the pedant trap

LOVE that movie!

I like the one with "Brain Kieth."

Got the DVDs at Costco yesterday. I had to hunt a bit; they only had six copies. After a full evening of trying to get my home computer to run (what made me think I could try Linux AND use a modem with very little techie experience?) managed to stay up late last night watching the first three eps. I missed a lot of eps that season (stupid local affiliate changing the airtime without warning!), so it's almost like new for me.

On the UPS horror stories: My dad ordered a computer for a friend. She was going to be out of town and she lives in a remote area, so he specified that it should not be delivered until after the day she was to return. They delivered the day after she left, and left it by her front door, which is not protected, rather than in one of the several protected areas nearby, or the open and empty garage. There was a huge rainstorm, and the computer was soaked and ruined. The computer company refused to replace it because it UPS's fault. UPS refused to replace because it was they had no records (it was a week and a half later, after she returned, that the complaint was lodged). What a mess. I have had excellent service from UPS other places (Thomas who delivers to UAA is WONDERFUL!), so I think it is location dependent.

LOVE the FedEx guy here. He tried to check with my neighbors, who are friends of his, about holding a package for me. When they weren't home, he looked me up in the State employee directory and called me at work to make delivery arrangements for me. Wonderful man.

Can't top that, but we did have a florist leave long-stem roses on the doorstep during -20 weather.

I had forgotten a similar bad FedEx story. The flowers were left over the weekend in the hangar, when they were supposed to be delivered Friday. I think that may have been partially the florist's fault. Anyway, they were a little wilted, but not too bad, and I got another set for free a month later, so I was pretty ok with that.

Have I told the story of how UPS delivered my former roomie's humongous TV and stereo setup via a Sarah Michelle Gellar-sized deliverywoman the week after I threw my back out in '94? I mean, 75+ lbs. wouldn't have been that much trouble for me normally, but just bending over to lift it was agony, and she clearly arrived with no plan for moving the stuff if someone less able than she answered the door.

Oh dear.

Checked Amazon -- my dvds arrived in Dekalb in the wee hours this morning.

Hmmm, call in sick? Big, giant sign?

You don't look well, sumi.

Sumi, you need to go home and lie down. Put your feet up, lower your blood pressure a little.

Best Bad-Delivery-Service story for me was when Airborne Express left a small package worth $650 on the front step of my apartment building without buzzing my apartment, leaving a note, or anything--just propped it up on the door, within about four feet of the sidewalk for anyone to take. Lucky for me, I was running late for work and went out that door to my car, and saw it before it had been out there too long.

UPS is much better that the USPS for me. UPS almost always delivers without a signature and the UPS person puts the packages in the carport, where they're out of the rain and can't really be seen from the street. The postal service just abandons them anywhere on the front walk, without even making an effort to put them under the eaves, even when it's raining. The number of steps to the carport and the front door are about the same.

This is my favorite USPS story, though: Some years ago, I had ordered a new part for some equipment at my job. When it didn't arrive, I called the company and it sent another part. About a year later, the first part arrived. The package was stamped--yes, they had actually had a rubber stamp made up--"Found in postal equipment thought to be empty."