dark wood beams crossing it. Kind of Tudor style. There is a wood burning stove in the corner, which is raised and completely encased in some kind of shale stone to absorb and radiate the heat. The bedrooms are unremarkable, other than some personal touches of creativity that our friends have designed and which are entirely cosmetic. Guest bath is very nice. Down a half-flight of stairs is a laundry room with a full bathroom and more storage, and a masonry block room that is at this point entirely under the house and surrounded by the hill, so it's like a bomb shelter. They were using it for food storage and a wine cellar, which actually works quite well, as the temperature is a constant 50 - 60 degrees. There is also a room in which the water heater lives, which is large enough that they had a chest freezer in there as well. Go down another half flight of stairs, which are painted but not carpeted like the upper stairs are, and you are in the lowest level which has an unfinished but totally usable bedroom, and two other rooms -- again, masonry block rooms. From this level you can enter the 2-car garage or you can walk out a door that leads directly off the main parking area in front of the house. There is actually a little screened off entry way, so you have an outer door, then the screened in area, then the door into the lower level. To get to the main level from the parking area, you have to walk up a half flight of steps onto a wrap-around porch. When you're standing to the rear of the house, you only see one story; this is the part built into the hill. When you're standing in the front, you see two stories.
There is a very large, circular vegetated area in front of the house which our friend referred to as the herb garden. All I could see was rosemary, growing like crazy. To the right as you face the house is a very lovely wooden archway with gate, and about 20 feet of poured concrete "stone" walkway. Our friend states this area, due to elevation and the natural fencing of manzanita which surrounds the rear property line for several feet thick, is largely deer-protected. He had intended to put flowers and perhaps container plants in this area. Across the parking area from the house is a very large outbuilding, which has it's own masonry block "cellar" under it. Again, built into the side of the hill, so that you can walk directly out from the cellar onto the hill, but the main entrance is on top of the hill. This little building has electricity and an air-conditioner that may or may not work. There is obviously an upper storage area above this building, which is built like a small barn, but our friend says he never opened it and advises throwing a few bug bombs up there if we decide to open it. The outer roof of this building is mossy and worn, but the interior is fine.
The Pros to this property: It's close to most of our friends. It is just about the perfect size of acreage. It has a large area towards the front that is free of trees and could be used for a large garden. From what we understand, there is a creek or small stream that cuts across the very front of the property between our access road and the main road, and running water is usually a good thing -- especially since it is highly unlikely this small creek would ever reach a high enough point to come close to flooding the house or outbuilding, since they are built up the hillside. There is ample room for me to make and age cheese, in the room that is very like a cave and totally under the hill. There is plenty of room for both Sig and I to set up a brewery on the lower level of the house off the garage, and I'm sure I could set up my outside propane burner/kettle rig outside nearby either in the garage or just outside the screened lower level porch. Alternately, we could also set this up in the cellar under the outbuilding, although I think that would be much better suited for use as a small livestock shelter. Sig would have plenty of room for an armory, fletching area in the outbuilding proper. We could use the lower level bedroom as a guest room area, and the other room could be an exercise room. The small upstairs bedroom could be garb and fabric storage and sewing room. The second large bedroom is already set up with DSL and outlets for computers and electronics, and was being used as a shared office space, which we would probably also do. There is also a soaking tub in the master bath, of Japanese design, which is very deep and intended to cover you up to the neck in a sitting position. I'm sure I'd love that. And the oddball space that others might find difficult to find a use for, we actually can use very well.

The Cons are that it snows, and about twice a year according to our friend, it is rather difficult to get out of the drive. He doesn't mind this, and just calls off work. It's a little more problematic for me, as if I call off work that means someone else has to pick up the slack and there is very little room for picking up the slack in my work. There are also many, many projects that should really be completed (like the retaining wall outside, and the sliding closet doors inside) and which will mean putting our hobby projects on hold or being incredibly disciplined to work on both hobbies AND house in our spare time. It is also an additional 42 miles of driving per day, and that is very worrisome. On the other hand, with as much time as we spend driving up to Placerville anyway to take part in Shire activities, it isn't as bad as one might think. Two other Shire members drive daily down into Sacramento, or even further, so it isn't out of the question but it does mean a much earlier start to my workday and additional fuel cost at a time when most sane people are trying to cut back on driving.

Then there are the mixed blessings: it will be much more labor intensive to take care of the property, but it will help us get into shape. We will need goats to keep the weeds down, but if we get dairy goats we can make cheese, and there is a darn near perfect shelter for them in the 7/8 enclosed area under the outbuilding -- cool in summer and pretty well insulated in winter, especially with a lot of straw and straw bales under there. With mucked straw, you've got a pretty good compost starter, which is handy for gardens. (Of course, you'd need to fence the garden from the goats, and deer....)
There are the intangibles, such as having the chance to try to live a more sustainable life, which was a long-ago dream. And perhaps of regaining a sense of adventure and youthfulness that I might have abandoned long before I should have. Of course, there's always the possibility that it will be too much, and that unexpected costs and emergencies will pile up, and arthritic knees and bad backs will be too much of an obstacle.
And then there are the bees, which Sig (who is allergic) is absolutely opposed to me keeping, and which I think would be a great addition to the family, as long as they are at one side of the 2 acres and he is at the other. Bees are great. I'd love to be able to add Honey to the list of foods we can provide ourselves, especially since we make Mead. I imagine there are enough bees around that a garden would be pollinated, but it would be nice to have our own, especially since bees are having problems now. We shall see, I suppose.
But for now, I guess this is the post where we start moving towards ownership. Whether this property, or some other place, it is not going to be easy. The interest rate and the fact that I have very little down payment money mean that property ownership costs for me will be higher than ideally they would have been. I may not be able to get a loan at all.
I'd like to own again, though. It may not be the very bottom of the market, and in fact I know it is not. But I want my own house, that I can do what I want with to a greater degree than I can the rental house. I'd also like to create a little world that I can pass down.

iDiots

So, my granddaughter's iPod refused to let her hook it up to her computer because she didn't have a more current Windows version. It told her to take the iPod to the nearest Apple store for assistance.

We went to Arden Fair Mall, because according to my grandkid, that was the closest Apple store. I was finding that hard to believe, since Folsom and EDH are so affluent, but we were down at the Farmer's Market in Sacramento anyway, so it wasn't that far out of our way.
I hate malls. I hadn't been to Arden for at least a couple years. I think I went to the Downtown mall the time prior to this, and that was probably a year or so ago. I only go to malls if there is no way to avoid them. For instance, I needed a pair of good walking shoes a few years ago, right away, and knew that the Arden mall had specialty walking shoe stores. Malls just irritate me and turn me into the kind of grump that dislikes everyone, and I don't like to be like that. I'd rather live in my fantasy world, where everyone spends their discretionary income on books and museums. So, I was already struggling not to be grumpy when we eventually made our way through the mall to the Apple store, only to find a line of about 30 or 40 people stretching down the promenade.
"What are y'all doing in line?", I asked a pleasant countenanced young lady.
"We're trying to get iPhones," she replied.
"All of you people in this line are here for iPhones?", I asked, a bit incredulous.
"Yes"
"What if I don't want an iPhone?"
At this point, a gentleman with an East Indian accent who appeared to be guarding the line broke in to tell me that I could enter the store if I did not want an iPhone. So, we did.
And we were met by a young Apple-shirted employee who asked us if we had an appointment.
"You need an appointment to shop here???"
"no, but it's strongly advised"
"but my grandkid's iPod told her to come to the closest store. It didn't tell her to make an appointment..."
"it's ok, I'll get someone to help you", he said, and snagged a nearby female Apple-shirted co-worker.
"Do you have an appointment?", she asked.
"NO! We have a problem with our iPod, and we were told by the iPod to come to the nearest Apple store. It didn't tell us to make an appointment!"
"Well, I can set up an appointment for tomorrow at 10 am," she said.
At this point, my grandkid, sensing that I was going to lose it, interrupted.
"Look, I just need to ask one question. I'm just having a problem downloading."
The female Apple employee reluctantly answered the question, by telling my grandkid that she needed to hook the iPod into a computer that had Windows XP, which the damn iPod could have just told her in the first place rather than have us go to the mall and be hassled by Apple employees.
We left post haste, and I proclaimed under my breath "fuggin IDIOTS".
The people waiting in line are idiots to still be lining up for the rare privilege of purchasing an over-priced and over-hyped toy. I'm guessing most of them could spend the money paying down their credit cards or buying gas or food. I'd have thought that most of them would have learned their iPhone lesson by now, after Apple basically screwed the first purchasers of the silly thing for an extra $300.
The store employees are idiots for thinking their menial jobs are so key to society that we need to schedule appointments with them.
Apple is an idiot corporation for not making enough iPhones that people don't need to stand in line for them, because some of those people (the ones who aren't idiots, really) are going to have second thoughts while waiting and they're going to decide they'd rather feed their kids for a month than buy whatever it is that an iPhone is to them. (Is it a phone? Is it a iPod? Is it a Web browser?) And Apple is so far into idiocracy that I hope every stockholder takes a good, long look at their holding if Apple thinks that consumers are going to continue making appointments to spend their money at Apple stores. You think Starbucks went a little overboard? I've got a feeling that's nothing compared to Apple.
Periodically, I get really ticked off about a certain consumer situation and I swear that I'm never darkening the doorstep of that business again. I'll overlook an occasional rude salesperson, but an entire store of them leads me to believe that this is corporate policy, for instance. I'll overlook crappy merchandise once, but two times and I'm not coming back.
It's not that the Apple store employees were rude. They were exceedingly polite. But any retail business who demands that it's customers make appointments to obtain help or spend money does not deserve customers, period. It is the most iDiotic thing I have ever seen.