Add Fed Ex to the list. I was supposed to get a package to my house via Fed Ex ground on the 11th originally. Somehow during the transit, the date magically changed to today, the 12th and it didn’t show up today and instead the tracking says they attempted delivery but noone was home! I was home all f’in day, noone was here from Fed Ex. I called up and bitched and of course got nothing but “Sorry, it should be there Monday” Bastards.
With my cushy government job, we had off yesterday for Veteran’s Day. I celebrated by working on tiling the smaller bathroom. The project went well but it was slow going doing it all by myself. I only miscut a few tiles and I sort of tiled myself into a corner where I had no option but to stand on a couple tiles I just set in order to place the last two, but it looks like it will come out ok. Today I’ll grout it. I pulled the toilet to do the tiling and I am a bit nervous about how it will go back on when sitting on top of tile. I’m not sure if the bolts are long enough. I am using the small bathroom as a warmup for doing our bathroom in a little bit. I have a few pictures of the project I’ll post when it’s done.
Last night I watched Saving Private Ryan in it’s entirety. It amazes me that they can show it unedited with all the F-bombs and gore in the movie, but that is the way it really needs to be seen. I hadn’t seen it in it’s entirety since I saw it in theaters. It is a chilling, depressing and horrifying reminder of what war is all about. There are a couple scenes in it that haunt my mind and are difficult to forget. Even though there are various tragic, sad parts throughout the movie, I didn’t cry until the very end when the old Private Ryan is at the grave of Captain Miller. For whatever reason, that aspect of it just kills me. I remember when I saw it in the theater, looking away and trying to think of other things during that part to avoid crying in public. The movie made me think even more about how we have men and women going through the same sort of tragedies daily over in Iraq today. Their bravery is beyond any words of praise I could muster.
Congrats to Joe from the frigid forests of Maine, he is the big winner of the first big giveaway. He has won a box full of cd’s that will show up at his door absolutely free of charge! Stay tuned for the next big giveaway, you TOO could be a big winner just like Joe!
Over the weekend Alison and I were up in Lehigh Acres looking for more land as an investment. Lehigh Acres is in Lee county and is an area very similar to Golden Gate Estates, where we live. The big difference is the lots in Lehigh Acres are much smaller, typically 1/4 to 1/2 acre parcels. Their smaller size makes them much more affordable. We looked at a number of places, more than a half dozen. Some were literally in the middle of nowhere with access only by a one lane “road” consisting of little more than 2 tire tracks. But we found 2 that appealed to us. One was a for-sale-by-owner lot that was right off a major road and the other was another nice lot that was backed by an orange grove close to another major road. We put in offers on both of these lots, got counter offered and we accepted the counter. So we are well on our way to being real estate investors. The woman that was selling the lot privately offered me much advice about the entire process as she has been buying and selling land in Florida for a few years. I was suprised we could complete the entire sale process for a few hundred dollars and without stepping foot in a title company. It can all be handled by mail. The other lot was a realtor listing and was less money but still a good deal. The process of getting bank checks and having to overnight them here and there is a bit of a pain but by the end of the month I expect it to be all finished up. I have an itch to go buy some more but to invest much more would be too much of a financial hardship on us. My hope is to hold onto these lots a couple years and then have enough money to pay off the entire home equity line with money to spare, then repeat the process.
I don’t know why, but owning one of these is an appealing idea to me.
This is the most exciting development to hit the pages of my blog ever! Well not really, but still it’s more interesting than reading about me cleaning the house. I was cleaning up my desk over the weekend and was flipping through my CD collection. I noticed I have a bunch of CD’s of cracked games, ripped movies and other stuff of the sort sitting around. I have either played and/or watched them and no longer have any need for them. Instead of throwing them out. I thought I would try giving them away. This contest is beyond simple. So if you would like my collection, simply be the first to post a comment. You will get a box in the mail full of “stuff”. Good luck to all!
The Steelers put a big, glaring spotlight on what we already knew. The Eagles are far from perfect. The Steelers embarassed the Birds on both sides of the ball. I shut it off early fourth quarter and took a walk to burn off some steam. You can’t let people run the ball on you at will without repercussions. I’m not sure how they will fix their defensive problem. I just don’t know if they have the personel to do much about it. The TO / Donovan episode on the sidelines was rather uncomfortable to watch, I hope it isn’t the first seed of discontent. On the upside, if you are going to get man handled, embarrassed and destroyed by a team, I’d much rather it be during week 8 instead of the NFC championship game. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for the Birds. Nice game Steelers (who used to be my team as a youngster during the 70’s)
I have had multiple bad experiences with shipping recently. I mentioned a little while ago that UPS’s rates suck. Add slow and unreliable to the list. I also am not thrilled with USPS priority mail service. I used USPS priority mail to mail my brother’s laptop back up to him. Typically priority mail takes 2 days to get to PA from here. I mailed it on Saturday, my brother didn’t get the box till Thursday. I had the tracking service for it and it said it left Jersey City, NJ on Monday yet somehow it took an additional 3 days to go the remaing distance to PA. When I tried to get additional info from the post office they could tell me nothing except what I already found online. They said they don’t consider an item lost until it has been in transit for 14 days. Nice. I was relieved when my bro said it showed yesterday.
UPS is way overpriced. Even ground service costs a fortune and it is as slow as shit. I bought something on ebay that shipped last friday from the west coast, it isn’t scheduled to get to me until next Monday, 7 business days. The max coast to coast used to take was 5 days. So they raise the prices and decrease the service level. I have another shipment in progress that was sent 2nd day air. It was supposed to arrive yesterday. The tracking info shows it made it as far as Orlando and no further. My calls to UPS yesterday yielded no info, just canned responses that the system still shows an ontime delivery, even though there is no tracking beyond Orlando which is 3 hours north of us. Well it never came so I called first thing this morning and let them know that the tracking still hasn’t changed. The first guy I talked to sounded like was just awakened from a 10 year sleep. He said “We have until 5pm Nov 4th to deliver it…” I said today is November 5th. “Oh, mumble mumble, let me transfer you…” So now I have a tracking investigation going on. I fear someone got sticky fingers at UPS. DHL, here I come.
I have to work tonight and a good chunk of Saturday. The rest of the weekend will be spent watching football and driving around to check out potential investment properties. Nothing thrilling.
whatever comes down the pike the next 4 years, no abortions, amendments to suppress gays, unfathomable deficits, trashed environment, an ultra-conservative supreme court, catering to billionaires and corporations, 3 dollar a gallon gas, war, and whatever other disasters await. I don’t give an F. It’s incredible to me that W will slither through again.
Pics of the converted laundry/medicine cabinet and pic of the small replacement cabinet for pet stuff
VOTE
The turnout down here for early voting has been amazing. Our office is right next to the elections office. For the past week there has been a line out the door every day for early voting. I just read this morning that over half of the county’s voter have ALREADY voted. It appears that turnout will be unprecedented for this crucial election. Go Kerry. I think if young and previously unregistered, unmotivated people get out there and vote it will push Kerry over the top. Tomorrow could be a bright new day or the start of another 4 years of the rich getting richer, the dumb getting dumber and the fearful being more skeered. Hopefully it will be the former.
