Postal Service Issues T-Shirts

Yesterday, I got to work for the first time in 3 days. I was delighted to have 3 whole days off. I needed them after working 7 weeks in a row of overtime. While casing the mail for the route I was assigned to, my boss comes over and asks my shirt size. I told him and wondered why he needed it. It turned out the Postal Service issued everyone t-shirts promoting the flat rate priority boxes they're pushing. All carriers have been ordered to wear the t-shirts on Wednesdays. I have no idea why the Postal Service picked Wednesday. This is the first clothing item the Postal Service has ever issued me. Rural carriers don't have uniforms and so aren't issued any clothing items. I bought myself all the t-shirts I wear at work saying rural carrier as well as my Postal Service hat. The only thing we have that identifies us with the Postal Service is our badge. I find it a trip. So, I'll be wearing my new official Postal Service t-shirt next Wednesday. I'll have to write myself a note on my dry erase board so I don't forget to wear it. Cheers all!

Travel Update

Slowly (all too slowly) but surely, the tours I signed up for are getting here. I found out last week that the Globus Canada tour I'll be taking is sold out. That means there will likely be 50 people on the tour. WO! That may end up being the largest group I'll have ever done with Globus. Hopefully, it'll be a nice one. We'll see. In a couple weeks, I should get my travel documents. I can't wait to get those. They make the tour seem more real. Stay tuned for more travel updates. Cheers all!

Recycling Run

Yesterday, I was able to finally make a recycling run. What that is where I load up all the recyclables I'd been saving for the last 4 or 5 months and drop them off at the recycling depot in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The people who pick up the trash in the apartment complex where I live don't have a separate bin for recyclables. Rather than have them go into a landfill, I separate them and take them to the nearest recycling depot. It's my little bit for the environment.

Scooter

I used my Yamaha scooter for one of the purposes I bought it for. I needed to run to my credit union to deposit my monthly retirement check, my latest paycheck from the Post Office and a small refund check I received in connection with my Individual Retirement Account (IRA). My credit union is located in town so it would be an easy trip for my scooter. I had no problems getting there and depositing the checks. From there, I drove to a Burger King close to where I live. I'd clipped some Burger King coupons from a coupon packet I'd received in the mail. One was for buy 2 Whoppers for $5 (you save 98 cents). Also, I wanted to try their new burger bites (they were good and were the same size as White Castle hamburgers). I suspect the cashier was surprised to have someone pull in a scooter. I used one of my backpacks to carry the burgers home. I didn't notice any great wind resistance with the backpack thankfully. I plan to use it again when I need to make a fast food run or small item (a CD or DVD) shopping trip.

Gas wise, I can confirm I do get over 100 miles to the gallon. I've driven over 60 miles on my scooter and, I just hit the halfway point on the gas gauge. I've also noticed that I do get some respect from drivers. I've ridden bicycles on main roads and gotten honked at. With my scooter, no one has given me a hard time.

Overall, I'm pleased with the scooter barring the idle problem. Its annoying to have to keep revving the scooter when I come to a stop. My gas milage might be even better were it not for that. I plan to call the motorcycle dealership tomorrow and see if they have the new tire in. If so, I'll see if I can drop it off, walk over to Best Buy for a little while then, come back and ride it home. Cheers all!

Laptop Saga Continues

My laptop saga continues. Thursday, I received my new Sprint U300 modem. This is the modem that will enable me to take advantage of Sprint's upgrades to its data network. When finished, a person using this 4th generation card will be able to get WiFi connection speeds anywhere. For now, it's limited to certain areas like Baltimore. I figured since I needed to get a new card, I might as well get this 4th generation card so I could take advantage of the upgrade when it became available. Plus, I travel down to Baltimore occasionally.

The card arrived in fine shape. I read the directions on what I should do. I summarily installed the software and drivers that were needed for the card. Then, I rebooted my computer. After that, I attached the card to the computer. At this point, the program was supposed to activate the card itself. It didn't. I called up the menu on the program options and clicked activate. Nothing happened. I managed to find a phone number you could call for assistance with activating the card. They hung up on me twice. Finally, I called Sprint Customer Service. They kept me waiting for over 20 minutes. When I did get to speak to someone, it was very knowledgeable and took me through the steps to activate the card. They didn't work.

The next day, I took the card and my computer to a Sprint store in town where they could try to get it to work. After over an hour at the store, they told me I had a faulty card. I'd have to call for a replacement and send back the faulty card. Crap! I was able to get them to reactivate my old card so I could connect to the Internet. That's how I'm able to post this. So, I'll have to wait 2 or 3 days for a new card and try again. Hopefully, the new card will work. Until I can get on the Internet, I can't begin to get my new laptop up to speed. So, it sits it its new backpack. I may take it over to Panera so I can try to access their WiFi connection. I've wanted to try that for a while and, that would enable me to start installing various programs off the Internet like Firefox. We'll see.

That concludes my latest chapter of my laptop saga. I still have hope I can start to get things working on my new ultra computer. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Scooter Update

I took my new Yamaha scooter for its first real ride yesterday. I wanted to start getting the hang of riding it. It's been years since I rode any kind of bike so, I wasn't use to leaning into turns. Yesterday, thanks to the ride, I started to get the hang of it. Also, I started exploring the area around where I live. I'd like to figure out a way to reach some of the major malls in the area. One limitation of the scooter is you can't ride on roads that have a speed limit higher than 50 mph. That'll make it tricky trying to reach Columbia Mall or Arundel Mills Mall. Still, if I stay on local roads, I may be able to do it. We'll see on that.

The scooter is still having problems idling. I've gotten really good at starting the thing. I've gotten the hang of using the turn signals on it and, I was able to get the mirrors set up to where I can see if there are cars behind me or to either side. I've found the compartment where I can put my helmet spacious. I haven't tried to put my helmet in it yet to see if it'll fit in there. I'm not to sure how secure the compartment is. I plan to try riding the scooter with a backpack soon. I want to see how much resistance I get then. A backpack would enable me to do some limited shopping. That would be a help as I could do minor shopping trips using the scooter saving wear and tear on my car. We'll how well that works.

Overall, I've been pretty pleased with the scooter. It runs well and seems sturdy enough. Also, it looks nice. With rising gas prices, it should save me some money during Spring, Summer and Fall. Once I get the rear tire replaced and the idling problem fixed, the scooter should be good to go. If it continues to be fun to ride, I'll see about getting a faster one next year. Cheers all!

Dell M1730 Laptop Review

As I may have mentioned previously, I have a couple issues with my new Dell laptop. First, I can't use my Sprint PCS Connection card on it. My card has a 54 pin connector and, the laptop uses a 38 pin connector. I visited Sprint's store in Laurel, Maryland and their website store in search of an adapter so I could convert the card to a 38 pin connector. I struck out. So, I ordered a new PCS Connection card. Since, I had to order a new card, I decided to go with their new 4th generation card. This card will be able to take advantage of improvements Sprint is making on their data network. The network will be able to offer Wifi like connection speeds. A minimum of 2 megabytes per second with a maximum of a whopping 16 megabytes! The system upgrade is already available in Baltimore (lucky them). Once I get this new card, I'll be able to continue setting up my new laptop.

Also, I ordered a backpack that will be big enough to hold my new laptop. My order isn't big enough. The M1730 laptop is approximately 3 inches long and a 1/2 inch wider that my old laptop. My old Dell backpack wouldn't be able to hold the new laptop. Thankfully, Dell does offer a really good backpack that will hold up and do a good job of protecting the laptop. The reviews others wrote on it were very good. The downside is the backpack costs approximately $80. As I do want to take the laptop on travels within the U.S., I had to get the backpack. It should arrive within a week or so.

So that's what's happening with my new kick butt Dell laptop. Slowly but surely, it is getting there. It is a very nice machine and, I'm sure I will enjoy it in time. I have learned some lessons I won't forget it i.e. you can't transfer programs from one computer to another. You must install them on the new machine just as you did on the old computer.

Casey's Crab Co.

I said in an earlier post that I would blog about this store. Here goes. Casey's Crab Co. is located on Maryland 198 (heading toward Laurel) just up from the Maryland 198 & Maryland 32 overpass. As the store's name implies, they sell crabs live or steamed. They also sell shrimp, fish & chips, devilled eggs and some other seafood items and as well as shaved ice cups. They have something 20 different flavors of shaved ice. I tried their root beer and found it all right. I thought it reasonably priced. I think the large one I had cost around $2.50.

Seafood wise, I tried their fish & chips, their shrimp salad and their steamed shrimp. Casey's advertise that they have the best fish & chips in Laurel. I wonder if that's because no else claims that title. I wasn't wiped out with the fish though I thought it decent. It looked like a flat fish slab that had been breaded. It was decent but, it wasn't anything to get excited about. The fries on the other hand were tasty. I presume they season them with crab seasoning. They're not your standard crisp McDonald like fries but, I still think they are good. The portion you get with the fish is decent. Casey's offers daily specials and one of them is their fish & chips so you can save some money on this by going there on the day it's on special.

Their shrimp salad was good. The shrimp in it were of very good size and, it was tasty. The only drawback to their shrimp salad is it is pricey. I believe it was something like $17 a pound. Still, it is better than other shrimp salads out there like the one you can buy at Sam's Club which isn't nearly as good. The shrimp in that salad are almost microscopic.

I was able to find a couple coupons for Casey's in the Clipper Magazine which is a flier that comes out in various places including Laurel. There was a coupon offering extra large shrimp for $5.99 a pound no limit. I decided to take advantage of the offer and bought 6 pounds. I was eating their shrimp for days. Casey's will steam and season your shrimp order for free. As the shell is still on the shrimp, in my opinion, it is questionable how much seasoning flavor you'll get. Also, you will have to peel the shells off the shrimp which is messy and tedious. Still, I found the shrimp tasty, of good size and I thought the price was good with the coupon. I believe they were on par with what Sam's Club sells as jumbo shrimp though I believe Sam's were peeled.

Overall, I thought Casey's a decent place. It isn't anything to go out of your way for unless you're really hungry for crabs you want to eat at home. They do have a convenient location in that they are close to the Maryland 198 and Maryland 32 intersection. The service was excellent and the prices reasonable. If you're looking for a good seafood store in Laurel, Maryland, you might want to give them a look. Cheers all!

Hectic Day

I had a hectic day yesterday. To help my boss out, I clocked in shortly after 6 a.m. at the Post Office where I work. I planned to case most of the mail on the route he'd assigned a sub who had never worked that route. If that sub wanted any chance of hitting the street at a decent time, I was going to have to case most of that route's mail. On top of that, one of our 1 day a week subs called in and said he was sick. Saturday is our worst day people wise. My boss told him he had to come in. He refused. My boss subsequently had to case a lot of that route's mail and delivered half of it himself incredibly. I offered to take a bump on that route and asked repeatedly for a particular part that I knew I could knock out quickly. To my annoyance, he gave that bump to another who didn't do jack to help him. The bump he did give me took me an hour and 40 additional minutes to get done vice the hour at most on the bump I wanted. He really knew how to show his gratitude. Don't expect me to help you out of a jam again boss.

After that, I had to dash home, grab my new motorcycle helmet and have a friend give me a ride to the motorcycle dealership to pick up my new scooter. I get there and, there is a line out the wazoo in their service department. Finally, I asked the salesman I've been dealing with to get the scooter for me. He does. We go over various items on a checklist he had. He shows me how to start the thing as well as how to put the scooter on and off its kickstand. I promptly forget both and have to ask him again how to start the thing and how to raise the kickstand. DUH! Finally, I hit the road with my new scooter and find out the timing is bad on it. It shows a nasty tendency to stall out while idling. Crap! I was nervous enough riding the thing for the 1st time without that problem. I managed to get the thing home and had to dash to my apartment to meet the guy that was going to set up my new laptop.

The technician that Installinc sent ends out being outstanding. He did a fantastic job. However, I got more bad news. The Dell salesperson I dealt with when I ordered my new laptop apparently didn't know what he was talking about. I can't use my present Sprint PCS connection card and the Soundblaster Xtreme soundcard at the same time. There is only 1 PCM1A slot in my laptop so I can only use one of the cards at a time. Aaargh! Worse still, My present connection card won't fit in my new laptop (I believe it had 54 pins and the card slot uses a 38 pin card) so I can't connect to the Internet on it. Damn! So, at a minimum, I'll have to get an adapter from Sprint so the card will fit in the slot. Researching PCS connection cards later, I found out the cards are going to USB ports. I wonder if the Dell salesperson assumed I had one of those even though I mentioned PCM1A specifically. I don't know. I do know I may end up buying a new card as Sprint is coming out with what they call the 4G (4th generation cards) cards which will use improvements they're making on their network. The improvements on the network will offer Wifi like speeds. The minimum download speed will be 2 megs and it has the potential to hit 16 megs! The downside is the new 4G card will set me back over $300 unless I sign a new 2 year contract in which case it will cost me $79. I plan to visit Sprint today after church.

So, I have my new scooter which I plan to ride around the neighborhood tomorrow. Later this week, I'll have to take the scooter back so they can put a brand new tire on it to replace the one they patched. I plan to have them fix the idling problem at the same time. Also, I have my laptop which I can use sort of though I'll have to get a new PCS connection card adapter or just buy one of the new 4G cards. I still have a lot of programs I'll have to download like Mozilla Firefox. It's a bit frustrating that 2 of the things I looked forward greatly to getting and spent big bucks on have been somewhat disappointing. Still, the scooter will get fully fixed in time and, I'll eventually have my new laptop set up the way I want it. In regards to the Post Office, I don't know that things will get better there. I'm getting fed up with being spit in the face after going the extra mile for them. We have some that do the minimum and, nothing is done about it. I big time want to leave there but, my spending ensures I have to stay so I can pay the bills for those items. Any chance I can get a bailout too? Cheers all!

Scooter Update

I finally made the last payment on my new Yamaha Vino Classic scooter a couple days ago. I've been looking forward to getting this scooter for some time. They seem pretty cool and, they get great gas milage. That's important with gas prices inching their way back up again. The dealership had one such scooter in the color I wanted. It had been shown on display outside the dealership. Apparently, while it was outside, some how the tire got a puncture which they had to repair. They also ordered an entirely new tire which will arrive in about a week. I wanted to pick the scooter up before the Memorial Day weekend as that'll be a great time to practice riding it in the neighborhood where I live. I called them yesterday and, they said it was ready to be picked up. When I arrived at the dealership, they told me they wanted to call me but, they didn't have my number. Somehow, the carburetor got messed up. They wouldn't be able to work on it till this morning. They assured me the scooter would be ready by this evening. I'm hoping I'll be able to get to the dealership this evening before they close. I'm scheduled to do a full route and, I agreed to help another sub who will be assigned to a route he's never been trained on the route he'll have to do today. I plan to go in around 6 a.m. and do my best to get that route sorted and cased so he can hit the street at a decent time. I may also have to deliver part of the route. Hopefully, I can get all that done, get back to my place and get a ride to the dealership thanks to a friend who agreed to take me. If that didn't promise to make my day hectic enough, a Dell rep is going to come up and transfer some of my files, set up my email program and my Internet connection on my new laptop. I received that Wednesday. It's a very nice looking computer. I wasn't super impressed with all they promised they'd do but, I'd paid for the service so I might as well use it. We'll see how that goes. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

$20 An Hour

I got floored by something today. My Postmaster called everyone together for a short meeting. He announced that they were going to hire 5 new temporary city substitute carriers. These 5 were out of 10 that showed up for interviews. That's no big deal. What is astonishing is that 25 people were scheduled for interviews. You say what's so big about that. This is for a job that requires no prior experience, no degree, you'll get on the job training and get paid during that training and it pays $20 an hour! I haven't seen too many jobs out that pay that kind of money with no prior experience or degree. Also, remember the economy is seriously stinking right now so you would think that people would just at such a job. It floors me that less than half of those that were scheduled showed up. While the Postal Service is in a load of hurts, you can still make good money there right now. I know this from personal experience. Those people who didn't show up for those interviews missed a chance to make some good money. Cheers all!

Reminder

I wanted to remind any readers I have out there that First Class letter rates went up 2 cents on May 11th. Last week, I saw some letters/bills that got sent back to their senders because they had insufficient postage i.e. 42 cents vice the correct 44 cents. The Postal Service will kick a letter/bill back to you for 2 lousy cents. This could cause you to be late with a payment causing you to have to pay interest on whatever. So, please make sure you use the new postage rate. Cheers All!

Payday

The past week has been a real grind at the Post Office. I got a lot more hours than I wanted. Thanks to that, I did get a nice paycheck this payday. The money will come in handy with the scooter, laptop and optional excursions I plan to do this summer with Globus. Still, the money was hard earned. I will definitely feel I earned this summer's tours as well as the scooter and laptop. Hopefully, after next week, things will slacken some and, I'll get some free time. We'll see. For now, I'll enjoy the fact it's payday and, I've got my hard earned cash. Cheers all!

Reminder - Postage Increase

A reminder to my readers out there, the cost of mailing a letter First Class goes up 2 cents today. Also, if you mail a letter that isn't machinable, the surcharge for that has gone up 3 cents i.e. it now costs an extra 20 cents to mail such items. Lastly, the cost of mailing a regular postcard has gone up 1 cent. Please make sure you use the right postage. I have seen the Postal Service send stuff back for a lousy 2 cents. Or, they've had the carrier try to collect the 2 cents postage due.

The Mall In Columbia

I finally got to visit The Mall In Columbia today. I've been wanting to go there for a while but, after a hard day's work at the Post Office, the last thing I'd feel like doing was drive down there. I decided today would be the day. I'd drive there after church which is what I did. The Mall In Columbia is a nice mall. It isn't as enormous as Arundel Mills Mall but, it has a nice feel to it. It's anchored by Sears, Macy's, Penney's and Nordstrom's. My favorite shop there is Today's Pet. Every time I go there, I check out the puppies they have. I always look to see if they have a Pug puppy. I still dream of getting one some day. I didn't see any Pug puppies. They did have a nice dachshund and some cute kittens.

I saw a few new stores though none grabbed my fancy. I'm still holding off spending the money barring ordering my new laptop. I still plan to pick up my new scooter sometime the end of this month. I did treat myself to a smoothie at American Cookie. The smoothie wasn't as good as it usually is there. I held off buying anything to eat as I planned to stop by Casey's Crab Co which I did afterwards. I'll blog about another time.

Overall, I enjoyed checking the mall out though I didn't buy anything. It was nice to see it again after not having been there in months. If you live some where close to Columbia, Maryland, you might want to check it out. Note: if you have kids, there have a carousel kids can ride on though they do charge for it.

New Laptop

I ordered a new laptop yesterday from Dell. I held off initially because it looked like they weren't offering the 12 months interest free credit. I emailed their financial services folks and, they assured me they were offering that. Once I knew I'd have 12 months to pay the new laptop off, I set about figuring out what I wanted in the thing. My first requirement was a big screen. The M1730 comes with a screen that is 17 inches across diagonally. Second, I wanted a super big hard drive as I'm saving lots of music and photo files on my laptop. My new laptop will have an incredible 500 gigabyte hard drive. When I ordered my current laptop 5 years ago, the best I was able to do was an 87 gigabyte hard drive. Prices on RAM have apparently gone down since I ordered my last laptop as I'll be getting 8 gig of RAM vice the 1.1 I received on my current laptop. I'll also get a 1 gig video card and lojack service with my on site warranty program. An extended warranty was an absolute must. I should be able to extend the warranty on the new laptop another year so I'll be good for 5 years like I have been on my current laptop. Interestingly, with all the dramatically improved bangs and whistles, my new laptop will cost over $500 less than my current one. The amount would be more but, I opted for the service where they come in and transfer all my files and programs from my current laptop to the new laptop. This is especially important with my Sprint PCS card software and card.

I should actually receive my new laptop sometime close to the end of the month. Dell will keep me informed when it actually ships. I'll be excited to get my toy and, I'm curious to see how much better it performs vice my current laptop. To be honest, I think my current one is fast enough. As I stated previously, the main reason I'm replacing it is my fear my current one would go on the fritz. Without a warranty, that could be very expensive to fix and there wouldn't be any guarantee I'd recover all my files. It's taken me some time transferring my music files to my laptop. Also, it would be a royal pain to have to reload my photo files. I do plan on getting an external hard drive so I can move photo files that I don't look much at but want to save electronically. Sam's Club and Costco have good prices on those.

So, that is the latest update on my future laptop. It should be a cool machine. I'll let my readers know when it actually arrives. Cheers all!

Glass Pen

I forget when I bought my glass pen from Nostalgic Impressions. I know it's been sitting on my living room table for at least 5 months. I'd previously tried some wooden pens with metal nibs and, the nibs proved to be of poor quality. They didn't hold hardly any ink and one actually splayed. I forget how I heard about glass pens but, I decided to try one so I bought one from Nostalgic Impressions. After buying it, as I said, it sat on my table unused until today. I saw it and remembered I'd never tried it to see if it wrote well or not. I decided to try it. To my surprise, the pen writes very well. The nib on it manages to hold enough ink to write at least 6 or seven words before you have to dip it again in the inkwell. The pen itself looks very nice. The only fault I can find with it is it seems fragile. I held the pen carefully as I didn't want to accidentally break it. Barring that, I was very pleased with it and, I plan to use again sometime when I want to knock out a fancy letter to a friend. It would be neat to write a letter that way. Cheers all!

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!