LAC Rant

[Lyle]

I've got a torn CV joint boot, and I can't find a single goddamn retailer in
Pittsburgh who has a 17mm hex socket or an Allen wrench in stock.  Not even
the SnapOn dealer!  Grainger has about three different kinds in stock.  I
walked a mile and a half in the rain to the nearest branch in a lousy
industrial park (and a mile and half home, natch) and the motherfuckers
wouldn't sell me one despite my pleading,  because I didn't have two forms
of "business id".  Four staffers, sitting there with their thumbs up their
asses, and they can't take my money because I'm just a citizen, not a
corporation.  Maybe all of a sudden four big accounts might walk in and need
immediate simultaneous service?  

If I walk back a half mile, set up a "business checking account" and get a
"business credit card", and come back in two weeks after I get those
credentials of worthiness, then they'll gladly sell me the same fourteen
dollar tool.  WTF? 

(PS.  the Snap-On tool
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=shop&item_ID=12032&group_I
D=1611&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog is not 17mm.  It's 17.15 or
thereabouts, according to my cheap Chinese vernier caliper, and I don't want
to grind the chrome plating off it. I haven't tried it on a transmission
plug yet, but it definitely won't fit my axle nut.)