09:50 – Robbie, Lori’s regular substitute, just showed up with the mail. Two boxes for us, one from Amazon and one from Walmart, all kit stuff. The back of Robbie’s vehicle was crammed full of boxes, nearly all Amazon.
Amazon really is taking over US retail, one step at a time. Robbie told me something this morning that I wasn’t aware of. Early every morning, an Amazon truck shows up at our local post office. I figured Amazon used FedEx or UPS to get boxes to local post offices. But, no. If Amazon is running a daily delivery truck to little Sparta, NC, you know they have to be doing the same for nearly all US post offices. Robbie said there were usually 200 or 300 packages on that Amazon truck, and that’s only going to increase as Amazon continues to stamp out their competition. I told Robbie that it wouldn’t surprise me if, a few years from now, Amazon went into direct competition with USPS, UPS, and FedEx by delivering directly to customers. The only difference is that they’ll be delivering only Amazon shipments, although it wouldn’t surprise me to see them go after UPS and FedEx customers, at least at first.
Our friends are supposed to arrive late this morning. They’ll be staying until Monday afternoon, so Colin is about to have a big weekend. More people to boss around and check on in the middle of the night, more food to beg, more of all the stuff he likes to do.
Since we moved up here last December, we’ve established a morning routine for Colin. When Barbara gets up, she gives him breakfast, immediately after which I put him on leash and take him out for his morning constitutional. We stay on our property the whole time. I just mentioned to Barbara the other day that I wanted to get Colin in the habit of going off-leash. The weather is fine right now, but before long we’ll have snow and ice on the ground, and the last thing I need is a 70-pound dog putting it in four-paw drive while I try to hold onto the leash without falling.
So this morning, I took Colin off-leash. Sure enough, he followed the same route we walk every morning. When we finished walking that route, I shouted, “In the house!” and he trotted up to the front door and waited to be let in. Good dog.
10:31 – Ruh-roh. Email from Jessica, who wants to contact Jen and Brittany directly via email. I emailed Brittany and Jen to ask their permission to share their email addresses, and I’m guessing they’ll agree.
I think of prepping as a sex-neutral activity, so I’m not sure why prepper girls apparently want to talk with each other privately, away from prepper guys. I mean, it’s not as if there are any sex-specific prepping issues, activities, or supplies, other than the obvious. Are there?