Settling In -- (Mom, I am BOILING)

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

Ok, moving from the motorhome to the condo isn’t as bad as moving from one home to another…but it is an ordeal, that’s for sure.  For the most part, we feel settled in.  On the way to church tonight we stopped by the motorhome to pick up a fan (I like it cooler than Marcia) and the water measurer for Marcia’s hard boiled egg maker (Christmas gift last year from sister Patti..and Marcia loves it.  Hamilton Beach 25500 Egg Cooker with Built-In Timer) 

Part of settling in has to include a trip to Sam’s Club, Publix, and orders from Amazon.  The thing about Amazon…you make one order, but they might break it up into multiple delivery orders.  Today, three orders came by Amazon Van, the other via USPS.  The thing about Amazon Van Deliveries…

As they get closer to your place, they will tell you how many stops away your are.  Under the “Arriving today…” message, it says, “The driver is currently 7 stops away”, and the green dot shows you where the van is…which in this case, is about a mile away from us.

Now they were only two stops away…

…and just a little bit later, “…the driver is on the way to you.”   So I stepped outside, waited for the van to pull up, and took the delivery right from the van.  Now you don’t have to reload the computer screen…it will automatically update for you.  Now that is pretty neat.

Part of settling in includes emptying the HHR, and taking it over to the car wash.  Tomorrow is the day for that…as well as changing filters in the Heating/Air System here at the condo.  I just hope that I can get myself motivated to clear out the car before it gets too hot. 

As for the “Mom, I am BOILING” in the title…she gets it, and I will fill in the details for you.  When I was young, old enough to where I HAD to wear a tie to church (don’t know why anyone would ever come up with something as stupid as a TIE…it does NOTHING…too thin to be used as a napkin at dinner time, too short for a tall person, too long for a short person, too thin to cover a big belly, and TOO TIGHT around the neck, even if you don’t button your top button!!!)  Anyway, when church was over, I would have my tie off before I got out the chapel’s doors, would have my shirt unbuttoned before I got down the stairs, and the shirt was off before I exited the church building.  And on the ride home, I would always say, “Mom, I am boiling!!!!”, as if she could magically produce an air conditioner…because in my youth, an air conditioner for a car was four rolled down windows.  Air conditioning in a house was a swamp cooler or a swimming pool.  During the summer, when it was real hot on those nights that the delta breeze did not blow through to Sacramento, we would sleep out in the backyard.  I don't know HOW I would have ever survived living in Florida during the summer without A/C...

Broken Mail Box? What’s Up With That???

Citrus Heights, CA – sister’s house

Above is your typical US Postage Mail Box…open the door, put in your letter or small package, shut and walk away.  It has three moving parts…the door slot to drop the mail, the lock on the door for the postal service employee to open, and the door this lock is in.  Three moving parts.

This mail box above only has two moving parts….the slot to put the mail in has no door, so you have a lock and door for the mail person to open when they gather the mail.  To the right you can see a mail person getting the mail out of the mail box.  These mail boxes have been around for most of my life…although they were an “Army Green”, and I vaguely remember seeing a few mini boxes on a post, but they did not hold very much mail.  I have also seen some that look like they are twice as big as the ones shown…but the bottom line, they are all very simple…two or three moving parts to them.

So how funny was it when I pulled up to the mailbox in front of the post office near the local grocery store and saw this sign.  “Don’t Drop Mail!!!  Mailbox not working drop you mail inside.  Sorry for the inconvenience.”   Yep, not only can’t the post office keep a simple mailbox in operation…the person who made the sign to notify that it functionally is not working, could not even make a simple sign that made sense.  I was not the only one who thought it was funny.  A couple pulled up near the box to address their letter and put on a stamp, and as I walked in to mail my letter, they pulled up next to my car.  “One would think that they could keep such a sophisticated piece of equipment in operation,” I said.  They laughed.  Saw them both in the store a few minutes later shopping, and we had another laugh about it.

Speaking of mail…have you ever watched the tracking of one of your Amazon orders?   It is 1,750 miles by car from San Antonio Texas to Citrus Heights.  My last order originated in San Antonio…went to Erlanger Kentucky, then Stockton California, then Vacaville California, then finally to Citrus Heights.  By car that is 3,640 miles.  But hey, I ordered on Thursday, got it on Saturday…can’t beat that, can you?  Well, yes you can.  On Tuesday, August 29th, I finally remembered that Marcia needed a new mouse for her computer…she has been having problems with it for a good month.  We had been back in Sacramento for about five days, and I promised I would get her a new one as soon as we got to town.  Seeing her “mess” with her bad mouse again to get it to work, I got online with Amazon, and ordered two…one for a backup.  As I was checking out, I saw that if I spent 9 more dollars, they would deliver TODAY, before 8 pm.  So I upgraded the mouse she was going to use, and the other mouse is similar to the one I use. Sure enough, around 7:15 pm, the package arrived.  It too came in from San Antonio…but it flew directly to Stockton, then to West Sacramento and delivered by Amazon Delivery truck (like the one shown here to the right…no name, just a plain white van).  With Amazon buying Whole Foods, and plans to build more (or take over other stores and convert them), I am sure the delivery options for same day service will grow and grow.  They already give you the option to have your order (not large items) sent to a Whole Foods Store, so you can pick up your Amazon package after work, and pick up some eggs, milk, and ready to heat up dinner on your way home.  And the great thing about that is that no one is going to rip off the package sitting in your mailbox, or at your front door before you get home.  Wow!  Everything sure has gone a long way since the days of the Pony Express…which, by-the-way, had its western terminal right here in Sacramento.