All posts by Kevin

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GUY DOESN’T KNOW HIS OWN ADDRESS. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SURPRISE YOU.

tl;dr – I’m an idiot and the world takes good care of me

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In early January I got a nice, shiny new bike. If you’re not a crazy bike-nerd, you might not know that many bikes don’t come with pedals, or if they do, they aren’t “good enough” for bike-snobs like me. So the week before I went and picked up my bike, I went back onto ebay and bought myself a nice shiny new pair of pedals. (No I couldn’t just use the pedals of of my old bike, because I’m keeping that. You expect me to have fewer than 3 bikes? Don’t judge me! What kind of monster are you?)

The ebay seller was great, and sent them right off. And then I picked up my bike. And then I waited for my pedals. And waited. And waited. Then I went back to ebay to track my order…

…aw crap! I hadn’t changed my profile or shipping address on ebay since I’d moved almost 2 years ago (which shows you how often I purchase from ebay). The USPS tracking information said “forwarded,” which is strange because as most of you know a postal service mail forward only last for 6 months. But hey, they must still have it on file and maybe it will come. Nope. A week later I looked up the tracking info again and my poor pedals have been bounced back and forth from the regional postal center to San Antonio three times. So clearly my pedals are in the lost postal dimension, and I am out one-hundred-plus dollars (yes, for pedals, don’t judge me!), because the seller sent them correctly, and he/she clearly doesn’t have them anymore. I’m the screw up who clearly needs to have his address pinned to his shirt like a pre-schooler before I buy things on the interwebz.

So I do what you do when you really, really really, don’t want to admit to your wife that you’ve spent more than a hundred dollars and have absolutely nothing to show for it: I called the postal service customer service number. The first thing the nice, cheerful electronic lady-recording told me was that call volumes are unexpectedly high and this might result in a longer wait time. When the postal-service tells you you might wait longer than usual it’s time to carb up and go for supplies, or it’s time to hang up. Since I was at work, I hung up.

And then I thought about admitting my mistake to my wife.

And then I figured I better try harder to get those pedals.

I logged onto the USPS on-line help form and filled that out, not with any real sense of hope, but so I could at least tell Michele I’d done everything I could before I secretly ordered another set of expensive pedals (don’t judge me!)

And here’s where the story gets weird…

At 6:08pm the same day, just as I’m sitting down at the Dragon Place (insert your local Chinese restaurant here – they’ll all connected through some inter-dimensional portal system powered by Kung Pao sauce) my phone rings. Since the area code is local, I know it’s not a robocaller advertising Medicare Advantage plans (thanks for that Universe; I’m only 44 years old for f–‘s sake!) so I answered it…

…It’s Y, from the local Seguin post-office. They’ve received my support ticket and want to help me.

Let’s pause a minute to reflect here, shall we. It’s after 6pm, and someone from the Post Office is calling me. I’m as happy as the next guy to complain about the Post Office, and I’m getting old enough to reminisce about “how much better things used to be” (maybe I should listen to those Medicare Advantage calls), but this made my heart grow 2 sizes.

Now Y initially tried to tell me “it was being forwarded,” to whit I replied it’s been almost 2 years since I’d moved, and it’s been back and forth to San Antonio like a yo-yo. She looked a bit further and then agreed that it was “unforwardable” and unsure why it had been forwarded at all. But, since it was in San Antonio and scheduled to be in Seguin the next morning, she asked me if I could call and back early in the morning and try to talk to the carrier before it was placed on the truck. She explained that she, would have done it herself, but she was scheduled to be out of the office the next day. She gave me the phone number to call and thanked me! I’ve never been happier to talk to a federal employee in my entire life, except for my brother.

The next morning I called and reached a clearly very busy postal worker, who was willing to help me while in the middle of giving a coworker a bit of a corrective intervention about how much time he was or was not spending at the post office. It was unclear to me. The reason I heard all this was because she was waiting patiently while I frantically searched for the tracking number I had neglected to have ready, not really believing anyone at the Post Office would actually answer the phone (I’m sorry I doubted you Y). She asked me to call back when I found the tracking number. I agreed, because I hate being that guy, and she clearly already had one useless man to deal with on her end of the phone.

I found the email with the tracking number, called back and reached my THIRD HELPFUL POSTAL WORKER IN TWELVE HOURS! He was very happy to look up my tracking number, and then go into the pile (or stack, or silo, or herd, or whatever they do with mail behind the counter), and he was happy to hand-write the changed address on the package and give it to the proper delivery person. Later that day I was caressing my shiny new pedals.

My preciouses. (don’t judge me!)

So this is my public thank you to the US Postal Service, especially the nice folks in Seguin, and my reminder to the rest of you that the world sometimes shows itself to be a nice place where things work out well in the end. I know most people don’t get as many lucky breaks as I do, and I am humbled by the privilege. I hope you experience a little kindness this week. I’m sure you deserve it.

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Fixed my Mountain Bike Shifter

Thanks to this YouTube video, and the wonderful guy who answered it, I was able to repair my front-shifter. I can’t remember the last time I could use my large front gear. It’s been ages!

On another note, I can’t believe how easy it is to learn to do anything, using the internet. Thanks modern times.

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18 Great Books You Probably Haven’t Read

By: vlogbrothers
Source: http://ift.tt/1feCpUo

In which John shares 18 of his favorite books that aren’t wildly popular bestsellers. CLICK SHOW MORE TO GET THE BOOKS:

1. This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own by Jonathan Rendall: http://ift.tt/1ferABR

2. One of Us by Alice Dreger: http://ift.tt/1cWn0Ut

3. Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks: http://ift.tt/1ferCtp

4. The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff: http://ift.tt/1cWmYft

5. Thirsty by MT Anderson: http://ift.tt/1ferCtr

6. Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci: http://ift.tt/1ferCtt

7. Fly on the Wall by E Lockhart: http://ift.tt/1cWn0Uz

8. The Untelling by Tayari Jones: http://ift.tt/1ferABT

9. The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper: http://ift.tt/1cWmYvM

10. Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson: http://ift.tt/1ferABV

11. The Enormous Room by e. e. cummings: http://ift.tt/1cWmYvP

12. Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag: http://ift.tt/1ferABX

13. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather: http://ift.tt/1cWmYvU

14. This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun: http://ift.tt/1ferCtx

15. Kendra by Coe Booth: http://ift.tt/1cWmYvW

16. The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty: http://ift.tt/1ferCtB

17. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone: The Carter Family and their Legacy in American Music: http://ift.tt/1cWmYvZ

18. The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout:http://ift.tt/1ferASh

WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE FROM YOUR PANTS: http://ift.tt/1feCpUx