Random Thoughts of ABWF

The USPS is crap

December 13, 2009 at 12:01 pm | Posted in Rants | 3 Comments

I noticed a while back that I wasn’t getting much mail beyond junk mail and grocery advertisements. I thought it was a bit odd, but since I pay most bills online these days and don’t receive paper statements anymore I was not worried. Until I received an email from my car insurance company saying the renewal papers and identity cards were in the mail. . . and they never arrived. Over the past ten delivery days, I have received one piece of junk mail, an online order that was left on the doorstep, and nothing from the insurance. I went to the USPS website and filled out a form for customer service reporting my problem and I’m waiting for a response.

Today I got an email from a company whose bill I pay online (but paper bills still get mailed). Apparently the post office returned the mail and said I don’t live here anymore. WTF? I didn’t turn in a change of address and I’ve been picking up the junk mail. Why send back my regular mail? Even more crazy, why send back regular mail but deliver a package? I know a lot of people leave these rentals after a year, but I’m still here and it would have been obvious that I am if procedures were followed. I read the procedures mail carriers are supposed to follow before suspending service on the website. My carrier didn’t even come close and I’m beyond irritated.

I’m waiting on a few important pieces of mail and I’m pretty sure this is going to totally screw up the delivery. One of them is undoubtedly already on the way back to the sender.

Bonehead moves like this are part of the reason why the postal service can’t make a profit.

Believe it or not . . .

December 6, 2009 at 7:25 pm | Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

I am actually alive. It looks like someone other than ABW and people hitting on specific search terms comes by every once in a while, so I thought I should probably give a shout out. I’ve almost come back to the blog many times, but something always intervened and the “orphan” status was maintained. I haven’t been comfortable writing about some of the things going on in my personal and professional lives for a while and that has kept me away from the blog.

Work is somewhat better now. I work for the same company but in a different location and slightly different position. Not one I imagined myself in, but one that might be a good fit. My new “team” of co-workers definitely seem like a better fit than the old one.

I actually have big plans for Christmas. My mom is coming here from Texas and then we are driving to my brother and SIL’s. I took a big chunk of time off and won’t come back until after the New Year. It’s going to be nice to spend the holidays with family. That’s been difficult to do lately between my moves and the ones the Army has sent my brother and SIL on!

No promises on whether or not this blog is going to come back to life. I’ve actually been debating starting a new one that isn’t tied to me at all so I can write about some of the things I’m just not comfortable writing about here. Nothing personal, but I won’t be able to let any of you still reading this one know if that happens- it would totally negate my attempt at anonymity. I guess I could always do both . . . something to think about.

Today’s Harvest

April 25, 2009 at 3:39 pm | Posted in Gardening | 3 Comments

Not huge in terms of size, but let me tell you…

these were the best tasting sugar snap peas ever!

Now if I could just figure out how in the heck you’re supposed to know that a cucumber is ripe I’d be doing OK :)

More to come later this weekend.

Jesse died this morning

March 6, 2009 at 9:34 am | Posted in Dogs, Family, Jesse | 8 Comments

Welcome Back!

March 3, 2009 at 7:57 am | Posted in Blogging, Deployment, Military | Leave a comment

One of the links on my sidebar (Zolnierz) is to a now formerly deployed soldier! I had originally titled this post “Welcome Home”, but as some of you may recall he is originally from Poland. I’m not sure if he actually considers Hawaii to be home :) Either way, he is with family again and that is a good think. He linked to a youtube video of the deployment ceremony which you can see here.

Go by and leave a comment on the post Film z Powrotu. He blogs in Polish, but is perfectly happy to receive comments in English. At least that’s what he has told me after my attempts at commenting in Polish using an online translator!

Surprise!

February 16, 2009 at 10:41 am | Posted in Blogging, Gardening | 4 Comments

Yes I am still alive and, although I haven’t totally abandoned it, I have been neglecting the blog something horrible. Thanks to my two regular readers for the comments and emails asking what’s up.

There is no single reason why I haven’t been writing- my computer didn’t die, I didn’t lose my hands to flesh eating bacteria and no sentinel event caused me to stop. I just got wrapped up in “real life”. I’ve drawn some pretty firm lines for myself about what I will and will not post about with work being pretty high up on the Do Not Post List. Settling into the new job, the crayziness/absurdities I have encountered with my new employer and my own frustration about things that aren’t the way they should be but that I have absolutely no power to change have all kept me occupied but just can’t be discussed here. Things are OK at work, I’m just still learning the system and how to work things so that the changes that need to happen start happening at least on an individual level since I really don’t have the power/standing to bring about change system wide. I’ve been able to impact a few things on the individual level, but the fact that I even had to intervene has royally ticked me off because they were situations that didn’t need to happen.

Anyway, enough about work (Do Not Post List and all). I’ve made one quick trip home during my impromptu posting hiatus. It was for a wedding shower for my sister and I pretty much went to that and spent time with Mom. I did see one childhood friend- we arranged to meet up at her gym on the Sunday morning and I got a workout in. She’s coming near where I live next month with her family for vacation and we are going to meet up again. I’m really looking forward to it.

Other than the quick trip, I’ve mostly been working and going to the gym. I also started working in the yard/garden. I’m living in a rental and it looks like the backyard was neglected for a while. However, at some point in time someone had cleared out the grass for about 2 1/2 feet along the fenceline surrounding the yard. There were a few sad looking bushlets and the remnants of some pine bark mulch. I’ve been working on cleaning up these “beds” so that I can plant some flowers and veggies. The vegetables are going to be a huge experiment as I’ve never tried to grow anything more than tomatos. I do have some good tomato plants this year too. There is a guy at work who is very into growing tomatos- he saves seeds each year and starts the seedlings the next season. He gave me a few seedlings to plant and some instructions for what works around here. I also bought one from the nursery section of a local store. The picture on the label was too cool to resist. It is a red zebra tomato. The outside of the tomato is striped in red and yellow whenit is ripe. I found this blog entry via a google image search if any of you want to see one actually growing. I’m also trying to grow some simple vegetables that are supposedly idiot-proof to grow. The seedlings have started and will be planted soon. I have had some misadventures already (minor ones) but I’ll save that story for another day.

Look What I Found…

January 2, 2009 at 4:51 pm | Posted in Flowers | 5 Comments

… waiting outside my door this afternoon.

Don’t they just make you smile?

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2009 at 11:14 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Wow. It’s 2009. It seems like just yesterday we were in the midst of the millenium/Y2K hype and anxiety. It’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed.

I had a great day off from work today and went to the movies with two friends. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons. Afterwards we had an interesting discussion about time, stages of life, etc. I’m not going to say too much more because I don’t want to spoil the movie for people who haven’t seen it (I liked it BTW). However, I will say that one of the things we talked about is that our lives now are very different than what we thought they would be when we were younger. In my case there are several kind of “major” aspects of my life that even as recently as five years ago I would have expected to be very different than they are now. It’s not bad that they aren’t different, life has just unfolded differently than I expected it to.

I’m not going to do a New Year’s Resolution post because I really try not to make resolutions. I will say that Continue Reading Happy New Year!…

What’s your type?

December 29, 2008 at 9:09 pm | Posted in Bizarre News | 3 Comments

I’ve always been fascinated by the different attempts made throughout history to explain human behavior and the human psyche based upon biological (or pseudo-biological) factors. I actually remember writing a paper in junior high about the theory of the four humours and someday hope to own a ceramic phrenology head.

A while back I read an article that reminded me of the four humours. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to read about this coming from a country with a fairly modern scientific bent. Apparently the Japanese are a bit obsessed with understanding the meaning of blood types. Three of the top five best-selling books in Japan in 2008 were about the meaning of blood types. According to this article, blood type mania is widespread.

Daytime TV shows offer “blood horoscopes”, while on sale are all manner of items supposedly tailored to each of the four blood groups, anything from chewing gum to condoms to bath salts – a relaxing, blue concoction for the sensitive type A.

Companies have been known to appoint employees to jobs based on their blood type, while dating agencies rank this genetic nugget alongside education and salary in recommending a male suitor.

Blood type-mania has a darker side. It has been blamed for bullying among kindergarten children, denying jobs to otherwise ideal candidates and ending happy relationships, all because of an imagined haematic mismatch.

I don’t know about you, but I had no idea blood type is this important! Lucky for me, I seem to have a pretty good blood type (O -). Depending on the source you reference, I am either: “Decisive, self-confident, curious, and ideal for sport” or “Trendsetting, passionate, vain, self-confident, loyal”. I hit the jackpot with this one!

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2008 at 6:39 am | Posted in Travel | 3 Comments

Yes, I am still alive and haven’t orphaned the blog. I even have a few specific posts in mind for the next few weeks. Of course, I’ve been meaning to write them for the last few weeks too. . .

Work is going well. There was a lot of adjustment at the beginning (new place, different culture, I work with a number of different teams). I still have a lot to learn, but I’m starting to get an idea of who people are- particularly who I want nothing to do with! I’ve also found some co-workers with similar work ethics and am even working on a team with someone I had worked with in another city many years ago.

Jesse seems OK so far. He still isn’t concentrating his urine. I have some idea what this means, but nowhere near well enough to explain it. At this point I’m just hoping it’s an individual difference and not a symptom of an underlying disease process.

I’m up crazy early (for a holiday/non-work day) even though there are no children living in this household. There is actually a good reason though- as soon as I publish this I’m leaving on the 7 hour drive to go see my Dad and sister for Christmas. I couldn’t leave earlier because of work and my lack of vacation hours (being new) but I’ll get there not too long after they get home from Church so it will work out. I’m really excited about spending Christmas with some of my family. This will be only the second Christmas in the last five years I have spent with any family. Two Thanksgivings were with family during the same time period, so I’ve spent most holidays away from family in recent years. It will be really nice to be with some of them today.

I want to wish everyone reading this a Merry Christmas. If you aren’t able to be with family today, I hope that you have someone else special or close to spend the day with. For those of you who are able to be with family, don’t forget how lucky and blessed you are to be with them, even if it isn’t your entire family.