Day 3 with no mail. Todays "Informed Delivery" showed no expected mail or packages, just a notice about having to use a new app and remove the old one.
Weather is clear, dry, and sunny. But then they don't operate under the old motto any more anyway. The USPS is staffed by snowflakes, I guess.
"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
No mail delivery again today. The mail truck zoomed right by my house while I happened to be looking at 2 minutes of 6. I have already dinged them for non-receipt of promised mail on the Informed Delivery service. My package still shows as though it never left the post office today and is there for pickup, which I am told on good authority that is cooking the books for on time and proper delivery.
It was like this except I didn't get my mail like ol' Chevy Chase did.
Good thing that package I ordered from Illinois is just an audio cable, and not life-saving drugs or something.
UPDATE #2A: At 7:15 I heard another mail truck. I looked out and saw it at my mailbox. They delivered my package but none of my other mail. The carrier left my neighbor's package, that was too big for their mailbox, sitting on top of their mailbox on the side of the road. If she wasn't such an asswipe, I would have taken their package up to their house. It is ready for a porch pirate to steal and I don't give a fuck!
So I took the short ride over to my post office because the last message on Informed Delivery said my package was there for pickup. At 10:15 AM, all four mail trucks were still there, and the first one was still loading! Not a good sign. I went in and spoke to the person holding down the fort and found out the 411.
My regular carrier is out on extended medical leave. The carrier they were using (either a new hire or a transfer) resigned! The other carriers are trying to pick up the slack but are unfamiliar with my section of town. As for my package, it was there at the post office but in the process of being loaded to be delivered to my house. She said if I really needed it she would go dig it out, but since it is just an audio cable I said I would just wait for it. I told her that going forward I would continue marking items promised but not delivered on the Informed Delivery site. She didn't seem to be happy about that, but understood my frustration.
Maybe if they spent more time delivering mail instead of spying on American Citizens, service could improve.
I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I am going to find out today. I am only getting deliveries every other day according to my "Informed Delivery" account. I have been waiting for a package from an eBay seller in Illinois. It was showing "out for delivery" along with the rest of my mail on Saturday. When I checked this morning I had no mail and the package said it was ready for pickup back at the post office. A friend that retired from the USPS said I should tag everything not delivered when promised which will ding them negatively. He also told me they get in trouble for not finishing their routes and/or if they get back after a certain time. I had a great carrier, but I haven't seen her in a long time, so I don't know what is going on. According to my wife who is on FecesBook, there are lots of complaints from residents on the town neighbor page, so it isn't just me being a crabby old man.
First let me say I enjoy doing construction. I have many extensive home improvement projects under my belt, most of which I did on my previous house which was an small cape built in 1950. I stripped and refinished the hardwood floors, stripped and replaced the roof, rebuilt the front porch, did the bathroom twice (because the tile we put in the tub the first time did not hold up, and got replaced with acrylic walls), kitchen renovation and expansion (the floor and cabinets were done by contractor, I did everything else), second floor renovation (except the W-W carpet install), stripped and repaired the exterior in preparation for vinyl siding, plus several other smaller projects. In my current house, I built and plumbed my wife's stainless steel dog washing tub, built my chicken coop and pen like you would build a house (which is why it is still there and rock solid after 14 years), did all the demo work when we replaced the 1st floor carpet with bamboo hardwood, and did the demo and plumbing when we put in the quartz kitchen countertops. The reason I don't do it for a living is because I am S-L-O-O-O-O-O-W and would never be able to make money at it. I also don't have an equipped truck full of tools and supplies, so I am constantly having to stop and run out to get what I need.
Tuesday the 3rd, I got the stairs in. It was a royal pain in the ass setting the base concrete blocks for the stringers to rest on.
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| The four new deck boards are for continuing the overhang where the railing used to be. |
Once the stairs were in I cut back the railing to match where the edge of the new wider steps are. That was it for the day because the bright sun of earlier became clouds and then rain.
Yesterday I worked on the railings, but didn't get too far. Remember when I said I don't have a truck full of everything I need? Yeah. I thought the screws holding the structure together were 3" #10 exterior deck screws. Nope... those are too long and would have poked out the backside of whatever boards I was screwing together. I cut out the two angled 2 x 6 pieces for the stair railings and called it quits to go back to Lowe's to exchange the #10 3" screws I had bought for #10 2 1/2". When I got home I got the left half of the stair railing partially in place, and then my wife called to say she was on her way home from work. QUITTING TIME!! We had one more "Hello Fresh" meal in the fridge so it was my job to get dinner cooked. I not only know my way around a circular saw, but a kitchen as well. Dinner was Beef Bulgogi Meatballs and delicious.
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| The Hello Fresh meal recipe card. Detailed instructions for prep, cooking, and serving are on the rear. |