09:54 – Barbara is down in Winston today, running errands and meeting a friend for lunch.
We planted our test garden yesterday with all open-pollinated seeds. We put in short rows of broccoli, carrots, green beans, onions, peas, and zucchini. We’ll also be putting out a bunch of herbs and peppers in pots in the next few days. This year, we’re not looking for production quantities. I just want to see how they do, what works and what doesn’t.
Soon after we finished out in the garden, I got a phone call from a Sparta number I didn’t recognize. The caller asked if this was Bob Thompson. I replied that this was a Bob Thompson, and he said he was also Bob Thompson. One of the purchase orders I’d issued last Thursday had shipped to his house. Neither of us understood how that had happened, but fortunately my phone number was on the address label.
Barbara and I drove over to his house to pick up the mis-delivered case of goggles. Just one case rather than the three I’d ordered. When I saw the shipping label, all became clear. It was a five line label, with my name on line 1, then the business name, then my name again, then the business name again, then “Sparta, NC 28675”. Obviously, FedEx had done its best to deliver a box with no street address. They must have searched for a Bob Thompson in the Sparta area and just delivered it there.
When we got home, I called the vendor, who was horrified at the error. The service rep said she had no idea how it had happened. I told her that all would have been okay if they’d just provided the 9-digit zipcode to FedEx. She said they did have the full zipcode in their database record, but the FedEx label-printing software only printed 5-digit zips. How odd. At any rate, she was able to track down the two missing boxes, and said they would be delivered here today.
She commented that it was fortunate that the person had called me. I told her I wasn’t surprised. Up here in Sparta, population less than 2,000, pretty much everyone is friendly and honest. I told her if this had happened when we lived down in Winston, I wouldn’t have been surprised if whoever received the box just kept them and sold them on eBay.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if whoever received the box just kept them and sold them on eBay
Actually, I did just that. But let me explain.
There was a package on my front steps, addressed to someone I did not recognize but had my address. I called Amazon with tracking and Amazon had no record. I then opened the box and found the order number or something that appeared to be an order number. Amazon was still unable to locate the order. I gave Amazon the person’s name that was on the box, still unable to locate the number. Asked the immediate neighbors if they were expecting a package, nope, none of them. I then used google to try and find the person no such luck.
The package contained a toaster oven, fairly nice one at that. I figured I had done due diligence so I sold the toaster oven to someone else.
Five days later one of the neighbors comes and asks if I still have the package. Turns out it was his. Oops. But, they had my address and the name of the person that shipped the package, not his name. The toaster oven was a gift so when I had asked him about the package he was not expecting the package. I guess the sender eventually asked him if he got the present. Then everything started to click.
I apologized but could nothing else as the item was no longer in my possession. Even Amazon would not take it back because they had no record of the order. So I sold it. The neighbor understood, contacted his friend, who contacted Amazon, who then shipped out another toaster oven at no charge.
The real loser was Amazon or their partner. They used the wrong address, had the wrong delivery name, and apparently were unable to lookup the order after I had given them every number I could find on or in the package. I suspect the reason Amazon could not find the tracking number as they did not ship the package as it was a drop shipment from the vendor. However the label had Amazon as the shipper. So I really don’t know. Regardless, I felt we did due diligence in trying to track down the recipient.
Well, you did as much as anyone could. I might have just stuck it on the shelf for a couple months, but you were under no obligation to do so.
I have the same name as the owner of a local terminal railroad company. I used to get phone calls for him, including a call one Sunday morning from somebody complaining that one of my engines was sitting idling for too long outside their house. Another time I got a call from a government railroad idiot -bureaucrat (a redundant term, I know) who complained that I hadn’t filed a required form. She would not believe me when I told her that I was not the person. I finally told her where she could put her form and hung up.
Many years ago, my father, with whom I share a name, was in the international news. He lived in Chicago and I was living in Portland. I got a call from a Swedish reporter looking for my father. She asked me if I were the one in the news. I said sorry, no and hung up. I did not tell her we were related.
My name is not as common as Thompson. That’s probably fortunate.
Rick in Portland
I also have a fairly common last name. Before we moved there were three of us in the same zip code, and two of us voted in the same precinct. There were once two of us at the same company, but it was a big company, so I never met the other guy. There is another guy with my first and last name who has a similar car to mine. Only differences in the cars are his is four years newer, and mine doesn’t have a spoiler.
For those of you in the know, does this calorie intake graph jive?
The Department of Health recommends women aged 20 – 25 eat 2,000 calories a day, dropping to 1,800 at age 25 – 40
If they exercise they can eat an extra 200 – 400 calories extra depending on how strenuous the activity is
Graph shows on average women eat more calories than is recommended if they lead a sedentary lifestyle
But the average amount of calories women consume is below the requirement for moderate or active exercisers
Sedentary men should eat 2,400 calories a day between 20 and 40 but the average man more than this requirement
But on average men eat far fewer calories than the recommended amount for an active person. The average calorie consumption for a 20-year-old man who exercises frequently is 400 less than is recommended
I’m just lucky(?) that I have an unusual name. Probably the only one in the US with that name according to the web site that will calculate that for you.
BTW, fellow Houstonites, there is a blog on Houston area weather events, “Space City Weather, Hype-free forecasts for greater Houston with Eric Berger and Matt Lanza, sponsored by Meyerland Animal Clinic, P.A.”
http://spacecityweather.com/
Eric Berger used to work for the Houston Chronicle as their weather guy. Until he did not. I have heard that the Chronicle newsroom is down to less than 100 reporters now.
Mine is fairly common, esp. among English and Murkan bastids like me; there was one guy with the same name at IBM and he lived/worked down in NC, where my family has distant relatives; another of the same name up here who is some kind of poo-bah with the Appalachian Mountain Club HQ and looks a LOT like me, kinda eerie.
I don’t pay attention to calorie intake chit; I eat when I’m hungry and I eat WTF I like, period. I have a spare tire I’d like to get rid of, lousy flexibility, and a very sore back and hip, but otherwise can carry way over 200 pounds w/o too much hassle or damage. I’m working on the other stuff but it’s a slow slog at my advanced age of senility and decrepitude.
A few months back, I ordered something from XYZ Co. in Palm Beach, and shortly got an email confirming shipping via a company I’ll call irondex to protect the guilty. A few days later, I got a call from a Mr. Smith in a city about 200 miles from here. Irondex had more or less destroyed a package that they were supposed to deliver to him, and in gathering all the debris and detritus they had swept my package up into his.
So, I called the 1-800 # for irondex, and tried to make them understand the situation. The person on the other end just couldn’t grasp what had happened, but they did start a case # and assign a representative to the case. The rep called me back the next day to again get my version of the story, which I related, including Mr. Smith’s name, address, and phone number, along with, of course, my package’s tracking number.
Flash forward three weeks. Irondex continues to communicate, saying that the local office to Mr. Smith can’t figure out what happened or find the package in their office. I had long since called XYZ to ask them to send another of the item, explaining what had happened. I also asked them to complain to / berate irondex, assuming that irondex might listen to a shipper with whom they do a lot of business. Irondex’ national office finally gave me the phone number of my local office, and I spoke with a very helpful junior employee. I repeated my tale of woe for the nth time, and he said he’d have his office manager look into it. A couple of days later, the junior employee called back and left a message saying that the other local office had finally gotten off their butts, retrieved my package, and delivered it to him. It arrived at my door the next day, after I called and asked them to return it, as the replacement had long since arrived. But by this time, the original tracking number had long since expired, so they couldn’t even do that. I sent a long detailed letter of complaint to irondex’ head office in Thebes, but haven’t ever heard back.
As far as other mixups, we have two members with the same exact name at my golf club. We refer to them as “Arizona Joe” and “Truck driver Joe” based on their jobs. And a college buddy and his wife had. for a short while, a phone number that was a transposition away from the number for Ford Motor Credit. You can imagine the frequent angry calls, often at unreasonable hours, that they got.
Re: the calorie intake graph. There’s a saying at the gym I go to, trying to encourage more activity among the female members. “Lifting doesn’t make women huge. Beer, ice cream, and pizza make women huge.”
“Beer, ice cream, and pizza make women huge.”
Also, Whoppers, 1/4/pounders w/super-sized fries, burritos w/extra sour cream and cheese, (always with a diet soder, natch), and generally lying around watching tee-vee all day and every night when the most exercise they apparently get is waddling from their cars to the Wall-Mutt or supermarket to buy more junk garbage. Usually wearing skin-tight tights and tank-tops to display as much tattooed flab as possible, with greasy unwashed hair pulled back in tight buns on top of their heads. Often two to three times the size of their bf’s and “husbands,” usually dressed like cub scouts in their dad’s oversized baggy shorts and also heavily tattooed.
tight buns on top of their heads
And to think I thought OFD was not fashion centric. Who knew?
Often two to three times the size of their bf’s and “husbands,”
That crack gets you on Cankles Gurney ™ before you can recite your favorite sonnet. Before the sweet, sweet poison flows, you’ll get a face squat from The Biotch herself.
“And to think I thought OFD was not fashion centric.”
I dunno about “centric,” but I sure know fugliness when I see it, which is, if not hourly, daily. And that’s just up here in Retroville, a semi-rural, small-town AO. What does OFD, the smartypants asswipe who dares to insult fugliness wear himself?? Generally Carhart pants w/lotsa pockets and flannel shirts and various ball caps which may, from day to day, display the Cabela’s logo, the Vermont Lake Monsters team, or, when visiting the other vets at the weekly meetings and other venues, various armed forces stuff. Anytime they give me shit about the AF or being a flyboy, I make sure to wear the Army MP hat next time I’m there. ’cause I did two years Army Reserve in the 344th MP Co., 182nd Infantry Brigade.
“…before you can recite your favorite sonnet.”
I wouldn’t be reciting any sonnets anywhere within many leagues of Cankles; more likely whatever RC exorcism rites I can gin up on the spot. And I coulda done without that face squat image, thank you very much. I’m now going out to the yard to mow again, hoping the pain and sweat will expunge it from what’s left of my brain.
Counting calories is a lousy way to control your weight and especially if you goal is fat loss.
This has been proven in several studies.
For weight loss, controlling SUGAR intake, primarily by counting carbs and not eating high glycemic index foods, works for everyone I know who has tried it. IANADr, but very few people will benefit from a high carb, low fat diet, and most will benefit from high fat, low carb. (based on my first and second hand experience, and reading, and thinking.)
There is a lot of evidence that you can control and prevent diabetes with a high fat, low carb diet.
nick
For anyone interested in a “standing desk” this is basically the one I have:
SmartDesk
The memory function and motors work like a champ. You can buy just the legs and add your own top. You can’t beat $299.
Calories are not created equal and neither are humans (well for that matter all living organisms). We all metabolize differently so you need to know how you react to different foods. You have to look at the big picture and take into account the different fats, different kinds of protein, different kinds of sugars, and different kinds of carbohydrates. Each individual has a ratio of fats, carbohydrates, and protein that is optimal for them. If you keep a food journal and record your intake and how you feel you will soon see a trend that will help you determine your optimal ratio, irrespective of calories. Weight Watchers used to be based on this but they have fallen to the fads and the new program does not work as well as the “original” plan.
Goodbye OFD!
“How Bernie Sanders can still become president – of Vermont”
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/How-Bernie-Sanders-can-still-become-president-7969545.php
I am betting that Bernie will run out of other people’s money real quick in a country of one state.
There is just no end to the MSM asslicking Cankles.
CNN used some very noticeable video editing to transfigure Hillary Clinton on Wednesday’s New Day. Correspondent Jeff Zeleny ran footage from the Democratic presidential candidate’s victory speech on Tuesday night that transformed Mrs. Clinton into a glowing figure. He hyped how Mrs. Clinton was “savoring a triumph in her long Democratic primary fight
So I’m starting to collect more stuff for the emergency kits I keep in our cars. I ordered a copy of the SAS Survival Guide the small size second edition. I’m looking for one book to carry just so we have something. It’s about 8 ounces. I’m looking to have one book of useful information. The SAS Survival Guide seems good. I’d rather I had something that deals more with First Aid and less about the other stuff. But I have the free download of the Red Cross First Aid Manual on my phone.
Is there a better book to carry? We may wind up carrying it, so I don’t want the whole library.
Think about WW’s incentives. They make their money with the monthly membership fees and from selling their expensive packaged meals. They don’t want you to lose weight quickly. They want you to starve yourself on 1200 cal/day low-fat meals as your weight drifts down very slowly and your wallet is emptied not so slowly. A high-protein, high-fat, low-carb plan is suboptimal for them.
FWIW, I am well into obese territory, if you go simply by BMI. Considering that I’m 6’3″ and wear size 34 pants, I’m pretty sure I constitute a living demonstration that BMI is worthless on an individual basis.
I’m 6’3″ and wear size 34 pants,
That’s awesome!
Dude.
@SteveF: “Think about WW’s incentives. They make their money with the monthly membership fees and from selling their expensive packaged meals. They don’t want you to lose weight quickly. They want you to starve yourself on 1200 cal/day low-fat meals as your weight drifts down very slowly and your wallet is emptied not so slowly. A high-protein, high-fat, low-carb plan is suboptimal for them.”
Sorry, but you are not entirely correct. You have lumped in the Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig Model. WW uses a point system that is based on a person’s sex (note, not “gender”), their weight, age, and activity level. The Smart Ones brand of foods that are WW Approved are not required and in fact you must minimize their use. Yes, there is a monthly fee for attending meetings or using the online system. Once you get to goal and maintain it there are no further charges. There is a lot of encouragement and assistance to get to goal. The program emphasizes balance in nutrition and activity.
My Curriculum Vitae: In joined WW in 1980 to lose the weight I gained in the Navy. I lost 80-pounds in 6-months and was asked to become a Meeting Leader. So I went through the training (6-months) and became a Certified Meeting Leader (very unusual for a man to be a Meeting Leader) and did 3 meetings a week for several years until my real work schedule demanded all my time. BTW, Meeting Leaders were evaluated on the number of their meeting attendees who reached goal weight. I had the highest percentage in the Pacific Northwest Region. I have kept in touch with the program and still feel it is the best thing out there because it allows you to eat real food and teaches you how to be in control of your diet. It is simply learning portion control and the need for regular exercise. Back in the day there were no WW meals or celebrity spokeswomen. Since Oprah bought into WW recently it has started to lose its core philosophies and is catering to people’s vanity and desire for the shortcut fads.
Hmm. You could be right, that I was mixing up the different systems. (It’s sad but true that observations about my appalling level of ignorance are almost always on-point.)
Over the last ten years or so, I’ve dropped from 230 to 180 without trying. I just eat less than I used to. And I eat lots of sugar and other carbs, animal protein, saturated fats, and salt.
I eat whatever I want to, but my normal diet is very high in protein and fat, leaving less room and desire for carbs. I’m currently at about 230. I’d gotten a bit pudgy (by my standards, not American standards) when banged up — trashed shoulder, cut-off finger, trashed knee, trashed other knee, broken metatarsil, severe puncture injury to the other foot. One stupid mishap after another for two years. In the past four or five months I’ve lost most of the fat and put the muscle back on.
Regardless, I’m officially obese based solely on weight and height. Ratios of shoulders, chest, waist, and butt don’t matter. Nope, all that matters these days is BMI.
My mom gained weight on WW. Could have been ’cause one night I found her eating cookies at midnight. “What,” she said. “I still have points left.”
Any system that lets you feel like you are complying when you eat cookies at midnight is seriously flawed.
nick
“My mom gained weight on WW. Could have been ’cause one night I found her eating cookies at midnight. “What,” she said. “I still have points left.”
Any system that lets you feel like you are complying when you eat cookies at midnight is seriously flawed.”
She was not paying attention to the program and/or had a bad meeting leader (actually not uncommon). One thing that has evolved over the years with the WW Point System is the quality of the points and the balance.
There are many people who are not really serious about losing weight. They go from program to program and constantly complain because the fact of the matter is they are unwilling to make the necessary life changes. Just like all other addictions, until you are willing to change there will be no change.
I broke my right radius and ulna two years ago, and that’s been it for injuries other than a few stitches 17 years ago.
“Just like all other addictions, until you are willing to change there will be no change.”
That’s the truth, and the root of the issue.
nick
““How Bernie Sanders can still become president – of Vermont””
A truly stupid and wandering piece of crap article that should never have left his pixellated iPad, blathering about secession and suchlike, which ain’t gonna happen for a real long time, not till the whole mess falls apart anyway. I skimmed it earlier today; Sanders is just another phony bullshit artist who’s been singing from the same Marxist-Leninist songbook as all the others, only he spells it out more forthrightly. He loves filthy lucre as much as any of the others and his wife’s tenure at Burlington College up here was a total disaster. They spent their honeymoon in Moscow, so that should tell ya something. Wife and Princess think he’s great, though; typical. I’m not even in the same galaxy as them politically.
“…transformed Mrs. Clinton into a glowing figure.”
Too much to hope or fantasize that it’s radiation.
“I’m 6’3″ and wear size 34 pants…”
“That’s awesome!”
Yes, truly awesome, dude. I’m 6’5″ and wear size 38 pants, what a fat ol’ beast I am, eh? 245 pounds, an inch shorter than Gronk and about twenty pounds lighter. (also 35 years older and in such rotten shape by comparison as to be totally laughable). (but we’ll see how he does at 62, won’t we…) The BMI is a friggin’ joke.
“(It’s sad but true that observations about my appalling level of ignorance are almost always on-point.)”
Ditto, join the club.
“That’s the truth, and the root of the issue.”
Indeed, there it is. You gotta really wanna change/quit. In some cases, like mine, hit rock bottom, pretty much or come close to checking out. They told me I coulda gone either way after my booze withdrawal seizure put me in the VA ER seven years ago. I weighed about 165 then and hardly ate at all. Three gallons of vodka per week, every week, for the last couple of years. Amazing I’m still here.
Quit heroin, ciggies, and booze, all cold-turkey. Now I if I can quit cussing and wanting to murderize lotsa people I’d be doing well.
Whoa whoa whoa! What the hell is wrong with wanting to assist lotsa people from shuffling off this mortal coil? Ya gotta face facts: most people are stupid or scummy or both, and deserve to die. Recognition of this unassailable fact is a sign of mental health. You can just ignore what the herd says about how you’re not supposed to imagine the gory deaths of lotsa people — remember the vast majority of the herd is stupid or scummy or both and they deserve to die, and they certainly don’t deserve to have their (stupid, scummy) opinions listened to.
But…but…but…it’s against the LAW!
Oh wait–our masters and overlords don’t give a rat’s fuck about the LAW and demonstrate that fact every second.
So………why should we????
Along those lines, something I wrote four years ago.
Weez here in Cali gonna let you do it starting tomorrow, legally. ‘Cause weez progressive.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/08/californias-assisted-suicide-law-goes-into-effect-thursday/
“STUNNING NEW DEVELOPMENT!!! MEDIA CALLS TRUMP RACIST”
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2016-06-08.html
“Would it help if the GOP donated to Hillary?”
“What do Republicans think they’re getting out of this appeasement? Proving to voters that elected Republicans are pathetic, impotent media suck-ups is, surprisingly, not hurting Trump.”
She’s kinda cute…
“Along those lines, something I wrote four years ago.”
And the comments following; interesting question is: how many peeps does it take to commit to actual counter-revolution, because that’s what it really is, not revolution. We are counter-revolutionaries. How many of us will it take to make it happen successfully? Remembering our own in the late 18th-C, and the Russian-Bolshevik and Irish capers….tiny minorities pulled it off.
” ‘Cause weez progressive.”
OFD calls “slippery slope.” Eventually it’s peeps who are temporarily mildly depressed, have pesky hangnails, or just get fed up with the daily shit-grind and decide to end it. In olden times suicides were buried under crossroads, so they could know that people went on living and walking above them.
“She’s kinda cute…”
If you mean La Coulter, I agree; but the Maoist assholes at Salon and other such rags keep harping that she’s really a man, which is absolute insanity. Goes to show. She’s very tall in real life and also a super-bitch-on-wheels, as described by peeps known to me who’ve had to work with her around the country on her speaking engagements. One possible reason she’s never married.
from the Global Sitrep Department:
https://brushbeater.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/open-sources-8-jun-16/#comments
Good thing none of that hot war stuff can ever happen over here.
Talk about cops who need more time at the range…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-09/four-injured-as-police-shoot-man-near-hornsby-shopping-centre/7496102
That takes us back to the scumbags, cops, and civilians.
In my experience, scumbags are the worst shots. I’ve never seen one practicing at a range, and they tend towards the spray-and-pray approach to marksmanship. I suspect a lot of them hold their pistols sideways because they’re always seeing that in movies and on TV. Cops are the next-worst shots, unless they just happen to be shooting hobbyists, which most aren’t. Most cops shoot once or twice a year on a range to qualify. They fire maybe 50 rounds in broad daylight at paper targets at known ranges. I’ve shot a few times with cops on a police range, and their shooting was generally abysmal (as in lots of rounds that weren’t even on the paper). There are obviously lots of exceptions, but on average cops are rotten shots. Then there are the civilians who carry. With some exceptions, they’re pretty decent shots because they actually practice periodically.
I do know that if I had a choice of who would be shooting at me, my first choice by far would be a scumbag, then a cop, and then (far, far down the list) a civilian.
“I do know that if I had a choice of who would be shooting at me, my first choice by far would be a scumbag, then a cop, and then (far, far down the list) a civilian.”
+1,000
The police brass and their civvie overlords have never wanted to spend the money on decent firearms and tactics training for their officers, NEVER. And nowadays training money is blown on PC bullshit and affirmative action remedial training, so as to continue worship of the Goddess Diversity. How would YOU like to be involved in a biker bar brawl spilling out onto the sidewalk and your backup is a tiny little copchick? Or spend part of every day explaining the paperwork, radios, and computer stuff to yet another minority hire? So glad every day that I got outta that line of work thirty years ago, just as it was getting bad.
nowadays training money is blown on PC bullshit
What better way for the police chief/commissioner/whatever to proudly proclaim to the press that all their officers are now better officers because the are now getting “feel good” training. The press, the city officials, the whimpering administration are all now happy.
Spending 10 hours on a gun range to improve useful skills or spending 10 hours in a classroom learning worthless crap, which would you choose? Spend $10,000 on bullets or $10,000 on a wimpified consultant who thinks sending someone to a timeout is effective?
Only the consultant and the big wigs in the police department benefit. The consultant gets a lot of money, the big wigs keep their jobs.
…and the street cop and the citizens out here are shortchanged and fucked over. Standard now.