January 24, 2005

January 24, 2005

C.A.R.E. Centre

DAY 220

 

Today was bright sunshine, and warming throughout the day. The temperature overnight dipped to 29° , but by mid-afternoon it had climbed well up into the 70's. Late last night I had to disconnect and drain the outside water and sewer hoses, and reconnect them this morning.

Today falls into the category of "you win some, you lose some".

WIN ; This morning at 7:30 A.M., while we were still sleeping, there was a knock on the door. Joanne scurried from the living area, where she was sleeping on the sofa with Teddy and Bo, into the bedroom, where I was sleeping with Rain. I answered the door. It was a woman from Rainbow's Edge by the name of Phyllis Bridges. She had heard we were leaving today ( we're actually leaving next Monday ), and she had come to adopt Rain. WOO-HOO ! ! ! Rain has a new home ! ! ! I told her we were still sleeping, we weren't leaving today, and we'd come over to her place later with Rain. Phyllis and her husband Frank live in a park model trailer ( mobile home ) in the permanent resident section of Rainbow's End. They have a ten year old, very docile, very small female Yorkshire Terrier. They rescued the dog a few years ago from a puppy mill operation. She had been used as a breeding bitch. When they got her, they took her to the vet to be spayed. The vet said that wasn't necessary. She had had so many Caesarean deliveries, she was no longer capable of reproducing ! They had to have all her teeth removed they were so rotten. She now has a new companion. Rain the cat ! Phyllis found out about Rain from Susie and Ray Gearing who had sent an e-mail plea for a home for Rain to all their friends and neighbours here at Rainbow's End. Thank you very much, Susie and Ray. We were very reluctant to have to take Rain to the animal shelter. The chances for adoption out of a shelter for adult cats are slim to none. Good luck, Rain. You were a sweet kitty to have around for the last couple of weeks.

LOSE ; I got a text message on the cell phone on Friday from Lorri telling me that she has tracked Joanne's online ordered birthday gift. Ordered from Toys R Us, shipped by UPS, delivered Friday. It had previously been shipped to Conroe, Texas, and returned. Conroe is halfway between Livingston and Houston, so maybe about a half hour from here. I don't know why it went to Conroe. Lorri had addressed it, correctly, to me at General Delivery, Livingston, Texas. General Delivery mail is held at the Post Office for pickup by the recipient, and it's how travellers get their mail. OK ... I went to the Post Office to pick it up. It wasn't there. I phoned Lorri and told her. She told me the shipper was UPS, so I drove to the Livingston UPS office. It wasn't there, but they told me that the Post Office refuses to accept packages for delivery from private carriers like UPS or Fed Ex, addressed to Post Office Boxes, or General Delivery, or any other Post Office facility address. NOW they tell us ! ! ! I phoned Lorri and told her. She called the Livingston office of UPS, because she had the shipping tracking number. UPS tracked it to the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service Office, where it had been delivered and signed for on Friday. Either upon advice from the Livingston Post Office who refused to accept the package from the UPS driver, or on his own initiative, the UPS driver decided that anybody using a General Delivery, Livingston, Texas address MUST be an Escapee, so hence he delivered it to the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service Office here at Rainbow's End. Well intentioned, but misguided, unfortunately. We drove back to Rainbow's End. The Mail Forwarding Service Office realized after accepting the parcel on Friday that the addressee ( me ) was not a subscriber to their Mail Forwarding Service. They had no way to know who I was or where I was. They returned the parcel < sigh >. I phoned UPS in Livingston again. The manager there, whom I had spoken to earlier, and Lorri had spoken to, insisted that UPS does not have the parcel. If UPS had picked it up from the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service Office, the driver would have immediately scanned the package into their computer tracking system. I exchanged heated words with the UPS manager, then went back to the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service Office. They checked again ! No parcel. I exchanged heated words with them. Now they admit that maybe they didn't return it to UPS. Since it was addressed to General Delivery, a Post Office address, maybe they returned it to the Post Office. Either UPS has it or the Post Office has it, but the Mail Forwarding Service doesn't have it. They can't be sure where it went because they receive a HUGE volume of mail daily from the Post Office, as well as UPS, and they return a huge amount of undeliverable mail daily to the Post Office, as well asUPS ( and Fed Ex and the rest of the private couriers ). The Escapees Mail Forwarding Service is managing mail for many thousands of travelling Escapees. Their facility is larger than the Post Office in Livingston. AND ... if they did return the package to the Post Office, it would have gone on the Post Office truck that comes here twice a day direct from Houston. The package wouldn't have gone to Livingston, where the local Post Office staff would have kept it. It went to Houston. HOUSTON ! ! ! To paraphrase Apollo 13, “Houston ... we have a problem”. AND ... the person who signed for the package in the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service on Friday, and then realized it was undeliverable ( from their perspective ) wasn't in today. Maybe she'll be in tomorrow ! Maybe she'll remember whether it was returned to UPS, or the Houston Post Office. I give up ! ! ! I expressed my dismay ( read whatever you want into that ), returned to the trailer, phoned UPS, expressed my dismay again, then phoned Lorri and told her this tale of woe.

While I was in the Centre after dinner tonight, presenting a slide show, Bo ate one of my slippers. Bad dog ! Again ! ! !

DSK