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!

Photos

Yesterday, I finally had copies made of some of my France tour photos. I suspect the reason I was so slow about getting it done was because I could see the pictures on my computer. Also, in order to make copies of the photos, I had to burn a CD disc so I could take them to either a closeby Costco or Sam's Club. I know you can upload photos to their website BUT, I use max resolution on the photos I'm going to get copies made of. That means a single photo will be over 3 megabytes. It would take forever to upload 124 pictures at 3 megabytes a piece. Lastly, I had a lot of photos to go through and choose from. I took over 300 during my tour of France. One nice thing about digital cameras is you can take tons of photos and, it doesn't cost you anything. Also, if you take a crummy picture or accidentally hold the button too long and take a second picture of the same thing, you can easily delete it.

One of the bad things about digital pictures is you can't pull them out of your pocket and show them to your friends. You might be able to do that if you have a camera phone but, you're not going to leave your phone with your friend while they look through your 100 plus photos. That's why I finally had copies made. Folks at the Post Office have asked repeatedly to see them as have my friends the Baldons. I kept saying I would and, I finally got off my lazy duff and did it. So, now they can see what I was talking about when I said Mont St. Michel was huge or Carcassone was impressive. The photos are for them vice myself. Me, I'll keep viewing them on my computer.

Difference

It was incredible the difference in package volume before and after Christmas. The Saturday before last, I had to deliver over 50 packages. Yesterday, I had 16 packages. The number of catalogs I would deliver was down too. The biggest shopping season of the year was over so merchants stopped mailing their various catalogs. Now, I'll get to see another difference mail wise as it'll gradually drop through the year until fall. The low point mail wise will be in the summer. I'll be happy about the lower mail volumes in one way and not in another. We're due to have another mail count for the rural routes at my Post Office. The last one didn't go well. If trends continue, this one won't either. We'll see what happens. For now, I'll be happy that I got through the Christmas rush and, I can look forward to my trip to Egypt. Cheers all!

Grief and Guilt

My sister updated me on what was going to happen with my step-mom's body. She'll be cremated Saturday and, a small service will be held afterwards. I think this makes sense. They'd have to use blowtorches to carve out a grave for her in the ground if they wanted to bury her. They have between 7 and 8 inches of snow and ice in Michigan right now. The high yesterday as far as I know was 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

As I stated previously, I very much wanted to attend the funeral BUT, Saturday is the worst possible day for me. Anyone who has ever worked as a substitute mail carrier knows that is the day most of the regular carriers want off. Also, as a substitute, I don't earn any paid vacation time. I checked into flying out the day of the service and, it would cost $70 more to do that. That would pretty much wipe out most of the money I would make the previous day (I usually get to work full routes Fridays and Saturdays).

I spoke with my Dad and, he said he didn't see any reason in my coming up there. It wasn't going to make any difference to her. He was right but, her death still hurts. There is also guilt over the fact I thought I had plenty of time and so I didn't mail her the gifts I'd bought for her and, I wanted her to have. I never knew she was that sick and, I would've liked to have been able to say goodbye and tell her I loved her one last time. Flying into the mess up there won't enable me to do those things so there isn't any point in going.

Her death however has made me determined to go home and see my Dad, my sister, my brother and my Dad's wife. I want to see them and enjoy them and make sure I won't feel this way if death should come knocking again God forbid. I've learned the hard way nothing is forever. Hopefully, I'll cherish the family I have left more thanks to my step-mom. We'll see.

Shock

As any readers I have know, I was looking forward to just getting Christmas over with and eventually going on a 12 day tour of Egypt. Christmas isn't special for me unless I'm home. My step-mom had asked me to come home for Christmas but, Christmas is the worst time to ask for time off at the Post Office. Mail volume is heavy and everyone is working extra hard. I had to tell her no. I'd bought her a china plate from Chateau Chenonceau and various other goodies. I was eventually going to get around to mailing it to her. I knew she was fighting her third battle with breast cancer. The last time I spoke with her, she was upbeat that she was going to beat it though she sounded really tired. I was concerned enough to ask my Dad (whom she divorced) how she was doing. He told me she also had liver cancer. Oh shit! He was skeptical about the treatments she was taking. Also, this time, the doctors found cancer buds throughout her body. They apparently didn't get all the cancer wiped out after her second bout with it. Crap! Still, she had said she was recovering and according to her, all was well. She was wrong.

Yesterday was a normal Sunday. I'd procrastinated about doing my French homework so I was busy trying to get that knocked out before I drove down to D.C. to do my French lesson. I get a phone call from my sister. My step-mom took a massive dive for the worst and was rushed to the hospital. Her liver was failing and her other organs were shutting down. Basically, her body was throwing in the towel. The doctors said it would be either a matter of hours or days. I was shocked. Shit! Damn! This sucks! Of course, there wasn't anything I could do about the situation. I live at least six or seven hundred miles away. I didn't want to fly home at once and then stay there for days when I was desperately needed at work. I asked my sister to call me when there was more definitive news on my step-mom's condition. Then, I called my boss's cell phone. She didn't answer so I left a message giving her a heads up that I was likely going to have to go home on very short notice. I would have to go.

I had to work hard to regain focus on my French homework. I kept thinking of my memories of my step-mother. All the stupid fights we had and some of the good times we had too. I remembered the Lord of the Rings film exhibition the 2 of us went to. We got to ride in a stretch limo to the hotel. We walked over to the exhibition hall and looked in wonder at all the cool stuff they had at the exhibition. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. I was determined to get their t-shirt so I could add it to my collection. We shared a room and, she played mom again when she reminded me to pick up my clothes. I grumbled and told her we were going to get separate rooms next time. She mentioned that she'd like to do the Egypt tour that I'll be going on money permitting. I thought that would be cool as long as we had separate cabins (grin).

I managed to regain my focus and, I had another great French lesson with my teacher. I learned some interesting French idioms (like our idioms like you can't have your cake and eat it too). It seems the French like to use the word "coup" (which means kick or hit) a lot. While driving back through D.C., my Dad calls. There isn't any way I can answer it. D.C. is terrible to drive through. Plus, I'm paranoid about missing a stoplight after the $75 fine I got for missing my first (and hopefully last) one. The stretch I was driving on had something like 25 stoplights. I figured I'd call him as soon as I got back to my apartment which I knew wouldn't be long.

I got back and promptly called my Dad. He confirmed the news. I asked him what I should do. Should I come home immediately? There wasn't anything I could do to help. I was willing to fly back at once but, I didn't want to hanging around for days in the dumps waiting for the unmentionable. Shit! Damn! This sucks! My Dad said to wait for my sister to tell me what to do. All right, I'll go with that.

I quickly grabbed something to eat for dinner. I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I decided to walk over to my best friends the Baldons and tell them the news. They're always willing to lend a shoulder to lean on. I made it down to the 2nd floor of my apartment building when my sister called. She said she was gone. I swallowed, sucked in a breath of air and said "dead?" She said "Yes." Grief washed over me. I'd known her for over 35 years. She had played a big part in my life. No one that super close to me has died before. SHIT! Some Christmas this is going to be. I have to fly home and bury my step-mom. God damn it! I knew my brother who had enough hard knocks already was going to be stunned. My poor brother. Christmas is the highlight of his year and, it was now totally fucked.

I continued walking over to the Baldons and told them the news. They were awesome. After speaking with them for about an hour, I returned to my apartment and called my boss again. Again, I got her voicemail. I left an update. I spoke with my friend Harvey too who expressed his condolences also. Memories of my step-mom continued to flash by. It's hard to believe I won't see her any more. I never got to give her the souvenir plate I bought her at Chenonceau. I thought there was plenty of time. God! Grief which God had thankfully shown me little of washes over me. Damn. God may pick the perfect time for someone we love to die but, that doesn't ease the pain of their leaving much. I'm going to really hate it when I have to fly home and see the body. There will be someone who I loved and she's gone forever. Shit. Tears well up in my eyes. Suck it up buddy. Carry on airman. Figure out what you're going to do. So, I'm left with my grief and waiting for word from my sister. Once I receive word from her, I'll make my reservations for home and quickly pack a suitcase. This Christmas is going to royally suck. I hope you who read this have a far better one. Cheers all!

Quiet

It's been quiet the last 3 or 4 days. I worked a full route the last 2 days. It went fine. Packages were heavy (I had 50 of them yesterday) but, that's to be expected during the Christmas season. Once that ends, it'll get back to normal and the mail volume will begin to decrease. It'll keep on decreasing till next fall. Weather wise, I've been lucky. It's been cold and it rained Friday but, it hasn't snowed. I'll take rain over snow any day. Thanks to the cold but not freezing temperatures, I've been able to hold off turning on the heat in my apartment for the most part. My latest BGE bill was just $33.78. I was very pleased about that. I don't like giving BGE any more of money than I have to. If I've felt a little cold in my apartment, I've put a coat on vice turning the heat on.

Also, the winter solstice was this morning. You say no big deal. It does matter mail wise. Once the winter solstice hits, we start getting more sunlight vice darkness. Delivering the mail in the dark can be a royal pain as well as dangerous. I wear a reflector belt so I can be seen by cars when I'm crossing streets to deliver packages. Another hazard I have delivering the mail in the dark is my mail truck. The truck has serious blind spots. To compensate for these, they've installed 7 mirrors so you can see all around the truck but, these mirrors don't do a lot of good in the dark. You have to be very careful backing up a mail truck in the dark.

Barring working at the Post Office, I'm impatiently counting down the days till Egypt. Also, I'm slowly but surely paying off the Globus U.S. and Canada tours I'll be going on next summer. I'm impatient to get my scooter. I think the thing would be handy for short errand runs. I got approved for a new Dell credit account. I plan to use that when I buy a new laptop computer from them in May or June of next year. I wonder how bad my taxes are going to be this year. Last year, I got really clobbered. I plan to make a recycling run soon. I've been amassing a considerable pile of old magazines, cardboard and various bottles. I plan to treat myself to lunch at the Baltimore Hard Rock Cafe. I found out I'm less than $3 away from my next $20 credit with my All Access membership. I've been writing a few blog entries on MySpace. I finally figured out how to link pictures in their blogs so I was able to show folks on there some of my best France pictures. Slow slogging away at creating a database for my CDs. I need it so I don't buy duplicates of ones I already have. Been trying to get rid of some of the junk I've amassed. I'm something of a packrat and, the stuff does pile up. I'm gradually getting a pile together of stuff I'm going to take to the Salvation Army.

That's all to report for now. Like I said, it's pretty quiet at my end of the woods. And, it'll probably stay that way for at least another month. When it gets closer to the Egypt trip, things will start picking up as I'll get busy getting ready for that. Cheers all!

Multiple Blogs

Jim (I don't remember his last name) at Seratoninrain has multiple blogs. I know blogger offers the same option though I had no idea how that worked. Out of curiousity, I decided to find out. It turns out blogger creates totally separate and unlinked blog pages. With Seratoninrain, you can access all 3 blogs on the same base page. I guess that is one of differences between blog site providers.

In regards to my other blog pages, I don't intend to use them. I find it difficult enough trying to post things of some kind of interest on this blog and my MySpace blog. My life for the most part is terribly boring. While I enjoy reading about the issues of the day, I don't care to create a blog to discuss them. I've seen how rancorous those can get. So, I'll stick to telling about my travels, music I've listened, airmiles games I've played and whatever trivial stuff I can think of. Cheers all!

Surprise

3 or 4 days ago, I decided to try out my Sony CDP-C900 CD player. I'd bought the thing when I was stationed in South Korea back from late 1985 to late 1986. It was part of a dream stereo system I decided to buy while I stationed there. Korea at that time was the place to buy stereos or cameras if you were in the military. Supposedly, you could get good deals on them there. So, I bought myself a Sansui double cassette deck, Pioneer 2-sided record player, Yamaha pre-amplifier, Yamaha power amplifier, Yamaha tuner, Sony CDP-C900 CD player and Bose 901 Series 5 speakers. It turned out to be a really nice system.

In time, I lost interest in using the thing. It is a bit of hassle hooking everything up. It's a lot easier to just play a CD in a small portable CD player. At some point, I put 10 CDs in my Sony CD player. Then, I forgot about those 10 CDs. When I was re-located to my last duty station, I noticed that the CD holder cartridge was in the CD player. I didn't think anything of it. So, it sat for over 7 years. I did notice that I was missing some CDs but, I had no idea what I did with them. Today, I found out what happened to them. I decided to see if the CD player still worked. To my annoyance, I wasn't able to listen to the thing as I didn't have a set of headphones with a 1/4 inch stereo plug and, I didn't want to go through all the hassle of hooking my stereo system up. I had to drive to Best Buy and buy one. When I got home, I plugged in the new set of headphones I bought at Best Buy and popped out the CD cartridge so I could put in some CDs I'd been meaning to listen to. That was when I got a big surprise as there were 10 CDs in the cartridge. Now, I have to go through my CD collection and find out if I replaced the CDs or not. I hope I didn't but, I won't bet on it. I've done that before where I mis-placed something, bought another one then, I found the first one I bought. Crap! One good thing came out of this - my Sony CD player works fine. Maybe, I'll finally get around to listening to the stack of 15 CDs I bought that has been sitting on my dresser for the past year. We'll see.