What's on your agenda for today?

My husband has been having a running fight with the postman. He seems to be unable to close our mailbox after he puts our mail in it. Consequently who knows how much of it has blown all over the neighborhood. Our mail box is on the curb and all he has to do is drive up.. open the box... stick our mail in... and CLOSE the box.. Seems like too much to ask.
 

Nona, sorry about the loss of your plants. Sadly this old machine will not allow me to send pics. I wish things were less painful for you as well. Take care.
 

merlin said:
We have this problem in the UK these days, in defence of these delivery men/women I have spoken to a few who are in the main Eastern Europeans, and they often have to provide there own van and all the running costs as well, and only receive a very small amount for delivering each package. They work 12 or more hours a day 7 days a week to make a living wage.

Amazon I believe are one of the worst offenders of exploitation, I often arrange the Amazon pick-up service where your package is delivered to a local corner shop etc. Speaking to the shop owner recently, they only pay him 20 cents per item, the transaction sometimes takes several minutes to complete, and creates a queue in the shop, its not really worth it.

Its another side effect of excessive capitalism in my opinion, we used to have a very efficient Royal Mail delivery service which returned undelivered items to a local office or leave it with a neighbour. This has been largely destroyed by multi-national companies creating delivery networks exploiting workers by paying very low wages.

I am not saying theft and scams don't go on, but a lot of the deteriorating quality in our delivery services, is I feel caused by we the public opting for low cost or free delivery services, which of course the system will create for us.
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Most of our delivery people are salaried or at least paid by the hour mostly, some no matter will be paid no matter what especially if it's USPS, they are employed by the Gov't many having a union backing them, little worries about being fired.
 
April, In my rural area the USPS carriers are contracted vs Gov't employees. Using their own vehicles up and down sandy, pot holed country lanes. That are not maintained by the county. Yet, always dependable even when our roads are basically washed out.
Shalimar, I can so relate. Try as I might, I cannot send pics from my cell or my tablet.
 
ndynt said:
April, In my rural area the USPS carriers are contracted vs Gov't employees. Using their own vehicles up and down sandy, pot holed country lanes. That are not maintained by the county. Yet, always dependable even when our roads are basically washed out.
Shalimar, I can so relate. Try as I might, I cannot send pics from my cell or my tablet.
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There are good dependable carriers who still take pride in their work and I admire such people, it just makes me so angry that today it seems the unreliable ones have flood the market. I've had to be in touch so many times in the past few years for similar incidents, it's just no reason it should be this bad. I've often had to carry packages from my box or door to other tenants that were mistakenly delivered to me. Come sleet, rain or snow, in past years, the one thing in life we used to be able to count on was our mail carriers. Sigh. Those of you who still can, are so very lucky, I envy you.

I'll let you know if they decide to bring my package back here today as they said they will. It's still listed on their site as being delivered. If not, I'm calling their supervisor and also making sure I call the company to get my money back as well as my credit card company. I will either get the package or my money back, that is for sure.
 
ndynt said:
They always go beyond....especially the FedEx guy.
QUOTE]

Those guys are under a lot of strain...physical and mental. Some years ago, I looked out at our parking lot and saw a FedEx truck idling with no one in it. I figured he was delivering to one of the businesses behind us. About 15 minutes later, the truck was still there. Half an hour later, same truck, no driver. I went out and looked in the truck to make sure nothing had happened to the driver; I was concerned that maybe he was in the back unconscious or something. After a little while, I decided to report it to FedEx. About 15 minutes later, another truck showed up with two drivers. One got out, spent some time in the truck and then came in to speak to me. He said it wasn't common but happened occasionally where a driver just decides he's had it and walks off the job. He drove off with the truck to finish the driver's route. I wonder if this happens to mail carriers, too?
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I'm sorry, but there are hundreds of jobs around the country where people are under stress, I've too had jobs where there was great stress, but, I'm not excused if I don't do the job I'm paid to do, If I can't do that job, then I must remove myself, but, I don't give less or to it, I performed to and more often above the standard I'm required or find other work. Imagine a firefighter paramedic walking out on the job in the middle of the assignment. I imagine it happens, but, we still expect people to have a work ethic regardless. Some jobs are too much for some people, I get that, but when it gets as bad as this profession seems to be getting, well somethings got to give somewhere. I agree with Merlin, a small part of the problem probably does lie with the public and we may need to pay more fees in some instances, but, for general day to day mail, we could at the very least expect to receive that in the correct box most days of the week. No?
 
I heard on the news just last night that postage prices are going to decrease/go down soon.

When delivery person goes above/beyond or when I see them as I'm coming in/out, I always try to be nice and thank them. But we've had some real issues with mixed up mail, etc.
 
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applecruncher said:
I heard on the news just last night that postage prices are going to decrease/go down soon.

When delivery person goes above/beyond or when I see them as I'm coming in/out, I always try to be nice and thank them. But we've had some rea issues with mixed up mail, etc.
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Applecruncher, are you serious? Wow, if postage prices ever went down that would be a solid indicator that the economy is for sure on the upswing! Things are starting to look healthier here economically in this town - when we first moved here 7 years ago, there were very few houses for sale and very little building going on. Now there are stores and houses going up everywhere and the houses in our community are selling faster than was expected. Our area now has fairly low unemployment because Amazon just built a huge new fulfillment center here and several other employers are no longer offshoring jobs.
 
Back from our bike ride! 45 miles! It was really a lovely ride. Of course, it would have been torture on a normal bike. But getting up the hills on an electric bike is about 1/10 the work. Visited the island my husband taught on back in the 80's. Stopped for lunch. Later, had a pint of beer. Took a few pics with my phone and I'm upload a few once I look at them. Sorry I didn't bring my 'real' camera as everything was gorgeous.
 
Kath - yep......

"Most of the times when you hear news about postage stampshttp://www.examiner.com/topic/postage-stamps, it is because there is a rate increase. This news is about a rate decrease in postage stamps. A federal court has ruled that the 49 cents first-class postage stamp must return to a lower rate, according to The Washington Posthttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-cant-keep-rate-increase-forever-court-rules/ on Sunday.
When the rate was increased in 2014, it was done on a temporary basis. It was the largest increase in 11 years, so now the United States Postal Servicehttp://www.examiner.com/topic/united-states-postal-service will have to roll back a portion of that increase based on a federal court's decision. "

http://www.examiner.com/article/postage-stamps-will-decrease-from-current-rate
 
Another gorgeous day - long overdue as May really sucked! Skipping the gym and going for another long bike ride. Need the sunscreen as we both have red noses today.
 
I had just got in bed last night at 11:30 when the phone rang. It was the boss (that's what I call him). He has to be in Atlanta today and tomorrow and wants me to fly him. I am honored that he selects me over the other pilot, but I was just gone all last week with him and now we are off again. This was supposed to be a "part time" position. I don't like turning him down because he is really nice to me with compensation, but I am retired and want to do my own thing. I was told that I may be gone a few days a month when I signed up for this job, but it sure isn't working out that way. At least the weather looks good for flying to Atlanta.
 
Ameriscot said:
Another gorgeous day - long overdue as May really sucked! Skipping the gym and going for another long bike ride. Need the sunscreen as we both have red noses today.
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That's what my wife and I had planned for today. A nice bike ride on the rail trail. We have an old railroad line here that the railroad closed years ago and converted it into a trail for hiking, jogging, biking, etc. It's a long ride, if anyone does the whole ride. The one part that I like is through an area called "Hanover Junction". President Lincoln stopped there on his way to Gettysburg to deliver his Gettysburg Address. https://yorkcountypa.gov/parks-recr...-rail-trail-park/hanover-junction-museum.html and http://www.yorkcountytrails.org/ We put our bikes on the SUV (I have a bike carrier) and drive to the extension of the trail where Hanover Junction is located. A lot of history and beautiful scenery.
 
Jujube, how frightening. Stay safe.
Oldman, your rail trail is wonderful. I have never seen one with businesses along the way. Terrific concept. Is it located where it attracts a lot of tourists or are there mostly locals... Truly a bucket list destination. May your job slow down to a comfortable level.
Annie, the bike ride should compensate for the gym. Sounds like your electric bike is a dream. Perhaps I should get some scenic dvds, to replace the news, when I do my bike thing :D
April...is your package situation resolved? Hope so. If you get nowhere perhaps your State representative? My local one even has staff that handle problems very effectively.
May everyone have a great day....
 
oldman said:
I had just got in bed last night at 11:30 when the phone rang. It was the boss (that's what I call him). He has to be in Atlanta today and tomorrow and wants me to fly him. I am honored that he selects me over the other pilot, but I was just gone all last week with him and now we are off again. This was supposed to be a "part time" position. I don't like turning him down because he is really nice to me with compensation, but I am retired and want to do my own thing. I was told that I may be gone a few days a month when I signed up for this job, but it sure isn't working out that way. At least the weather looks good for flying to Atlanta.
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OM - Sounds to me like you and the Boss need to have a nice sit-down somewhere and discuss the scope of your flight schedule as it is now and as it was described to you at the job's inception. As you describe, he seems like he's an OK guy and if he's like most bosses he won't notice flaws in the workflow until he falls over them. Though he pays you well, you have a life to live and his choosing you for most flights in lieu of the alternate pilot is robbing you of some of your life's free time. I'm sure that, being the swell guy that he is, he'll welcome your bringing the scheduling difficulties to his attention before you get so tired you end up landing at the wrong airport. My thoughts are with you on this - been there, done that but I was desk jockey instead of a pilot. I also had a Boss who could pile assignments on me up to my eyebrows until I finally asked him to a conversational lunch and from that day on the tide began to turn.
 
Spent the last couple of days in local cemeteries, but after much thought decided I wasn't ready to take up permanent residence, :)

The first one is in the centre of St.Petersburg and attached to a working monastery, its a lovely leafy place and very relaxing,. There are three sections, the part we visited on Tuesday was for the commoners albeit the wealthy ones. The other two sections have the graves of such Russian icons as Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky and so on.
Its a very large complex considering its in the city centre.
A few photos I took below

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Inside one of the small chapels scattered around the grounds


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Close to the entrance near the Monastery
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The road outside
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I am off on a pre-birthday surprise trip today that Lisa has organised, hopefully it wont be another cemetery :)
 
Cemeteries are fascinating, especially the old ones.
The headstones can tell you stories and there are sometimes mysteries to solve.

Near some of our family graves is a grave without any headstone but there is a piece of slate propped up on a small block of concrete. Writing on it indicates that the person in the grave was Jewish. We have been trying to find out how he came to rest among the Methodists. I'm sure there is an interesting story behind this situation.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
Cemeteries are fascinating, especially the old ones.
The headstones can tell you stories and there are sometimes mysteries to solve.

Near some of our family graves is a grave without any headstone but there is a piece of slate propped up on a small block of concrete. Writing on it indicates that the person in the grave was Jewish. We have been trying to find out how he came to rest among the Methodists. I'm sure there is an interesting story behind this situation.
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Exactly how I feel Dame, as you say you can imagine all sorts of stories by reading the various headstones.
 

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