Quiet

It's been quiet at my end of the woods. I haven't been doing anything exciting because I've been trying to save the money so I can pay off the scooter I'm in the process of buying. I paid $1,100 on that this past Tuesday. I still owe $1,070. I should have that paid off later this month. I'll be glad to finally get the thing and see what it's like to ride it. I found out that scooters can depreciate just like cars can. If I do decide to trade the thing in down the line for a bigger better scooter, I can expect to lose around $550 in depreciation in the first year (about a 1/4 of its initial value). Crap! Also, to my surprise, there is a value book put out on scooters by NADA. I found out about that from a friend at the Post Office. I didn't know there was such a thing. Scooters are sublisted under motorcycles in the book.

The Post Office continues to be filled with drama. For some reason, upper management has repeatedly visited the Post Office where I work. They seem to be looking for every little possible error. This is annoying as I have enough to worry about with trying to deliver the mail correctly and in time. It's anybody's guess what is going to happen to the Postal Service itself. The upper management folks keep saying we're going to run out of money. They say we're not bringing in enough. That's possible. I have definitely seen a drop in mail volume. Part of it is technology and part of it is the piss poor economy. I repeatedly receive notices from my credit union asking wouldn't I like to go to paperless statements. They even offer to put in for a drawing for a cash prize. I decline in part because of my job at the Post Office and in part because I like receiving a hard copy from them. I'm especially leery of going paperless with bills as it is very easy to forget an email notifying me of an upcoming payment. It's harder for me if I have something in paper I can see reminding me. The bad economy makes me leery of spending the money I earn. Especially, when I'm sure what is going to happen with my job at the Post Office.

I continue to slog away at my stories about my Egypt trip for the Globus exchange travel stories website. To my surprise, my last story which was about the day excursion to Alexandria received a superior rating. I liked that. I suspect I got that because I did some research which I included in the story like when Alexandria was created by Alexander the Great and some of the gods that had been worshipped at the Serapeum (temple complex) in Alexandria. I'm working on my next one about our visit to Saqqara and Old Memphis.

I finally finished off the boneless wings I bought from Cluck-U. I found them good. I'm pretty certain they weren't wings at all but, breasts coated like buffalo wings. While they were more expensive then the regular wings, you do get a LOT more meat with them. I thought the honey hickory flavor was good. I'd like to try the Caribbean jerk flavor and see if that is any good. We'll see on that.

Lastly, I've decided I'm going risk it (see previous comment about job insecurity) and order a new laptop at the end of this month from Dell. My current one is running fine but, it is getting old and the warranty is going to expire on this month. That scares me. I don't want any computer problems which I'd have to pay for. While I haven't had any major ones with my current Dell laptop, I'd like to play it safe and have a computer that is something goes wrong with it, they HAVE to fix it and pick up the tab. I haven't forgotten how expensive ($400) it was to replace the motherboard on my first laptop (a Sager). I plan to go with Dell again as the laptop I bought from them has had so few problems and their tech support has been great when there were glitches. I feel they're reliable. Also, Dell is offering a nice deal on certain models where I can get 12 months interest free credit. I'm certain I can pay the new laptop off in 12 months. I'll be excited to get the new laptop as it'll be a neat new toy I can play with. One thing I have found true is that as I've gotten older, my toys have gotten more expensive. Oh well.

That's all from my end of the woods. I think you can see why I'm not posting much. There isn't anything terribly exciting to blog about. I will have some neat future adventures to blog about in mid-summer. That's when I go on back-to-back tours with Globus. I can't wait to do that. I'm counting the days. I hope all is well with you reader of my blog. Take care and God bless.

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!

Tired

I found out today why I haven't been keen on learning anymore routes at the Post Office. I had to do the route I was trained on last week by myself. I got seriously kicked. Monday is the worst day to have someone who is new to a route to do it. You have 2 days of mail. I walked in and I had 5 full tubs of mail waiting to be cased as well as fliers. It got worse from there. It took me so long to case the mail for the route that I didn't start delivering it till around 2:45 p.m. One nice thing about the route I did today was that it was virtually all mounted. What that means is that I was able to drive up to each box and put their mail right in it vice having to get out of the mail truck and do a second sorting at a multi-box. The route did have 9 or so multi-boxes but, the carrier had single slotted the boxes so when I hit the street, the mail was already broken down to each individual address in the multi-boxes. No second sorting and no bad mail to bring back to the Post Office.

In time, I know I'll get better at the route I did today. The hardest part of this particular route is casing the mail since it is all single slotted i.e. broken down to each individual address. Some of the streets on the route jumped around the case and there were some addresses that were off by themselves making them hard to find. This makes it hard to case/sort but, it also makes it very easy to deliver which I like. Once I hit the street, I'm on easy street as far as delivering the mail on the route. It's all stick and stuff.

Tomorrow, I'll get to train on another route. That should go easier as Tuesdays are typically the lightest mail volume wise as far as the week goes. Still, I know I'll be going around in circles looking for various addresses. It'll be a pain but, the money will be nice and by knowing the route, I'll be able to get more hours down the line. Cheers all!

Craziness on the Nile

Above is a picture of men trying to sell stuff to people on the river cruise ship I was on. It was so ridiculous that I had to take a picture of it. The picture below show just how many of these guys there were. There must have been at least 35 boats. They would literally surround the ship in their attempt to sell their various good. It was crazy.

Enroute to Aswan, all the cruise ships had to come to a stop and wait their turn outside the Esna Locks. This is where these guys were waiting. They would then oar out to each ship. When they arrived, they displayed their various wares. If a customer wasn't sure about the item, they'd put it in a plastic bag and throw it up to them so they could take it out of the bag and look the item over. If the person liked the item, the haggling began. If they didn't, they put it back in the bag and threw it back to the seller. Hopefully, the item landed back in their boat though in a number of cases, the seller had to fish their wares out of the river. Things got more interesting if the seller and buyer agreed on a price. The buyer would then put their money in the bag and throw it down to the seller. In some cases, the seller had to fish their money out of the river. In one case, a would be seller threw his item too high and it landed on the roof of our ship. Luckily for him, I'm a decent bloke. I managed to get the item off the roof and, I threw it back to him. This whole experience was the craziest thing that happened on my tour of Egypt. It said just how hard these folks would try to sell you something. It was unreal.

Training

I got to train the last 2 days on a new route. My supervisor wants me to do the route next Monday and, I can't reasonably do it unless I've been trained on it. I hate learning new routes as it makes me feel like a new hire all over again. You have to hunt all over the case for the various addresses. Also, you feel like you're moving so slow compared to the normal speed you can case the mail on a route you know. It can be very frustrating. Lastly, you're more likely to make mistakes out on the street delivering the mail. It can be very easy to forget to check your accountables, your small parcels or your large parcels while you're trying to deliver the letters and flats (magazines, newspapers, fliers). I wish I had more time to learn the route but, there isn't time. We'll see how I do when I have to deliver it next Monday. Cheers all!

Easy Day at the Post Office

It is known that Tuesdays are the easiest day to deliver mail at the Post Office. The mail is caught up from the weekend and, there seems to be a little gap between it picks back up on Wednesday. Today, the mail seemed especially light. My Postmaster called all the First Class mail up at 9:30 a.m. to my astonishment. Once the Postmaster calls all First Class mail up, you can empty your mail holds one last time and then, you can start packing up the mail for your assigned route. By 10:30 a.m., I'd packed up all my mail including packages and loaded up my mail truck. 10 minutes later, I departed my Post Office to deliver my mail. 3 hours later, I was done. I arrived back at my Post Office at 2 p.m. I could scarcely believe it. This was the earliest I'd ever finished. Also, I'd beat the assessed time on the route. Something, I rarely do. It was nice to have an easy day at the Post Office. I don't get many of those. Cheers all!

Abu Simbel

One of the ironic things about me getting sick during the tour in Egypt was it caused me to see the temples at Abu Simbel. When I found out that we'd have to leave the hotel at 4 a.m. to see the temples, I said no way and informed our guide I wasn't going. Then, the morning of the excursion, I woke up at 2 .m. and, I couldn't get back to sleep. Not wanting to lay in bed and be bored to tears, I decided to go on the trip after all. I will admit the temples are extremely impressive. Rameses II intentionally built them that way. He wanted to impress any would be invaders that he was a mighty king. Also, he wanted to convince people he was a god. It seems that Rameses was an impatient fellow. In the Egyptian mythology, every pharaoh is a semi-god until he dies. At that time, that pharaoh becomes a full god. Rameses wanted to be a full god while he was alive but, he knew he couldn't do that where the people understood the Egyptian religion so, he built a temple and told the soldiers stationed close by to worship him as a god. The soldiers were good little soldiers and did what their boss said. Inside the temple, you'll find a place where you can leave offerings for 3 of the Egyptian gods AND when you do that, you'll in the process leave an offering for Rameses. Interestingly, Rameses suffered from a number of dental abcesses and had arteriosclerosis according to a short blurb I saw on his mummy at the Egyptian museum in Cairo but, this didn't stop him from believing he was a god. The man must have had one heck of an ego.

Another fascinating story about the 2 temples at Abu Simbel is the international efforts to save them. The Egyptian government back in the 60's decided to build a new hydroelectric dam in Aswan that would supply Egypt with most of the electricity it needed. The downside of this project is that it would flood a large area of land that had a number of important temples in it including Abu Simbel. Various proposals were considered on how to save the temples at Abu Simbel. The proposal that was accepted was where the 2 temples would be cut up and moved further inland to a place where they would be on land that was 186 feet higher than the original site. The Rameses temple alone was cut into 35,000 massive blocks. Then, they moved it to the new site and put it back together again. To ensure people saw it in its proper setting, they built a fake mountain/hill around it which is what you see in the picture. The project was a great success, the temples at Abu Simbel were saved and they remain one of the must see sites in Egypt.

Crazy Week at the Post Office

It has been a crazy week at the Post Office where I work. One of the problems my Post Office has is we need more substitute carriers. We have a number of subs who can only work 1 day a week. That causes real problems when carriers start calling out sick like this past week. We had 2 regulars do that. Another problem that causes is that we have to use subs from other Post Offices to cover the routes. This is always iffy because if their Post Office needs them on short notice, we're screwed. That very thing happened this past Friday. A sub was scheduled to do a route for us and at the last minute his Post Office called him and told him they needed him to work. So, we had to break up one route because of that. What breaking up a route means is that the subs working that day split the route and deliver those parts in addition to the full route they're doing already. This makes for a long day obviously. Another problem being short subs causes is when one gets unexpectedly sick. A regular was supposed to work his route Friday and then he remembered it was his birthday. He wanted to take the day off for that. We called the sub in and initially, he was able to case the mail. Then, he started throwing up. So, we had to break up a second route because we didn't have any subs who could carry the entire thing.

Our sub problem won't get better because the Postal Service is in massive limbo. If Congress approves us going to a 5-day delivery week, we won't need a lot of the subs we have. If it doesn't, we'll need more subs. Until the decision is made on this, the Postal Service won't hire any new subs. That makes sense as it doesn't want to hire people and then have to let them go shortly afterwards. But, it leaves us in a real bind. The good thing of sorts for me is it means I'll get more hours which will help with the bills. I say of sorts because, there are weeks when I'd rather have a day off instead. This week, I'm not scheduled to work Wednesday but, I won't be surprised if I get called in. I've learned repeatedly that just because you're not scheduled doesn't mean you won't end up working. We'll see what happens with the continuing saga at my Post Office. Cheers all!

Above is a picture of the view I had from my hotel room in Giza, Egypt. The hotel was the MENA House Oberoi. I'd stayed at this hotel for 2 nights back in 2001 and, I looked forward to staying there again. It's a super nice hotel with outstanding service and ideal if you want to visit the pyramids. It is only minutes walking from the pyramid complex. The room I stayed in was part of the palace part of the hotel. I believe this part of the hotel is from the older and more luxurious rooms the hotel has. The palace rooms were also more convenient as they were closer to the hotel's 5 restaurants, 2 bars and reception area. When it came time to leave Cairo for Luxor, I was saddened to have to check out as I'd very much enjoyed my stay here.

Back to Work

I ended up going back to work at the Post Office. I wasn't supposed to work yesterday. When I put in my leave slip, I gave myself 3 days to recover from my Egypt vacation. I stopped by the Post Office where I work yesterday to give a co-worker a t-shirt and nubian hat I bought him. While I was there, another carrier who was working supposedly got sick and claimed she needed to leave. There isn't any way to know if she was legitimately sick. The supervisor was now in a bind. We were already short handed and, it would've been impossible to find someone on such short notice. He asked me if I could help out a little. I agreed to. I ended up delivering the entire auxiliary route. It was interesting to do that route as I haven't done it in a while. Another plus was I could use the bucks. I kept my charges down while I was in Egypt but, I still have a lot of bills to pay. There's this years taxes, the scooter I plan to get and paying off the U.S. and Canada tours. While an extra 5 hours won't make a huge dent in those bills, it will help a little. So, I was glad to do it. Today, I'm back on the schedule and will deliver Express Mails and who knows what else. Every day seems to be a crisis at the Post Office so you never know what you might end up working. We'll see how it goes. Now, I'm counting down to the U.S. and Canada tours. Approximately 120 days to go on those. Plus, I'm looking into doing another Caribbean cruise. We'll see what happens on that. Cheers all!

Adventures Log

Now that I'm back from my Egypt trip, I can start telling you my readers more fully about it. Here goes.

I arrived in Cairo a day early. I wanted time to recover from the long flight and ensure I was well rested before the important first group meeting. I haven't forgotten falling asleep sporadically at the group meeting at the beginning of the Scandanavia tour I did. Through my travel agent Joel, I made sure Globus/Avalon Waterways would have someone to meet me at the airport. I very much wanted someone there who knew their way around there and spoke the language. I visited Cairo before in March 2001 but, I wasn't any expert on the ropes there. I would be very glad to see a person from Avalon waiting for me when I arrived.

I stepped off the plane in Cairo and boarded a bus that took me to the arrivals terminal. I walked in there and to my surprise, I saw a sign saying Globus/Avalon Waterways. I hadn't passed through Egyptian immigration yet. I walked up to the representative, told him my name and he checked his list and confirmed that I was one of the people who was supposed to pick up. Then, he had me rush to the MISR Bank counter to buy my Egyptian visa which you had to have to get into Egypt. It cost $15. I expected some kind of form to fill out but there wasn't one to my astonishment. I paid my money and they gave me a sticker to put in my passport that was my visa. The man who met me at the gate took the sticker, put it in my passport, checked what I'd filled in on arrivals card I had to fill out and got me through the immigration line. Another man took over from there.

The man who took over from there would later be called Bob. His real name is something like Sopi. However you say his name, he was super nice and made sure the tour got off to a good start. He was the one who called Samy, my tour's guide and arranged for me to meet him at the hotel I would be staying at. I was a little perplexed why Bob would want me to meet Samy so soon but, I figured whatever. I do remember him saying Samy was outstanding. It turned out, he was right.

Bob herded me and a friend to the van and driver that would take me to the MENA House Oberoi Hotel in Giza. I don't know the driver's name but, he did a fine job getting me to the hotel. I was surprised how far it was from the hotel. As we drove along, I looked at the van windows to see some of the sights of Cairo. Some of the sights were surprising. I saw run down dirty multi-storied apartment building that appalled me. I saw people driving carts pulled by donkeys in the city. Traffic was a madhouse. Drivers drove where ever there was an opening on the road. Cairo sprawled for miles and looked like it had been built haphazardly. There was also a lot of new construction going on. I don't remember what it was for.

After over 30 minutes driving at least, I arrived at the hotel. I'd stayed at the hotel during my first visit in 2001. I had fond memories of it. It is an outstanding hotel and, the perfect place to visit the pyramids from. It's just minutes walking from them. The hotel staff were very prompt in helping me check in. I expected to stay in one of the rooms to the back of the hotel. To my surprise, I got a room the palace part of the hotel. The palace part of the hotel is I believe part of the older original hotel. It's considered more luxurious and has better views. I was knocked for six when I looked out my bedroom window and saw Cheops pyramid. Another advantage of rooms in the palace part of the hotel is you are closer to the hotel's various restaurants including the bar where I would meet Samy.

Bob had helped set up my first meeting with Samy. I'd heard about him on one of the few Egypt stories on Globus's exchange travel stories website. The reviewer said he was great but didn't give any real reasons why. I was surprised to be meeting the tour's guide so soon. But, I figured it would be worthwhiled as I could find out how the tour was going to run.

The first thing you get to see about Samy Hassaan is his warm and cordial smile. You would get to see it a lot during the trip. The second was his very professional manner. Samy got me and my friend our complimentary welcome drink and then, we sat down and got answers to questions like when could we sign up and pay for the tour's optional excursions and how was the first group meeting going to go the next day. To my delight, I was able to pay at once for all the excursions I wanted to take. This would enable me to avoid a hefty charge card bill when I got back to the U.S. Second, to my surprise, I found out Samy was going to take a few people to a museum next to the pyramids that we wouldn't get to see during the tour. It's the solar boat museum. The solar boat is a boat that was built for Pharoah Cheops (Khufu) that would simulate the boat he would use in the afterlife. It was never intended to be used. Surprisingly, it wasn't found until 1954. Samy said it was worth seeing. The same group afterwards was going to see the Royal mummies collection at the museum of antiquities. As I hadn't planned to do anything that day barring the group meeting, I willing to go so I agreed to join the group that Samy would take to the solar boat museum.

After my first meeting with Samy was concluded, we made our way over to a closeby ATM where I was able to get some Egyptian pounds. I withdrew 1,000 of them. Then, it was time for dinner. The MENA House Oberoi hotel has 4 or 5 restaurants. The Khan El Khalili restaurant is open 24 hours I believe. My friend and I decided to eat there. We'd have a nice meal there and discuss our upcoming adventures. There was going to be a LOT of things to see and do within the next 2 weeks. Continued in Adventures Log - Part II.

I'm Back!

I made it back to the good old USA but, I'm not home yet. I had to be up at 5 a.m. with my bags out at 5:30 in Cairo. The Avalon Waterways (MISR Travel) shuttle that would take me to Cairo International was waiting for me. It took me to the airport where I had a mis-adventure when the person at the check-in counter gave me the wrong boarding pass. I managed to get that fixed. Then, I had to endure a 12 hour flight to New York JFK Airport. That royally sucked. Finally, I arrived there and had to sit and twiddle my thumbs for almost 4 hours. I finally get to board the plane for Dulles International and, we find out the plane is overweight. They end up kicking a passenger off the plane. I bet she wasn't happy. Neither were the rest of us as we sat in the plane for over 35 minutes waiting for them to get that sorted out. My plane ended up leaving over an hour late.

By the time I arrived at Dulles, I know I'm not in any shape to drive home. No problem, I'll stay at Embassy Suites again right, WRONG! First, I miss their shuttle. I figure, they'll send another one in 15 or 30 minutes. WRONG! After waiting over 40 minutes with the time past 11 p.m., I go back into the airport and look up their number. I call them on my cell phone which it turned out had a very low battery so, I wondered if the call would disconnect because it ran out of juice. Thankfully, it didn't. The driver for the hotel shuttle shows up and takes me to the Embassy Suites where my car. I inform the person at the reception that I need a room. To my astonishment, he informs me they are fully booked! Luckily, there is a Homewood Suites next door and, they had some rooms available. So, later today (now), I'll finally drive home and conclude my Egypt adventure.

The tour itself was awesome barring me getting sick. I'm still taking antibiotics for that. I hope the bug I caught will be gone permanently when I finish the antibiotics. We'll see. I plan to post more indepth blogs about the trip some time in the coming days. I got to see a lot of neat stuff though I also saw some very sad stuff. The poverty in Egypt is appalling. So, stay tuned for more updates.

Last Blog from Egypt

This is my last blog entry from Egypt. I arrived back in Cairo this morning. Tomorrow, I fly back to the states. I hate it when a tour ends. I had an awesome guide in Samy Hassaan and a group of people to share the tour with. Plus, I don't look forward to going back to the Post Office. Oh well. I can solace that in approximately 4 months, I'll get to do another bunch of adventures when I go on tour again with Globus.

Concerning my illness, the antibiotics I'm taking are working. However, I am on a diet of bread, rice, soup and bananas as these would upset my stomach. I hope to fully kick this bug soon. We'll see.

Cheers from Cairo!

Sickness

To my great annoyance and pain, I've come down with some intestinal bug. I believe I caught the things while I was cruising on the Nile. At first, I suffered a mild case of diarrhea then, it progressed to stomach pain and finally steady intestinal pain. Luckily, there is a nurse in our group who knows about such things. She sold me a combination antibiotic/anti-diuretic. The drug has supposedly worked for her while she's been here. Now, I have to be patient and wait for the drug to do its stuff. That isn't easy when your gut is steadily hurting. There has been one blessing of sorts. Because of the bug, I woke up at 2 a.m. this morning and, I couldn't get back to sleep. I'd planned to skip the excursion to Abu Simbel because I didn't want to have to get up at 3:30 a.m. Because of the bug, I woke up earlier and decided that I might as well go on the trip.

Abu Simbel was very impressive. Rameses II didn't believe in building small monuments to himself. This one features 18 meter (approximately 60 feet) high statues of himself as well as a number of ingrained pictures telling of his alleged victory over the Hittites. The pictures are stunning. Another interesting thing about the temple is that apparently Rameses II was impatient to become a god. While a pharoah is alive, he is considered a semi-God. It is only when he dies that he become a full god. Rameses wanted to be a full God in life. He couldn't be one where people understood the Egyptian religion so he built a temple in one of the remotest parts of the Egyptian empire and told the garrison there to worship him as a God. The garrison reportedly did what they were told. Another interesting thing is that Rameses built a temple to his primary wife Nefertari. Egyptian Queens don't receive temples unless they become pharaohs like Hatshepsut. Nefertari was the first. This indicates that Nefertari was very powerful.

Overall, the temples were very impressive. I was glad I got to see them though I didn't enjoy the steady intestinal pain I suffered during the visit. For now, I have to wait for the antibiotic to do its stuff. Hopefully, it'll beat the bug quickly. We'll see. Tomorrow, I fly back to Cairo for my last full day in Egypt. I hope to post one last update while there. Stay tuned for further updates.

Tour Update

I found out Internet access is affordable at the Maritim Jolie Ville Hotel. Our group will be staying here one night. Tomorrow, we'll transfer to our boat. I actually got see it briefly as we drove to our hotel. Sami our guide assured us we get VIP treatment on the boat. We'll see.

Concerning the tour, we got started shortly after 8 a.m. I was sorry that it was time to check out of the MENA House Oberoi Hotel. My stay there had been really nice. If I ever return to Egypt, I'll definitely stay at that hotel again.

Our first stop was the famous step-pyramid at Saqqara. Sami took us to a museum dedicated to its architect Imhotep. The museum showed some of the artifacts recovered in the area and explained some of the unique aspects of the pyramids. After that, we visited the mastaba (tomb) of an Egyptian prince. The tomb was very impressive with carved figures in the wall showing how life was during those times. Some of the figures still have some of the color they'd been painted with. The tomb must've been very impressive when it was first built. Next was the funerary temple which had stone columns shaped like bundles of reeds. Every stall reportedly held a statue though it isn't know with certainty what the statues were in the stalls.

After that, there was a vast courtyard in the rear of the pyramid. It was built so the pharaoh could complete certain tasks in the afterlife. The step-pyramid itself was impressive though not as much as the 3 great pyramids that came after it.

From there, we went to Memphis which was the first capital of ancient Egypt. Sadly, there isn't anything remaining of the buildings from that time. They were built of mud brick according to Sami and would've been destroyed when the Nile river flooded. It was only due to a number of statues being found at the small museum we visited that archaeologists were able to determine that had to be where Memphis had been located.

Next lunch, lunch ironically was at the same restaurant I ate at when I visited in 2001. My visit this time was less pleasant as they changed the prices of the sodas when it came time to pay the bill and they pushed hard for a tip. They didn't get one from me.

Last, we visited a carpet factory. I remembered the carpet factory from my 2001 visit and decided to skip this. I wasn't going to buy a carpet that could cost as much as a used car.

From there, we drove to the Cairo airport where we said good-bye to our driver. He'd done a good job and, I made sure I gave him a nice tip. Sami was helpful in getting my United Airline frequent flier number added to my ticket so I could earn some airmiles on the flight. The flight itself lasted 1 hour and was uneventful. I hadn't slept great the night before and ended sleeping most of the flight.

Our driver was waiting for us at Luxor airport. We had a pleasant drive through the city and saw the Luxor temple as we passed by. It looked impressive. After checking it, it was time for dinner. The hotel had a buffet that was phenomenal. I piled my plate only to find out there even more entrees available. I decided to limit myself to 1 plate. I've already got a big enough gut.

So, tomorrow we see the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hatshepsut's temple. Then, we board our river cruise ship where we have our first meal on board. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt with a population of 8 million. The city was founded by Alexander the Great though there was an important Egyptian village on the site of the future city. For my tour group, we would visit Alexandria to see the city, its museum, its catacombs and Pompey's pillar.

The city's museum was nice though not super big. It's housed in a former U.S. consulate and consists of 3 floors. The basement holds the Egyptian history exhibit though much of what's exhibited there isn't from Alexandria. The first floor holds the Greco-Roman period and includes some new artifacts that were recovered from the sea floor by French divers. The second floor hold Islamic and Coptic exhibits and more modern items. I checked out the first floor and found it interesting. Like the Egyptian museum in Cairo, I found items mis-spelled and mis-labelled. Also, the museum had a very lacklustre gift shop.

The catacombs were discovered purely by accident in 1900. 238 people were buried in them though all the bodies have since been removed. Still, it was interesting and a little spooky to visit them. A spiral staircase took you down in subterranean chambers were the various burial cells were located. There was also a small temple that showed the Egyptian God Anubis mummifying a body. Lastly at this site, we saw a burial temple that was recovered and showed a mix of Roman and Egyptian beliefs.

Pompey's Column is actually a column dedicated in honor of Roman Emperor Diocletian. The rest of the site has the remains of 4 temples as well as some statues left in Alexandria by various Egyptian Pharaohs. I thought it interesting.

After visiting Pompey's column, we drove along the coast to the hotel were Avalon Waterways treated us to lunch. The hotel was nice and the lunch was good. We had pleasant views of a small harbor and beach. Interestingly, the hotel is located next to the former Royal palace and now Presidential mansion. The mansion was a stunning building. Just a little ways down from the mansion was the mansion that held the last Egyptian King's harem. That was interesting.

Overall, the trip was a very nice one though it did involve a drive of 3 hours each way. The drive was an experience as Egyptians don't pay any attention to road markings and I suspect speed limits. After seeing how they drive here, I know I wouldn't want to. At times, it is pure chaos. My respect for our bus driver as well as the driver who picked me up at the Cairo airport has been very high.

That's all for now. Tomorrow, I get to see Old Memphis and the step-pyramid at Saqqara. After that, we fly to Luxor where we have a free evening and stay overnight in a hotel. I hope to post another update but, that'll depend on how much they charge at the hotel to access the Internet. Stay tuned.

5 March Update

Per my last post, I attended the Pyramids sound and light show. It was interesting and yet boring too. At times, I nearly fell asleep. Thankfully, it only lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Our guide Sami was waiting for us when the show was done.

Then, I bought one of the items that was at the top of my list to buy - a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Ok, I know that is a little ridiculous but, I really like collecting the things. It turned out the Cairo cafe has a small shop that sells merchandise only. I looked over what they had and decided to get just a t-shirt.

Next, Sami took us to a shop where we could get supposedly (how would I know) good prices on Egyptian cotton clothes. It was there that I bought a ghabeliyah (I undoubtedly mis-spelled that). A ghabeliyah is sort of like a super long night shirt that Egyptian men were during the daytime. You'll see every once in a while a man wearing one. Sami said we're going to have a party during the river cruise where the men have to wear a ghabeliyah and properly Egyptian. So, I bought one of those and a head scarf. I looked at myself in a mirror at the store and laughed. I was a sight. I'm definitely going to get a picture taken at the party.

I also bought a copy of night t-shirts which cleaned me out Egyptian pounds wise. I'll have to pick up some more this morning dang it.

Last, we drove back to the hotel. It was around 9 p.m. and we have an early start for Alexandria this morning so I skipped dinner. I plan to make up for it by hitting the hotel breakfast buffet hard. I know very little about Alexandria so today will be a big learning experience. We'll see how it goes. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

Quick Note

I have to post a quick note as I'll be leaving in 30 minutes for the sound and light show at the pyramids. It's been a hectic first full day of the tour. We started at 8 a.m. and drove to the nearby pyramids. I climbed inside Cheops pyramid like I did back in 2001. The long low narrow passageway hasn't changed or the confined spaces inside the pyramid. I enjoyed the adventure but, I was glad to be back outside the pyramid.

After that, we had the chance to ride a camel for 50 Egyptian pounds. I had a better ride than in Australia but, I didn't like dealing with the Egyptian who led my camel.

Then, we visited the famous Sphinx. We learned about the 2 temples that would be built with a pyramid. One would be the funerary temple which was right next to the pyramid and, the other was the mummification temple where the body was mummified. We got to see what remains of the mummification temple for Pharoah Khefren (Cheops son). It was interesting. Afterwards, we took pictures of the Sphinx.

Lunch was next with a restaurant closeby. They had a fixed price lunch which was reasonable and good. I got to eat some good traditional Egyptian food.

Last, we visited the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities to see the King Tutankamun treasures. The treasures haven't lost any of their ability to awe. It's incredible to see what we buried with a boy king who only ruled for 9 years. The horde that would've been buried with a great pharaoah like Rameses II must have been truly mind boggling.

That's all for now. I have the sound and light show to go to and then, I have to grab a quick dinner. After that, I'll be hitting the sack quickly as we have an early start tomorrow morning for Alexandria. Stay tuned for further updates.

Initial Observations

Here are a few initial observations I've made on my trip so far. I suspect water is going to be a major concern. You can't drip the tap water in Egypt so you must drink bottled water. Bottled water can be expensive. A small bottle of it will set you back almost $2. That could add up real quick. Also, I continued to be annoyed by minor things I forgot to pack. I forgot to pack extra sweat bands for my workouts and, I apparently forgot my hairbrush. At least I hope I forgot it, otherwise, I left it at the hotel in Virginia. Lastly, I forgot my spare camera battery. My digital camera uses batteries you have to recharge. Apparently, I left the spare battery on the recharger at home. While I've never needed it past trips, it is nice to have it just in case. I hope I won't need it this time.

Food wise, I noticed the absence of real i.e. pork bacon at the hotel breakfast buffet this morning. I confess I like the real stuff vice beef bacon which is what I think they had. They also had beef and chicken sausages vice pork sausages. One interesting thing I got to try was hibiscus juice. I didn't even know there was such a thing. It was all right.

Lastly, it is a bit unreal to wake up, look outside your bedroom window and see the pyramids. Later, I got to see a bunch of people go off on a camel ride. I remember the last time I was in Egypt, they offered that. If I'm given the chance, I may do it though I've already ridden a camel. I did that during my Globus Australia tour. The ride itself wasn't terribly impressive but, I could say I'd ridden a camel. We'll see if I get to ride one here.

That's all for now. I'll post more later. I bought a 12 hour internet card from the hotel so I'll be posting a fair amount from here. I can't say how much I'll post from other places. It'll depend on the cost. Cheers all!

Made It

I arrived in Cairo this morning. The flight was long as expected. Egyptair was surprisingly decent. The main meal they offered was pretty good plus, they offered a choice of beef, chicken or fish.

Avalon Waterways came through too. There was a 2-man team waiting at the arrivals section at the Cairo airport. The first man showed me where to get my visa and got me quickly in line so I could get through immigration quickly. Note: Getting my Egyptian visa turned out to be ridiculously easy at the airport. I definitely wouldn't bother getting it at the Egyptian consulate in the states.

The second man helped me get my suitcase and directed me to where the driver was. He also contacted the tour guide who met with me later. The tour guide was fantastic. Because of him, I'll get to see the boat museum next to the pyramids tomorrow and the royal mummy section of the Egyptian museum of antiquities. It should be a serious blast.

Lastly, my room at the Mena House Oberoi absolutely rocks. I can look out my bedroom window and see Cheops pyramid. It's unreal.

So, my Egyptian adventure is going well. Stay tuned for further updates as I can post them. Cheers all!

Taxes

I received some good news from my accountant at McMillan & Associates (http://www.mcmillancpa.com/). I was expecting to pay around $2,000 total in Federal and State taxes this year. To my delight, I'll have to pay half of that. I suspect 2 things caused my lower tax bill. First, I didn't make as much money this past year as I did the year before. It's been over a year and a half since I worked at Medieval Times at Arundel Mills Mall. Also, the Post Office has gotten really tight about overtime. Lastly, when given the choice of delivering Express Mail and getting 2 hours or delivering mail on rural route 10 which I hate and racking up a 9 hours, I chose delivering Express Mail. I know that cost me money there. Second, I put more money in my Individual Retirement Account (IRA). I was able to put $5,000 in it vice $4,000. I know that made a difference. So, I won't have to give as much to the socialist government of Maryland or the spend happy clowns in D.C. I hope to take my accountant's advice and pay some of the 2009's tax in advance so my bill will be even lower next year. We'll see on that. I still have a number of other things I need to pay off. I still owe over $2,300 on my future scooter and another $2,300 on my future U.S./Canada trips. Also, I hope to buy a new laptop. Knock on wood, the one I have is still going strong but, it is coming up on 5 years. I don't want to push my luck with it and have it unexpectedly die on me. So, we'll see on the idea of paying some of my future taxes in advance. Cheers all!

Cluck-U

I've been hankering for some chicken wings for a while. There is a chain called Cluck-U that specializes in the things. They used to have one in the town that I live in but, for some reason, that store closed. While driving back from church one day, I saw a person in a chicken costume promoting a Cluck-U restaurant in Lanham, Maryland. Today, I decided to see if I could find the place and satisfy my hunger for some chicken wings.

I didn't know where the restaurant was in Lanham. However, I remembered that my Garmin GPS unit has names and addresses of restaurants. I decided to see if it had a listing for the Lanham Cluck-U. To my delight, it did. I clicked on the listing and, my GPS promptly figured out how to get me to the restaurant. Within a minute, it had the directions. I subsequently followed and found the place with no problem.

I decided to try their family pack which is 30 wings and four 8-ounce sides. They have a number of different flavors of wings going from super mild to super hot. I wimped and went for honey mustard. For my 4 sides, I decided to try their yellow corn, cole slaw, black beans and rice and mashed potatoes. The total cost with tax was $27.55. I believe it took them approximately 10 minutes to prepare my order.

The wings had a decent amount of meat on them and, the honey mustard flavor was all right. As I didn't want to make a pig of myself, I ate the yellow corn and mashed potato sides. Mashed potatoes tend to taste lousy cold and, corn goes with mashed potatoes. Both sides were all right. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the food and, I'll definitely buy some more wings from the Lanham Cluck-U restaurant when I'm out that way sometime. Cheers all!

Nice News

I got some nice news yesterday. I decided to call the travel clinic to find out the results of the chickpox blood test I had done. To my annoyance, they kept telling me they'd call me back with the information and never did. Finally, I got ahold of someone who was able to tell me the results. It turned out I still had enough chickenpox antibodies to where I don't have to worry about catching it while I'm travelling in Egypt. So, I won't need a chickenpox shot. As I don't like shots, I was delighted with the news. I just wish I didn't have to call them 4 times to find out. That takes care of that item on my checklist.

Not Much To Tell

I haven't been blogging much because, I haven't had much happening at my end of the woods. To my surprise, I've been getting a number of hours at the Post Office. That was a mixed blessing as I had to work on 2 routes I didn't know at all. I saw my Periodontist this past Tuesday for a cleaning. He wasn't pleased with me as I haven't been doing my homework i.e. flossing. I knew I had a fair amount of tartar build-up since the last cleaning. One of the reasons I've been seeing him every 4 months vice the normal 6 is to keep it from getting bad. The most annoying thing about tartar is that once its formed, it can only be removed by a dentist. You have to floss daily to keep it from forming and, I haven't been.

I continue to count the days down till my Egypt trip. I found out Avalon Waterways offers 3 sound and light shows during the tour. I think that's too many and, I asked my travel agent which of the 3 was the one I should definitely see. Visa wise, I'm going to do like so many others and get it when I arrive at the Cairo airport. This will be easier than driving down to D.C., trying to find the Egyptian consulate, hoping I arrive when it's open and hoping I get my passport back in time.

I continue to play scratch off lottery tickets. My luck has been great at times and crappy at others. I hit the $108 prize for a second time and won $172 total that time playing. Right after that, my luck turned to crap and I ended up losing $60. So far, it looks like no one is hitting the big prizes. The number of those still out there hasn't changed in 2 weeks at least. I wonder what's up with that. Did the Maryland lottery make it so only a bunch of the small winners would come up? That way, they wouldn't be stuck with a lot of tickets once all the big prizes are gone. I don't know. I continue to dream of hitting the $80,000 top prize on their Lucky 8's game.

The weather finally started getting warmer. Hopefully, this is a sign that winter is nearly over. I can't say I've been a big fan of winter. I'm less of a fan now that I have to work in it. I'll be glad when spring arrives though that'll have it drawbacks too i.e. rain.

That's all to report for now. I hope any readers I have out there are doing well. May you have a fun President's day weekend. Cheers!

Documents

I received my travel documents from Globus earlier this week. I've been waiting excitedly for them. I'm definitely ready to go on my upcoming trip to Egypt. It should be really awesome. The temples, tombs and history are fascinating. Plus, I'll get to cruise on the Nile River for 3 days. The only down side to the trip will be the long flights to and from Cairo. The flight from New York JFK to Cairo will be 10 hours 45 minutes alone. Plus, I know the flight will be delayed getting out of JFK. I think all flights out of there are now a days.

A different kind of travel bag came with the documents. The Nile Tour/Cruise is run by Globus affiliate Avalon Waterways. Their bag was blue and looked more like a messenger type bag. One pleasant surprise was the guide to the Nile that came with the documents as well as tips for cruising on the boat. I'll be curious to see how cruising on Avalon's boat differs from cruising with Royal Caribbean. Hopefully, Avalon won't try to milk me like Royal Caribbean did. If nothing else, I'll be on the boat 3 days which isn't too bad. It's sort of like an introduction to river cruises.

That's all to tell for now. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!

Shots

Last Wednesday, I made it to the nearby base immunizations clinic to get the shots I needed for my trip to Egypt. I found out I missed out getting the inhale flu immunization by a week. The supply they had on hand expired then. So, I ended up getting 3 shots. One for the flu, one for typhoid and a combination tetanus/diptheria/pertussis shot. I thought the typhoid would make the arm I got it in sore but, it turned out the tetanus did that. It's felt like I had a big knot in my left arm from that shot.

Thankfully, I haven't suffered any flu like symptoms from the flu shot. I was dreading that. I've had that happen previously.

Now, I have to wait for results to come back from the chickenpox blood test. I found out from the immunizations folks that if they come out low, I'll need at least 1 shot though the procedure calls for 2 30 days apart. Hopefully, I won't need either. We'll see. If nothing else, it's nice to have these done and out of the way. I should receive my travel documents by the end of this week. I can't wait to get those. Cheers all!

5 Day Delivery

I saw in the news where the Postmaster General requested Congress remove the 6 day delivery requirement. He'd like the Postal Service to go to 5 days a week delivery wise. This would save a lot of money as it would cut down significantly the amount of overtime the Postal Service would have to pay potentially. From my side of the woods however, this would be devastating financially. The Postal Service wouldn't be able to guarantee me at least 1 day of work anymore. The consistent time I'm needed as a substitute carrier right now is on the regular carrier's day off i.e. their 6th day. If we go to 5 days a week, the regular carrier won't have a day off they need a substitute carrier for anymore. The Postal Service will still need substitute carriers to cover for when the carrier's take annual leave or calls out sick but, those days are sporadic. I believe the Postal Service will have a hard time attracting substitute carriers if this goes through. I suspect it will. For me, I'll just have to bite the bullet and look for a second job though that'll be hard to find with the bad economy at the moment.

Blood

I decided that today I'd drive down to the clinic on the base that is near where I live in order to get the shots that I've mentioned previously. The trip is steadily getting closer and, I have to have the shots to be safe. Unfortunately, I had to have blood taken so they could see if I was still immune to chickenpox. Apparently, there is a danger of it in Egypt. I'd hoped the Air Force had a done a blood test on this earlier. I found out from the people in the immunization clinic that years ago (when I served), they would ask people if they had chickenpox as a kid. If they said yes, they took their word for it and let it go. If they said no, they got the shot. People learned to say yes so they could avoid the shot. Unfortunately, this didn't prevent them from getting the disease. After a number of cases of this happening, the Air Force instituted mandatory testing for chickenpox immunity. If you had it, you got to skip the shot and, if you didn't, they gave you the shot so you wouldn't get it as an adult which is supposedly worse than getting it as a kid.

One problem I have giving blood is I have small veins. I've had a number of times where I was stuck multiple times because of my small veins. This is the reason why I didn't want to give blood if I didn't need to. Sadly, I had to. Luck was not with me this time. The nurse did her best but, it took them 4 tries to find a vein. I took it in the best spirits possible. I had to have the blood taken because I had to find out if I'm immune or not. If I'm not, I wanted to get the shot to be safe. I won't like getting the shot but, I'll like a heck of a lot less getting the disease. So, I gritted my teeth and, they got their blood sample.

By the time I got done with the lab folks, the immunization clinic was closed. Work permitting, I'll go back tomorrow and get the tetanus and typhoid shots and the flu inhale immunization. The typhoid will make my arm sore which is annoying but, it's the flu immunization that will be really bad. I know I'm going to come down with flu like symptoms for at least 2 or 3 days afterwards. The doctor at the travel clinic assured me I won't really have the flu. That'll really make me feel loads better (not!) as I shiver and clog up from the fake flu symptoms. Stay tuned for more updates on this. Cheers all!

Map Update

Yesterday, I received word from Garmin that they had a map update for my Nuvi 750 GPS unit. I was delighted as I've noticed some blank spots on the unit. Some of these, I know are areas that have had construction within the last year or so. One glitch I don't understand is when I drove along Soil Conservation Road. The unit told me to follow the road to Greenbelt during a couple trips I've made to Bowie, Maryland. I did what the unit said and on the unit's map, it had me driving right off the road though I stayed on Soil Conservation Road the entire time. Weird.

The map update file to my surprise was HUGE. It was 1.9 gigabytes and it was compressed. Because of it's large size, this is when I could've used a cable modem as it would've significantly sped up the download. It ended up taking over 5 hours. Then, you had to extract the file which took another hour I think. Then, you had to install the new map. As you can see, the whole process took a while. Still, it'll be worth it in order to have the latest and most accurate maps on the device.

This first map update was free. I don't know how much it'll cost for others. I'll find out in time. Garmin says they come out with updates up to 4 times a year. As I definitely want the most up to date maps, I'll pay within reason whatever they want for my next update. Also, I'll remember how long the process takes and start the process just before I leave for work for the entire day or before I go to bed. It does take a long time to finish the whole procedure. Cheers all!

Another French Lesson

After nearly a month off, I did another French lesson at the Alliance Francaise with my teacher Nadya. The lesson went alright though I'm still having a hard time understanding spoken French. My vocabulary is slowly getting better. I was able to translate more today but, I still had problems with some flowery phrases a French writer used in describing some of the wonders around Aswan, Egypt. I'm still bad about doing my homework.

After next week's lesson, my teacher returns to France for 2 months. I don't plan to request a temporary substitute teacher as the sub wouldn't know where I am in my studies for starters. Also, I'd only be able to get in maybe 5 lessons before Nadya returned from France. Lastly, holding off like that will make it easier to fork up the next $1,000 for the next 25 hours of private lessons.

On a different note, I used my GPS unit to get to the Alliance Francaise and to get home from there. It did another great job. I hardly know my way around Washington D.C. driving wise so, it was priceless in helping me find a quick route through the city thereby avoiding having to take the long way on the D.C. Inner Loop (465). I continue to be really impressed with the unit. I'm very glad I bought it. Cheers!

You Get What You Pay For

I previously blogged about buying a parka at a Burlington Coat Factory store. I thought I got a good deal. I was wrong. I don't know how they put the down in the parka but however they did, they got it wrong. To my surprise, the down feathers are working their way through the fabric. The result is that when I take the parka off, I find myself picking feathers off my shirt. Funny in a way but annoying too. I never had this problem with my triple fat parka. I suspect this is a classic case of you get what you pay for. If I'd pay more money and bought a higher quality parka, I wouldn't have this problem. Oh well. Live and learn. For now, I'll continue to use the thing as I can't afford to buy a better one. Next winter, I'll see about buying a better quality parka.

Hard Day at the Post Office

I had a very hard day at the Post Office yesterday. I knew I would before I went in. We had a 3-day weekend thanks to Martin Luther King day. Holidays are bad for mail carriers. Just because you don't get any mail doesn't mean your mail isn't being processed. The Postal Service runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. The mail continued to be processed. All the holiday did was prevent it from being delivered which caused headaches for the carriers as that meant there was that much more mail to be delivered when they came back to work. That's what I faced yesterday. I had 3 days worth of mail to sort, pack-up and deliver. It was going to be a hard day made worse by the route I was on. The route I worked is one of my least favorite routes because, it has a lot of apartments that people move in and out of. This causes a lot of undeliverable mail that I have to bring back. Second, the route is all multi-mailboxes which means I have address ranges in the mail case. Example: I have one mail slot at the mail case for an entire condo building. There will be at least 12 condos in that building. This will make it easy to case at the Post Office BUT, I'll have to sort the mail again when I get to the condo. This is a real pain and, it causes me to be out on the street a LONG time. Yesterday, I was out delivering mail for 7 hours in the cold windy weather. It was a real pain. I was seriously glad when I got done and could go home. I definitely earned my money yesterday. Still, it'll help pay off my future trips so it was worth it. Cheers all!

U.S. and Canada Tours

I paid off sort of my future Globus U.S. and Canada tours. By sort of, I still have to pay the credit card bill off. The tours themselves will be interesting in a number of ways. For starters, they're both short. The U.S. tour is only 7 days. It's intended as an introduction to escorted tours. It starts in Washington D.C. and finishes in Philadelphia. It stops in a number of sights that I've wanted to see but, I've never gotten around to seeing such as Yorktown, Jamestown and Gettysburg.

The Canadian tour starts the day after the U.S. tour ends. To my embarrassment, I've never seen much of Canada. While living in Detroit, I was able to look across the river and see Windsor, Canada. My Dad took our family over there for all of 5 minutes. We subsequently looked back at Detroit and stared at it. Also, I got to stop in Montreal on a flight home from England. It was near Christmas time and all you could see outside was snow. Lots of it! This tour will knock out Quebec City, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Niagara Falls. I've seen more waterfalls in other countries than I've seen in my own. I'm looking forward to getting to see the famous Niagara Falls.

Lastly, I look forward to adding to my Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. I found out there are 4 places where I'll be able to buy t-shirts on the Canada tour. I know it's kinda stupid but, I enjoy collecting them. They're a way for me to show off some of the places I've been. I'm looking forward to getting them and showing that I've been to Montreal and Toronto. They'll be cool.

Overall, the tours should be a lot of fun. I'm curious to see if the group develops the same camaraderie they develop on long tours. I hope it does as that is one of the things I really enjoy on the long tours. The only drawback I see is that the tours will be over in no time. If 2 weeks can really fly by, 1 week is going to be nothing. In that way, I'll be glad that I'll be doing back-to-back tours. The fun will last a little longer though it'll be with different groups. So any readers out there, stay tuned for some interesting posts in the future. I'll get to see some more interesting places and be able to post about some cool adventures. Also, there will be some nice pictures posted. Also, don't forget that the Egypt tour is coming up. It's less than a month and a half before that adventure begins. That should be an incredible adventure with lots of ancient things to see and experience. Stay tuned.

Rough Day at Work

I was supposed to do Express Mail only today. A month ago, I made an appointment with the travel clinic at the base I frequent. The travel clinic was the one that would authorize the shots I needed for my upcoming trip to Egypt. Because of the importance of the shots and the closeness to my upcoming trip, I couldn't possibly cancel the appointment.

To my disbelief, my boss called me at 6:45 a.m. and asked if I could do a full route. She knew of my appointment at the travel clinic. She said I could leave and come back and finish the route. As she didn't have anyone else to do the route, I agreed to come in at once. I managed to get all the mail cased that was waiting at the mail case. Around 8:30 a.m., I departed for the travel clinic. It would take 30 minutes to get there.

In my rush to get to the Post Office, I forgot my shot record. The travel clinic couldn't access the immunizations clinic database so, I had to go that clinic and get a copy of my shot record. By the time I got back, the chief nurse was seeing another customer. I had to wait over 25 minutes. Finally, I got in to see her. She reviewed my shot record, looked at what shots I would need for Egypt and told me some of the things to watch out for there. Then, she said I had to see a doctor to get approval for the shots. The doctor was seeing another customer. Aaargh! I waited another 20 minutes impatiently. By now, it was past 10:30 a.m. At last, I got to see the doctor who agreed with what the head nurse said. Also, I found out I'd have to do a blood test to make sure I was still resistant to chickenpox. I had that as a kid and normally once you've had it, you're resistant for the rest of your life. The blood test would show if I still was resistant or not. If not, I'd need a shot for that. Crap! Luckily, there is a inhale vaccination for the yearly flu shot. I just made the age limit for that. Right now, it's only available to anyone up to 49 years old. Cool, one less shot though I suspect I'll come down with flu like symptoms once I take it. Yuck!

I finally got done at the clinic and quickly got back to the Post Office. I found out no one had been able to case any of my mail. Dang! I would spend the next hour casing mail then, I had to get my packages in order (17 of them) and pull down my mail. I hit the street around 1 p.m. Thankfully, because mail was light, I was able to deliver all my mail in about 3 hours. I returned to the Post Office and, I clocked out about 4:30. It had been a trying day. Hopefully, tomorrow won't be as bad. We'll see.

Return to Maryland

This is the last post on my recent trip to Michigan for my step-mother's funeral. The events this posts described happened on January 8th, 2009.

I would've liked to have stayed longer with my Dad, Jane (my Philippino step-mother) and Hank (also known as foodcreep or the bottomless pit). But, I couldn't. I have a deal with the Post Office where I work where I won't take long periods of time off except once every 4 or 5 months. As my readers know, I'll be going on a 12 day tour/cruise of Egypt in March so, I couldn't take lots of time off for my visit.

I hoped to be on the road around 6:30 a.m. to avoid commuter traffic. That hope went out the door fast. My Dad asked if I would clear the snow from the driveway. My Dad has one bad leg and the good one isn't that good either. I didn't want him falling so, I agreed to clear the driveway. He offered to let me use his snowblower but, I didn't think it would need that. I was wrong. The snow was powdery stuff but, there was a lot of it and, Dad has a large driveway. I spent over 30 minutes shoveling snow. Finally, I got it cleared and, I got my car loaded up. I saw my good-byes and drove to the Howell, Michigan White Castle restaurant. There, I experienced another delay. They weren't prepared for a 90 hamburger order (3 cases). I had to wait over 20 minutes though they were kind enough to give a free lemonade while I waited. Then, I needed to tank the car up with gas. I wanted to be able to drive as far as I could non-stop before having to fill up again. I got the car filled up, started to pull out and noticed the car was having a hard time getting through the snow. The car continued to have a hard time on the main road to the highway entrance. Then, I noticed on the dash that the brake light was on. Shit! I looked down and sure enough, I'd forgotten to release the parking brake. Duh! After that, I didn't have a hard time driving through the snow.

By the time I was finally headed out of Michigan, it was 9 a.m. Prime commuter time and, I ended up bumper to bumper for over 20 minutes. Groan. At last, I got past that. I made good time from there and reached the Michigan-Ohio border around 10:30. I found out Ohio also got clobbered with snow. The road crews did a great job of making the roads drivable but, there was a LOT of salt and dirt on the roads. It was easily kicked up onto my car's windshield. I had to repeatedly use the windshield cleaner. Also, when I finally stopped for gas in Hagerstown, Maryland, I had to clean the salt off the passenger windows.

My GPS unit work superbly again. I never had to look at a map and, I had a good idea when I would arrive back at my apartment. When I turned off to get more gas, it quickly re-calibrated the route to my apartment.

I arrived back to my apartment around 5 p.m. which I thought good considering I'd driven over 550 miles with one short stop for gas. My car had worked superbly. I was certain the servicing I had done the previous week helped. I believe I saved over $250 driving though it took me twice as long as it would've if I had flown. I was totally sold on my GPS unit and, I plan to use it for all long trips as well as trips in Maryland. The next day, I'd be back at work at the Post Office. Life would return to normal and, I'd get over my step-mom's death though I'll remember her for a long time. Cheers all!

2nd Day

My second day in Michigan was filled with mis-adventures and sadness. As I previously mentioned, I planned to visit the Lyon's Den bookstore in South Lyon. Its in an old building with wooden floors and wooden bookshelves. If you like a bookstore that has a feeling of mustiness and charm, this is it. I found only one thing to complain of with it. Its shelves were pretty lean selection wise. I don't know if they were trying to hold down their inventory or hadn't received a new shipment in. I bought a book on France that showed 25 must see sights. I was curious to see how many I'd seen. Also, I bought a copy of "The Hobbit." I've seen the cartoon version but, I've never read the book. With them hopefully starting to make the movie version, I felt it was time to read it.

My Philippino step-mother Jane had decided to tag along. It was an easy way for her to get out of the house and, she wouldn't have to drive. She found herself a couple books to read including one on sale.

The South Lyon Post Office is right across from the bookstore and, we walked over to one of their mail trucks. I pointed out the 7 mirrors on the truck and, how a mail carrier would deliver mail from it.

Then, we got in my car and, I got to try to program my new GPS unit. The address was 3832 East Grand River Avenue. I couldn't figure out initially how to punch in the east part of the street name. I didn't see a button on the choices saying space. I finally punched in Grand River Avenue and got a location in Detroit. According to White Castles website, the restaurant I wanted to go to was in Howell, Michigan. Still, I decided to try it. Jane and I drove all the way into Detroit and found out I got it wrong. Worse still, the neighborhood didn't look too safe. I didn't want to place Jane in any kind of danger so, I turned around quick and got out of there. When we got home, I figured out what button was the space button on the GPS. Using that, I was able to find the right address for the White Castle restaurant in Howell. It turned out it was only 15 or 20 minutes away. I drove out there and bought a case of their hamburgers, 2 very small sacks of their onion chips (Jane really likes these) and a very small sack of their clam strips. The hamburgers were great and, I thought the onion chips and clam strips were good too. I planned to drive out to the restaurant again the next morning to get myself and some friends some White Castle hamburgers before I headed back to Maryland.

Around 3 p.m., I got myself ready for my step-mom's funeral. I hadn't slept well the night before because of that. I was terribly sad about the thing. I decided to drive out there myself as it would be less hassle for my sister. I seemed to be getting the hang of my GPS unit so, I was pretty sure I'd be able to find the place with its help. To my surprise, Jane decided to come along. Once both of us were ready, we got in my car and, I programmed my GPS unit.

The GPS got the directions smack on. My only concern was the weather. It started snowing and, that made the roads treacherous. I slowed down to avoid going into a skid. Worse still, my step-mom's house was on a back road in the country. I kept my fingers crossed that I'd be able to get back out after the funeral service.

To my delight, a number of people showed up for my step-mom's service. There must have been at least 40 people. My sister, Jane and I showed up from our side of the family. My step-mom's stepson from her marriage to her last husband Ed showed up with his mom too. I hadn't met him since he was a kid. Now, he was going to be a father soon. I had a pleasant chat with them before the service.

My sister and the lady who took of my step-mom in the later stages of her illness found a fairly new Baptist pastor who lived close by. He said a small service for Kay. I felt he should have concentrated more on the fact that for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ would be seeing her again so, this wasn't good-bye forever but, merely a short separation (in relation to eternity). We'd get to see her again in her new resurrection body and, she wouldn't be sick or frail like she had been in her last days. Instead, he tried to save some souls among the attendees. Still, it was nice of him to come and say a few words on such short notice.

After the service, there were food and drinks available. I passed. I found the container holding my step-mom's ashes. It was hard to believe that small metal container held all her remains. Sitting next to her ashes was a wooden box of sorts. I thought that might be a more appropriate container for her ashes. I later found out it held the ashes of her late husband. So, both their remains were at the service.

When Jane was ready to leave, we hopped in my car and headed back to my Dad's place. The roads were bad so I went slow but, we made it back safely. The GPS unit worked great again. I was glad the service was over though I would spend a couple hours talking about my step-mom with my Dad. She may have been my step-mom but, she really was my mother for all effective purposes. From the age of 12 and 1/2, she raised me. I've had very little contact with my biological mother. I don't hate my biological mother but, she hasn't played a part in my life in over 30 years. My step-mom did. No one at the service knew her longer than I did. For approximately, 40 years I knew her. I suspect that's why her death and loss hurt so much. She was so much a part of me and my life. Also, I felt she died too soon. My Dad told me she was born in 1942. That meant she was just 66 years old when she died. She should've lived at least another 10 years. Now, she will live in my memories. I do take some comfort that I will get to see her again some day as I believe in Jesus Christ. The pain lingers some but, it will pass. As I said in another blog, life goes on. The next day, I would head back to Maryland and all my trials and tribulations there. Stay tuned.

Arrived

I managed to hit the road around 6:15 a.m. It was raining. By the time I reached Michigan, it was snowing. Thankfully, the road crews were out and, I was able to make good time the entire way. I was surprised by the toll charges in Pennsylvania and Ohio. PA cost me $10 and Ohio hit me up for $7.25. The GPS unit I bought performed outstandingly. I never had to look at a map. The device would tell me when it was time to turn right or left. It would also tell me how far I had to go till the next major turning point as well as what the speed limit was on all the roads. It only had one hiccup when I-76 broke off and became I-80. I was pretty sure I was supposed to keep heading toward Cleveland vice stay on I-76. About 30 seconds after I passed the I-76 off ramp, it changed and said to keep heading on I-80.

I found it kinda neat to stop to fill up on gas and do a bathroom break. It reminded me of the Globus tours I've been on. I'm still counting the days till Egypt. I can't wait to go.

Tomorrow is the funeral. I'm not looking forward to it. I wish very much my step-mom were still alive. I wish she had told me she was doing as badly as she was doing so I could've come up here before she died instead of after. (sigh) Oh well. There is little point in wishing for such things. I have to deal with what is. She's gone and it sucks. Tomorrow, I'll pay my respects and then, I'll carry on with my life as every one else will. That's how it is. Life goes on.

That's it for this update. Not the most cheerful one but then, funerals don't tend to be very cheerful. There will be some fun things. Tomorrow, I'm going to go to a nearby White Castles where I plan to pig out on their hamburgers. Also, I plan to visit a very cute book shop in South Lyon, Michigan. The owner is pretty cool and, I try to visit there every time I'm nearby. It'll be neat to say hi. Stay tuned for further updates.

Road Trip

I found out my step-mom's funeral was rescheduled for January 7th. As it's on a Wednesday vice a Saturday, I'll be able to get the time off and attend. I plan to drive up to Michigan for the funeral. The drive should be something of an adventure as I've never driven from Maryland to Michigan. According to Mapquest, it should take 9 hours though I hope to do better time wise. Also, I'm hoping I can get my new GPS unit I ordered from Costco in time. That would help in preventing any wrong turns enroute. It's supposed to arrive on the 5th. We'll see. Stay tuned for updates on my drive home. Cheers all!

Servicing

I took my car in yesterday to be serviced. It was time for its 75,000 mile servicing. This was one of the major servicings and it ended up costing $300. Ouch! Thanksfully, the only thing they found wrong with the car was its front brake pads needed to be replaced. Still, that tacked on $169 to the bill. I found out my rear brakes are all right for now but, they are getting worn to. I have no idea how long it'll be before I have to get the pads replaced on those.

I had the servicing done at the local Carmax. I was very pleased with the service rep I dealt with as well as the customer rep I had to pay my bill with. However, I was very displeased with one item at Carmax. Carmax has apparently changed its policy concerning its free shuttle service. They'll give you a ride to where ever from the dealership (as long as its within 5 miles) BUT they won't give you a ride back when its time to pick up your car. In my case, that would've meant calling a taxi to take me back to the dealership. That makes their shuttle completely useless and, it meant I had to stay at the dealership and wait while they worked on my car. I didn't care at all to sit in their waiting area for almost 3 hours. I was very glad I'd made an appointment for my car so I could get it right in. I hadn't, I would've had an even longer wait. Because of their shuttle service thing, I have mixed feelings about them. Still, I want to make sure my Camry continues to run fine so for now for major servicings and repair work, I'll continue to go to them.

On a different subject, I hope all my readers have a Happy New Year. I hope 2009 brings you the fulfillment of your dreams. Cheers all!