Shades of Summer

We got our first hot spell here in Maryland. Yesterday, it got up into the 80's and today it hit 91 degrees fahrenheit (32.7 C). I'm not thrilled with the heat. It meant I had to turn on the air conditioning in my apartment and, I know that won't be cheap. However, I can't sleep in a hot apartment so I had to. Also, it isn't a lot of fun delivering the mail in the heat. It saps me and, I have to be careful I don't dehydrate too much. Thankfully, the humidity hasn't started YET. That'll hit sometime in July. The humidity makes it really bad here in Maryland as it's like being out in a sauna during the summer. I wish spring would last a bit longer as I like the cooler temperatures and the rain (barring delivering mail in it). Oh well. The weatherman is forecasting it'll get cooler in a couple days but, summer is definitely on its way. Cheers all!

Royal Lotus

I thought I'd post something a little interesting. Above is a picture of the ship I got to cruise the Nile on for 2 days. It was the first river cruise ship I'd been on. As you can tell, it is vastly smaller than the ships that cruise the Caribbean. I think it could handle a maximum of 124 passengers. The ship was very nice. My cabin was superbly kept by whoever cleaned it daily. The food at the dining room was good and plentiful. I wasn't impressed with the swimming pool or fitness center. I very much enjoyed the top lounge deck where you could sit, enjoy a drink and watch the scenery roll by as we made our way to Aswan. Another nice thing the ship did was various activities during the evening. The most fun one was the galibyah party where everyone had to wear a galibyah (traditional Egyptian dress). It was something to see the various tour members in their galibyah.

Overall, I very much enjoyed cruising on this ship and would gladly do so again. Movenpick does a fine job of running it. Cheers all!

2 Down 1 To Go

I paid off the credit card I charged my future Globus U.S. and Canada tours on. I was relieved to have that paid off. I would've had to start paying interest on the card on 1 May. Plus, I hate debt. All the overtime I got at the Post Office paid off though it took its toll. The last place I want to see is the Post Office right now i.e. I'm burned out on the place. Now, I have 1 more thing to pay off - the scooter. I can't wait to get that so I can see what'll be like to ride it. I'd like to get it now but, common sense tells me I need to wait till I have it paid down more and can easily pay the credit card charge off when I do get it. I think it'll be fun to ride. Hopefully, I can keep my impatience in check and wait. We'll see.

Saving Money

Before I leave on one of my serious trips, I always turn down the thermostat in my apartment. There isn't any point in running the heat in the place if I'll be gone. Normally when I return, I turn it back up again. This past heating cycle I decided not to. I decided to try to save some money by keeping the thermostat set at 62 degrees. I felt that was comfortable enough. If necessary, I could put a jacket on to stay warm. A couple days ago, I received my Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) bill. It turned out leaving the thermostat at 62 degrees was worth it. My bill was nearly cut in half. It went from $59 to $35. I was delighted. I plan to leave the thermostat where it is and hold off switching over to air conditioning (ac) as long as I can. Eventually, when summer fully hits, I'll have to turn the ac on as I can't sleep in my apartment if it gets too hot. Opening the windows doesn't make a noticable difference. Still, the lower BGE bills will be nice while they last. I don't like giving them any more of my money then I have to. Cheers all!

Dave & Busters

I had my first day off at the Post Office in 3 weeks (barring Sundays) today. To my annoyance, the weather was crappy. It was cold and rainy all day. I wanted to get out and do something. I decided to go to the Arundel Mills Dave & Busters Arcade and Restaurant. I haven't been there in probably 4 months. Today was a particularly good day to go as it was half price Wednesday. What that means is that all games cost half their normal price. As the game I like to play (Spin & Win) is expensive to play (8.9 coins with a Gold card), Wednesday is the day to play it. I splurged and bought $100 worth of coins. To my delight, I hit the 1,000 ticket light 16 times. All totaled, I won 18,680 tickets. My new total is now 129,574. I checked out the prizes they had at the prize booth but nothing really wiped me out. They have a nice small portable Sony Digicam but, I don't need one of those right now. They also had a cheap rice cooker but, I'm managing all right with regular pots. So, I kept my tickets for another day. It was fun winning them and, it was fun having people ooo and ahh at all the tickets I won. I just wish Spin & Win wasn't so hard to hit the 1,000 light. It can be really frustrating when you repeatedly come within 1 or 2 lights of hitting the 1,000. Oh well. It made for a nice day off. Cheers all!

Hard Week

It's been another hard week at the Post Office where I work. I managed to get something like 18 and 1/2 hours of overtime. I'll be delighted to get the money next week but earning it was a royal pain. The last 3 days, I was certain my alarm clock had it in for me. I've never seen 5:30 a.m. roll around so fast. Today was the short day of the week with just 8 and 1/2 hours. Monday, I worked over 12 hours. Next week, I'm supposed to actually have a day off. I'll believe it when I see it. I know I should be glad to get the work because once the route adjustments come out, my hours will drop but right now, I'm big time tired. Still, next week's paycheck should be sweet. I just wish it wasn't spent already. (sigh) Cheers all!

Cobras

One of the neat things I got to see in Egypt were two live cobra snakes in the open. The picture above shows what I got to see. I don't know if this man was what you would call a snake charmer. But, it was something to see him and his snakes. We encountered him when our group arrived in Kom Ombo, Egypt. Kom Ombo is interesting in that it has the only temple dedicated to an evil god side by side with a temple dedicated to a good god. The evil god was Sekhmet who had the head of a crocodile. The good god was Greater Horus which was different from the Horus the rest of Egypt worshipped. Another interesting aspect of the Horus temple is that there was a secret passageway at one time where a priest could remain hidden and yet speak. This passageway was next to the holy of holies where the high priest and Pharoah would worship the god. It was possible that the priest could trick Pharoah into believing that it was the god speaking to him in the holy of holies. Kom Ombo ended up being a neat port of call and was our last before we reached Aswan.

Hard Week

I had a hard week at the Post Office where I work. My shortest day was 9 hours. My longest was nearly 12 hours. I had 3 days in a row where I worked 11 and 1/2 hours each. I racked up around 23 hours of overtime. I doubt upper management was happy about that but, my boss didn't have anyone else to carry the route I did Monday through Wednesday. Thursday was really crazy. I had to train on one route, deliver 9 Express Mails and after I finished my training, I had to deliver an entire auxiliary route we have. I ended up working 10 hours that day. Normally, I wouldn't be thrilled to get so many hours but, I know I better count my blessings now. Once the route adjustments go through, my hours at the Post Office are going to drop. I'm hoping I'll be able to pay off all the big expenses I have before that happens. Today, I mailed my Federal and State income tax payments. In 2 weeks, I hope to have made enough this week and next to pay off the U.S. and Canada tours I want to take this summer. After that, all I'll have left to pay off is the scooter I plan to get. Once the scooter is paid off, I plan to cool my spending. I don't know what is going to happen with the Postal Service. The Postmaster General keeps talking about going to a 5 day week. That would be disaster for me as a sub. The Postal Service wouldn't be able to guarantee me any work then. And, they would want me to stand by the phone every morning just in case someone called out. It would be ridiculous. So, for now, I'll count my blessings and try to get as much work as I can at the Post Office where I work.

The Coin

Yesterday, I received the Spanish silver coin I gave my mom (step-mom) Kay. The coin brought back memories. After my trip to Scandanavia in which I offered to give her a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt for a present and got a very chilly no thanks, I was determined to get her something nice during my cruise in the Caribbean. I looked in the gift shops on board the ship. I checked out various shops in Aruba and Curacao. I wasn't able to check out the shops in St. Maarten. The last stop on the cruise was St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. I kept trying to think of what to get her. I didn't want to get her perfume as I figured she had enough of that. T-shirts were definitely out. Other items looked kitschy. Finally, I came up with the idea of getting her some kind of Spanish silver coin. It never occurred to me that the coin could be a tad expensive. I found a shop that sold such things. I looked at what they had and then innocently asked how much. I got one heck of a shock. Still, I was in dire straights. I couldn't think of anything else to get my mom. I didn't want to get ragged on when I got back to the states. So, I spent $300! and bought her a legitimate Spanish silver coin that was recovered from the Nuestra de Atocha by Mel Fisher's company. It was seriously cool. So cool in fact that I wanted to get myself one when I could afford it. I thought it would be neat to own a bit of real Spanish treasure. I checked out Fisher's website and got another price shock. Apparently, I did get a very good deal at the shop in St. Thomas. The cheap coins on Fisher's website were going for twice what I paid in St. Thomas. So, I held off buying one.

My mom thoroughly enjoyed the coin and, I earned a gold star from her for it. She was so chuffed with the coin, she framed it and hung it up on the wall at her home. That was where they found it after she died. I was glad I'd bought the coin for her and, she enjoyed it. I still regret that she didn't get to enjoy the china plate I bought for her at Chateau Chenonceau. After her death, I remembered the coin I'd given her and asked about it. I was willing to pay whatever the market value was of the coin. To my surprise, I was given it back for nothing. So, I have a double memento now. The coin reminds me of my visit to St. Thomas and my mom Kay. Those are the things I'll remember whenever I look at the coin.

So Much For Training

As any readers I have out there know, yesterday I was supposed to train on another new route. The route is shorter than the one I did for the first time by myself Monday so I went in a little later. I started casing some fliers we had to deliver that day on the route mail case. Then, the rural route supervisor informed me the sub that was supposed to cover the route I did Monday hadn't shown up. The sub was from another post office. As I've mentioned previously, subs from other post offices can be unreliable because they can get called in at the last minute by their post office. If that happens, my post office is SOL (shit out of luck). We have to unexpectedly scramble to cover the route. That's just what happened yesterday. The sub got called by his post office and, he wasn't able to do the route we assigned to him yesterday or today. I ended up having to do the route yesterday and will do it again today. My training got moved. The plan now is that I'll get to train 1 day with the regular carrier Thursday on the route I was supposed to learn. 1 day of training is standard procedure after you've learned 3 routes. That bites as it helps to have more training but, that's the way it is. You just have suck it up and do the best you can on the route. You'll learn it quickly enough when you have to do it. I'm improving considerably on the route I learned last week. We'll see how I do on the route I'll get to learn Thursday. Cheers all!