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About This Author
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Each Day Already is a Challenge
A Texas Sunrise
 
A friend, William Taylor, took this picture. He visits Surfside Beach with his dogs almost every morning, watching the sun rise while the dogs prance about at the water's edge.
This is only about ten miles from where I lived in Lake Jackson, Texas. Sadly, I only visited this beach about four times in the six years I lived nearby.
Each day is a challenge. A challenge to get by without thinking about the fibromyalgia pains. A challenge to stay awake when chronic fatigure wants to take over. And a challenge to navigate through fibro fog.
I haven't been writing as much as in the past. For years, I wrote at least 500 words a day. Now, I'm lucky if I write 500 words in month. Sigh.
For more information about what my day (or life) is all about with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pains, IBS, depression and everything else thrown in, check this out:
April 10, 2007 at 11:20pm April 10, 2007 at 11:20pm
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I started writing this, then decided that I might save it for tomorrow rather than have a second entry. Then I got another email about something that I just had to share. And don't you know, it's all about wisdom too. I guess that's what I was really waiting for, not for tomorrow. 
There was a national essay contest for kids - ages 9 to 18 to speak about the importance of health care for children. The coordinators thought they would be lucky if they received a few hundred entries. Weren't they surprised...to receive 4500 entries!!! Obviously this was an important issue for kids! One middle school won a prize for having the most kids enter. Everyone at the middle school - 120 kids - entered the contest.
The grand prize winner in the 9-13 age group is from Ohio. Here's the link where you can read some of the essays. These are some wise kids. And some awesome writers...already.
Grand prize winners:
http://www.childrenshealthcampaign.org/assets/pdf/Grand-Prize-Winners.PDF
All about the contest...winners listed by state:
http://www.childrenshealthcampaign.org/events/national-essay-contest/essay-winne...
On the home page, it says, "More than 9 million children lack health insurance in the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, and millions more are underinsured." Isn't that a shame? Do you remember when big business started laying off "real" workers and started hiring them back as "contract employees"? That was so they didn't have to provide insurance and other benefits. And the kids in our country suffer every time a parent loses insurance. Doesn't it make sense that healthy kids will lead to having healthier adults? One would think.
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I got an email today that talked about gruntled employees. Funny, huh? If disgruntled means you're displeased or discontented, then being gruntled should mean that you're the opposite of that, right? You'd be pleased or contented. But...there may actually be instances when you're not really disgruntled and not really pleased. Perhaps, then, it would make sense to use gruntled.
You know how much I love quotes. Here's one: "The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes." Marcel Proust
How about this one: “The work will wait while you show a child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you finish the work.” -- Patricia Clafford
And some biblical wisdom: “It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?” -- Psalm 127:3-4
Speaking of biblical wisdom. When was the last time you read through Proverbs? Now there's some wisdom. 
Have you ever read the story Acres of Diamonds? Here it is for free:
http://www.48days.com/newsletter/Acres%20of%20Diamonds%20--%20Dan%20Miller.pdf
And now...I really am finished for today. Well...unless I decide to write something about my friend fibro. But don't worry. I'll put a warning in the title so you don't have to read it if you're tired of hearing about it.
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In case you haven't noticed, I'm really not a ranter. Oh, I have my "grrrr" moments now and then. (Okay, sometimes daily. ) But once I've said my "grrr" I usually can go on to other things quite easily, thank you.
BUT.....
I really am perturbed at both the U.S. Postal Service and at UPS. Yes, it those boxes that hubby and I sent from Lake Jackson, TX to Cincinnati, OH that have me ranting again.
You see, we have receipts for everything we sent. We didn't insure the stuff we sent by U.S. Postal Service. But I didn't think they'd really lose anything. Besides, we were already spending so much that adding anything else just wasn't in the budget.
I'm missing 3 boxes we sent as Media Mail from the Post Office in LJ. I've known that tracking them would be next to impossible, since we didn't insure them or pay for any kind of proof of delivery. Still, I was just about to contact them when I got some correspondence from them.
It seems that one of those missing boxes is...well...in pieces. And that, of course, means that the contents are spread out somewhere between Texas and Ohio, I guess. Well. Maybe not. The actual place that they send loose mail is in Philadelphia, although the correspondence comes from Atlanta. Now how in the world are we going to find any of the missing pieces? I'm pretty sure we're not. It sounds as if they could be anywhere between here and TX, or maybe in PA or GA.
The thing that makes me really angry at the Post Office is that the boxes they delivered looked like they had been through a war. Really. The bottoms were soaked with rain (or maybe they had been sitting in snow?). We used official Post Office packing tape, but it was peeling off because of having been exposed to the elements. Because the boxes were wet, they were also crushed, at least on those wet bottoms. I'm not at all surprised that 3 boxes went missing and that only one of those has been partially found. Actually what they found was just the part of the box with the mailing label and postage.
We were in a pretty big rush down there in TX and besides, we weren't thinking "business". We were thinking "personal belongings." We don't have packing lists of the stuff that was in those boxes. The only things we did send by USPS was what they call media - books, videos, CD's, audio tapes. But there's no way in the world I can tell them what's missing. Not after having been in storage for 4 years and with the rush we were in to get everything packed and shipped. It's highly possible that some of my personal videos - videos of Derek at Christmas time and such - are missing. I haven't found them yet. It's more likely that at least one of the boxes held some of Derek's prized comic books. (A box of those went missing when we shipped stuff from TX to Michigan 4 years ago.) This time when we packed, I tried not to be specific on the outside of the box, especially with the comic books. But I think there might have been one of his boxes already packed well enough for shipping that admitted to being comics. I fear that's one of the missing boxes.
UPS isn't much better. Yes, the boxes were in better shape when they arrived. I'm also missing 3 UPS boxes - 2 sent from the UPS store and one from a pack and send place. The good thing about UPS is that each box is automatically insured for either $50 or $100 when it's shipped. The bad thing is that UPS swears that the boxes in question were delivered and that I signed for them. Of course, their records also show that they delivered these boxes to my office. I don't have an office. And our address - our street - is strictly residential.
UPS is right that they have my signature. I think I only signed for one set of boxes that arrived - 18 boxes. Perhaps I also signed for 12 others that arrived. In total, we shipped 30 boxes by UPS. Unfortunately, when I signed for boxes, I signed for the NUMBER of boxes, not for specific ones. Although I teased the driver that I wanted to check each tracking number before he took off, he told me in no uncertain terms that that was not an option. So? I have all of the records where I checked off boxes as they arrived. There are definitely 3 boxes missing. But UPS is claiming there is not a doggone thing they can do about it, since their driver claims that they were delivered and that I signed for them. End of story, in their minds. And, again, I really don't know what's in any of those missing boxes either.
In the boxes we sent by UPS, we used clothing as packing material, so each missing box most likely has some clothes in it. Other than that, the only thing I can say is those boxes did not contain my Grandma's china or my elephant collection, since we brought those in the car. Nor to the UPS boxes contain media, since we used USPS for those.
After 4 years of not having this stuff, it's really not the stuff that I'm concerned about. It's the attitude of both UPS and USPS. They really do think that every individual who ships something should think like a business. Inside - and saved in your files - there should be a packing list of all the items being shipped. The to and from address should be on the boxes and inside the boxes. Each box should be insured and one should pay for delivery confirmation receipts. And when the drivers arrive with a truck load of boxes, one should insist on having a list of the tracking numbers on the boxes actually being delivered. You know, in any business where I've worked, that has not happened. How would they think that a regular consumer, a person shipping household goods, would think that way???
I'm sure there will be more to this story later. I'll be grrrrrrrring about this one for a while, I think. |
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