10:18 – I got the first kit shipped to Canada yesterday. Per the advice of the woman I spoke to on the USPS toll-free support number, we hauled the kit out to the local post office to have them weigh it and look over the paperwork. I told the guy at the counter not to print postage because I was going to take the kit home and use Click-and-Ship. He said that the paperwork looked fine, but mentioned that Click-and-Ship did all that for me for international shipments.
So I took the kit home, hit the USPS Click-and-Ship web site, and told it I needed to ship a Large Flat Rate Priority Mail box to Canada. Sure enough, rather than the four or so screens that I see for US shipments, there were eight or ten screens, most concerned with customs issues. The only strange part was that when I filled out the manual six-part paper form, per the instructions I’d gotten on the phone earlier, I entered “30.37a” in the EEL field. On the web form for that field, there was a drop-down list, and the only choice was “NOEEI 30.36”. So I did the best I could, and eventually got to the part where I pay and generate the postage label.
I paid (with Barbara’s AmEx because I still don’t have my replacement card) and told it to generate the label. For US shipments, the postage label is a half-sheet. I can choose to print a full sheet with half being the postage label and the other half the receipt, or simply print postage labels two-up if I have multiple kits to mail. I always download the label as a PDF and then print it. In this case, the PDF was three full pages. Two pages of two-up labels and a third page of instructions, which weren’t all that helpful.
I had four half-sheet labels, all of which looked very similar but with minor differences. They all had the same barcode, but one had a second barcode and a “postage paid” line on it. I assumed that was the one I was supposed to stick on the box and the other three were to go into the clear plastic envelope. Just to make sure, I called USPS International Mail support and spoke to a woman who clearly had no idea what to tell me, nor later did the mailman when he picked up the box.
The manual form 2976-A had six parts, with the original being “1 – Manifesting/Scan Copy”, the second and third pages being “Customs Declaration”, the fourth “Dispatch Note”, the fifth “Post Office Copy”, and the sixth “Sender Copy”. The web-fill version had only four parts, “1 – Customs Declaration” (with the postage barcode), the second “Customs Declaration”, the third “Dispatch Note” and the fourth “Sender Copy”. The “Manifesting/Scan Copy” was missing, as was “Post Office Copy”. I assumed that those were taken care of by the Click-and-Ship automation, so I stuck “1 – Customs Declaration” on the box, since it had the postage bar code, and put the other three copies in the 2976-E clear plastic envelope.
Coming soon – these people get to be in charge of your health care! And with the cost control of the Pentagon, thrown in just for fun!!
Regarding a past comment of RBT’s regarding the passage of the 35mm film containers, I might add a current observation. Walking my dogs in a public, undeveloped, environmentally sensitive area, This is an area where juveniles congregate after dark. While walking in the daytime, I’m noticing similar cylindrical, plastic, 1 3/4″ (D) x 2 3/4″ (D) in size. They have a paper label affixed with a preprinted notification identifying the contents as (legal by CA law) medical cannabis.
Nah, the VA (Veterans Administration) is going to be in charge of our nation’s healthcare. I hope that you will like it, otherwise off to the Gulag for you!
Why, of course medical cannabis is only used for medical purposes /snark
Mind, I am all for legalization and regulation.
Jeezum, Bob, you and Barbara sure have to go through a ton of stuff to do your thing down there. I wouldn’t have the patience for all that.
Well, whether USPS or VA, Our Nation’s Healthcare is gonna be a typical statist horror, no doubt. Pray, and I am even begging you atheist bastards, that none of us ever gets sick or seriously hurt.
And they’ll play hell getting me or mine to their damn gulags.
I am all for legalization and taxation of cannabis.
From watching the VA treat my FIL who is a 90% disabled vet, you are OK if you have an accident or turn up with a serious problem like lung cancer. You will be treated and fixed in a efficient and hasty manner.
However, if you have a long term problem like 3 spine breakages and serious spinal cord issues that are inhibiting crucial things like breathing, good luck. My FIL built his own breathing machine back in the 1990s so he could sleep at night. They finally gave him a CPAP about a decade ago. Of course, he is 100+ lbs overweight and that is causing spinal cord problems on it own.
Gotta say, and you already clearly know this, Lynn, but a lot of folks’ various ailments and medical problems in this country right now are due to being way too heavy and out of shape. I am a pretty tall bugger and can carry a lotta weight and I do a lot of walking, climbing, lifting, pulling, pushing, etc. at work and x-c in the winters and canoeing in the summers. But if I get up around 300+ I am probably putting too much of a strain on the old ticker and other organs so I won’t get that heavy. Common sense.
And I hear ya on the VA; they have been really good to me; primarily for a bit of very minor (but painful) surgery and the PTSD thang and substance abuse treatment; no complaints, zero. But for the stuff you mention it can be very difficult if not impossible. I just saw on FB a woman combat vet back from the Sandbox, who’d been shot in the knee seven months into her tour and had two surgeries plus PTSD treatment. She also has a Master’s degree and a kid, but hasn’t been able to get a job and is about to be thrown out on the street with her kid. I advised her to hook up with the Wounded Warrior project people and her local Legion and VFW posts, plus the local VA office. Maybe she’s already done that and gotten nowhere, though; I dunno. If she lived around here or could move here I know of a couple of places that take vets in and house and feed them until they can find work. A lot of real Vermonters pride themselves on taking care of our own and not relying on Uncle for any handouts that he grudgingly throws our way, if at all.
I am also wickedly in favor of not only decriminalization, but full legalization of pot and other substances, and putting the full onus for most of this culture’s abuse problems on booze, where it belongs. In all those years as a street cop in some of the grittiest and shittiest ‘hoods in Maffachufetts I never, ever, busted anyone or got called to an incident where pot was the main culprit; almost always booze. People smoking grass listen to music, get goofy and giggle, and eat a lot; rarely any violence. Don’t bogart that joint, my friend…