Why my life at times sucks and also why I hate lowes!

Ok so in the midst of all the wonderfull crap with my house my thermostat just died. Yup stopped working. This was about two weeks ago and I tried a number of things like stripping the wires back a few inches and re-wiring the thermostat (i had it disconected for painting) That didnt work. SO i eventually realized that my thermostat runs directly off of my Furnace. Who knew! And that my furnace in turn also had no power. SO I went for the obvious and checked the breaker. Nope that was good so why no power. Well I kept looking at it but was getting no where so I brought home a volt meter and started testing different areas. I could tell that power was getting to the furnace from the house wiring but it was getting stopped somewhere. SO I started unplugging things and testing for electricity. Well buried under many wires and other things I finally found what I was looking for. A blown fuse. Eureka! Thats an easy fix! or so I thought. I looked at the fuse and its a normal blade type fuse like you usually see in a car. SO I went out to my car to look and see if I had a spare in my fuse kit that would work. Nope. All the new blade fuses are much smaller and higher amps. Psst you can tell the amps by the number on the fuse. Mine was a 3 and most of the ones in the care were in the 15-30 range. SO I thought ok this must be lower and for home HVAC use. SO last night a trip to lowes was in order. Well I got there and im looking at the fuses and I cant find anything even close to what I have in my hand. SO I of course make the mistake of asking for help. The conversation went something like this.....

me: excuse me
lowes: yeah
me: im looking for a fuse
lowes: a what? (spoken as if the word fuse was new to him)
me: A FUSE (yes perhaps louder will convey the meaning of the word fuse!)

I then proceed to hold up the fuse

lowes: we dont sell car fuses
me: this isnt a car fuse
lowes: it sure looks like one to me
me: well it came from my furnace
lowes: ive never seen a fuse like that in a furnace

at this point im just in shock that im arguing with the guy from lowes as to weather or not the fuse came from a furnace and not a car? Im like wt? Its not like car fuses are used to make meth and house fuses are ok so if I pull the ol 1 - 2 switch-a-roo on the lowes guy I can make some smack.

He continues to insist that its a car fuse and tells me to go to autozone. Im like whatever so lisa and I leave and head for home depot. While the gentleman their was more helpfull and not arguing with me he again felt that it was also an auto fuse and was surprised that it came from a furnace. I explained my furnace was only 5 years old so I did not feel this was a particularly large order for home depot. The gentleman agreed and appologized for not having the fuse and again also suggested autozone.

Brief side note -- people at lowes are ignorant and mean. people at home depot are nice and friendly

SO seeing as best buy was right next door to home depot and auto zone was a few miles down the road I thought. Hey maybe they will have it. guess what. They didnt. guess what he said. yup autozone. SO after 3 stores I went to auto zone and bought a nice 4 pack of the fuse I needed.

SO something that should have been simple and easy ended up a long, annoying, and frustrating journey. Now if this were a rare occasion that would be one thing. But this ladies and gentlemen this is what its like to be Chris Knodel. HOO AHHH!

Cheers!