Category: This and That

https://nypost.com/2022/05/20/el-paso-holding-off-on-immigration-emergency-declaration/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alert&utm_content=20220520&lctg=607d8f4d70302947037f4357&utm_term=NYP%20-%20News%20Alerts

No matter how you feel about the “immigration crisis” on the Southern Border PLEASE check out this article — and especially photos — from the NewYorkPost this morning.

(my comment: ) El Paso authorities were eager to get more funding for their border “emergency” until they discovered it wasn’t as much extra money as they expected. To paraphrase: “We were going to try to get it on the new give-away” of funding from Washington…but it’s not enough to make it worth our while. They might want to send investigators or troops to check on our “emergency” and cause more trouble than the little increase would be worth.”

In the first photo, there are SIX people wading across the river (in silhouette…very effective.) In another photo there are two kids playing at the river…skipping on rocks, Migrants?

Why are the handful of “asylum seekers” in the entry tunnel wearing uniforms? Grey shirts and black pants? Why are they covering their faces?

Three “Haitian” guys standing in line? Some dubious signs? Are they menacing or just squinting in the sun?

I am very nice to my post-person, who has been very helpful to me by picking up outgoing packages that I have prepared for my book and ebay-stuff sales. There is no way that I would be able to make regular trips uptown to the post office. Yes, I know that is the mailperson’s job to pick up my label-affixed outgoing mail. I actually put my money where my mouth is and give him a gift card for Christmas…which is the only way that I know that a customer can give the carrier presents under Postal Service rules. It’s a small token amount, but I do appreciate the service. I’ve had the company, PadreVenturesLLC since 2009, and I do only online sales

About a month ago my mainframe computer died. The poor thing was ticking along with minimum bugs, until it just died…the kiss of death blue screen and all. A lot of stuff got wiped out, but thanks to WordPress my blog library saved the day regarding photos and miscellaneous other. The most painful loss was my app for my postage service (Endicia) through which I prepare shipping labels. Called Dazzle, it not only keeps my mailing forms and customer information dating back several years…most noteworthily tracking information.

After I got the mailing system restored and accomplished the coordination with Amazon and my other book venues, I was soon back in business. Except that my mind had to resurrect the nitty gritty of setting up the addresses and packing slips, etc.

So three orders came in as I was performing the restoration, and the return address (mine) and that of the recipient on the form was not to my liking. Two of the orders went out as they were supposed to, but one hit a snag. There was some extra information in the customer’s mailing address, which I discovered later.

Here where I live in Ohio our mail is delivered (and collected) by a little mail truck, and taken back to the post office at the end of the day. Then, it is sent on to Pittsburg (in this case,) and in due time (just a couple of days,) it is dispatched to the Los Angeles, California USPS distribution center…pending final destination to a customer’s address in a suburb of Los Angeles.

Tracking information is remarkably detailed: the package left my Post Office on April 4, arrived in LA on April 9; then, according to the long, detailed history of the tracking record, it bounced among at least three LA distribution centers for weeks—apparently every morning the package was loaded onto a delivery truck (In Transit) and every evening it was unloaded; the next morning ON, the evening OFF. for three weeks!

The customer contacted me to see if I could find out what was going on, because the tracking information made no sense at all. That’s when I started following it. After the third week I refunded the customer’s payment through Amazon, and I asked her if she would keep me informed about the final destination… if any. Yesterday, April 30, the package arrived at the correct address in LA.

Finally! The original packaging (a bubble-padded mailing envelope) had been destroyed to the extent that all that was left was the book and the packing slip inside the original plastic bag. The book is badly damaged, the hard cover corners smashed in, various other trauma. But the best of all is the interaction with the post office.

The book and its packing slip had been placed in a plain brown envelope with a hand-written address and the USPS logo in the return address box. There is no tracking information or explanation included. But gee whiz—I am so impressed by the personal service.

If you have ever wondered what happens to lost mail… hear this! Orphaned or beaten up packages or there contents go to a “Processing Exception” department, where a postal employee personally handles the package (in this case any way.) Since my package had been reduced to a little plastic bag with the original packing slip (and the book,,) it’s obvious that a Real Human had to do the ultimate disposition.

I need to make a point: this was not some insured package, it was sent Media Mail, and bottom line… after fees and expenses… my profit is less than a dollar.

(Just for fun, google “Processing Exception” for an informative and quite entertaining FAQ. )

I loved last year’s Day Lillies so much that I decided to try my hand at growing from seed. As an avid follower of John Hric, of Northeast Ohio Garden , https://aneogarden.wordpress.com/ the only lily-grower I know my name and, I asked for guidance. His lilies are pedigreed, sort of, and have official geneologies and family trees. Cool names. Who wouldn’t love a lily who is descended from the likes of Bat Boy Bob and Miss Ruffles? Not real names, of course, I made those up and as yet have not applied them to real daylilies.

Last year we had about a dozen different Daylily plants. Several were survivors of their original location by the septic system, and most others were transplanted to the front of the house bed by the deck. We reinstated them there a few years ago, and then I ignored them until last year when I started to notice them in various stages of bloom.

Still cold here in Northern Ohio, and we did have snow overnight…but these babies are tired of waiting. I went looking for the daffodills, and the little parrot tulips were a welcome surprise. The little white flowers are called Spring Beauties. So we’re off and running for Spring 2022. (Photos ©Sometimes 2022.)

Well, I have been dealing with Life, as it is called, for several weeks. A lot has happened.

Son Scott hopped a ride to the hospital in an ambulance…his first such trip. He had a stent inserted to his heart, which repaired a 99% blockage. For months he had pains off and on, usually put down as indigestion or muscle strain. He had no signs of having a heart attack, but when they did miscellaneous tests they discovered the blockage. He came home in just a couple of days and has had physical restrictions lifted. He is 59. He is fine now, says he feels better than he has for ages.

On another situation, my computer died. Really, and while it was doing that it managed to wipe out an old laptop that was about eight years old. The poor thing tried to reboot, but after Microsoft kindly installed those years of updates … from Windows 7 the poor baby advanced to Windows 10. This isn’t the first time I had a crash, but this one lasted longer than just a few days,

So I bought a refurbished Dell from Walmart Refurbs and it is a beauty! I paid around $300 for it, a tower and a really nice keyboard, and mouse. I think I have had 10 computers since 1983, when I bought my first computer, not counting tablets and other devices.

The new Dell requires a LOT of attention, installing and activating apps and programs that need to be put in. I hate to say it, but my brain is getting to the point where some of that old information in the dusty old filing cabinets of my brain …virtual as they are…will need to be jettisoned to make room for new.

It is so annoying when I find that I have to reload and restablish fonts of facts and tid bits of conjecture. Some how I have been laboring under the delusion that my notebooks with passwords and passphrases, codes, and completely foreign symbols and caricatures were still viable keys to the myriad of facts. Some times I suspect that ET has added characters and marks to my notes as I sleep.

Let’s see. Oh, I know… three days ago I noticed the little early daffodils marching across my back yard had begun to pop out in all their yellow glory. The next day it rained all day. Yesterday it snowed…and overnight it snowed even more and piled three or four inches of snow on top of the yellow flowers. Yeah, I know, no biggies really…it actually prolongs the life of daffodils. I have seen daffodils literally crawling out of a snow drift.

On that note I’m going to see if we can find a movie on TV. Good luck wih that 🙂

I have a dream. Literally, a recurring dream that has haunted me forever. I suppose it is, in some ways altruistic—like the Sandra Bullock flick where she is an FBI agent undercover at a beauty pageant, and some of the other contestants actually do say that they wish for “world peace and a puppy for everyone.”

No, my dream doesn’t involve puppies…but it does involve World Peace for everyone and their puppies.

In this morning’s dream, I have accidentally invented a substance that can be concentrated and distributed to the poor. The substance reminds me of trail mix: unidentified chunks of fruit and assorted nuts and seeds loose in a bag or smushed into a “power bar.” In my dream the benefits and value are evident, but once the alarm cut through my sleep and dream it faded.

I do remember thinking (in the dream) of a distribution strategy, in which the mixture would be sealed into a little packet like the ones that come in a box with turkey stuffing mix, or sprinkles for a cake-mix topping.

(…to be continued)