a fifty-something under-tall half-deaf school librarian in the jersey suburbs with two grown kids and time on her hands

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.

links :: quotations :: profile :: email :: :: host :: the weary traveler

08.16.2006

7:43 pm

I totally hate the US Postal Service, and I use the word "service" in the loosest possible manner. I've sold altogether 11 used DVDs or tapes on Amazon in the last month, and since not a single buyer has bothered to post feedback, I started sending them with delivery confirmations so I would at least know that they had arrived. Either the post office isn't bothering to deliver some of these things, or they just don't scan the delivery confirmation barcode -- I'd like my 60 cents back, please -- when it arrives. So far, no one has complained that they haven't gotten their stuff, so I'm assuming it's there, but really, this is a pain in the ass. Fortunately -- if that's what it is -- the only stuff I still have listed is crap that no one will really want, in some cases because people are selling the same items for nothing. There's a Nicholas Nickleby, for example, listed for a penny. This was the DVD that I had to get for that course I took last year; it was the first required viewing, and then there wasn't a single assignment or discussion thread about it. What a waste. Not that Heath Ledger wasn't lovely as always, but Dickens! I hate Dickens with the burning passion of a thousand suns. And since I've somehow managed to read five or six of his novels in my lifetime, I consider that I've done my English-major Dickens-for-my-lifetime requirement, in spades.

Peeve Alert: Here's a new pet peeve, or at least one that I'm putting into words. I want a law passed, an international law that every manufacturer in every country must follow. Any device that comes with a power supply must mark said power supply with the name of the item it comes with. I do sometimes remember to label them when I get them, but mostly, I have a power supply in a drawer in every room in the house that goes with who-knows-what. And then there's the old cell phone I can't donate anywhere because I don't have the power supply so I can't wipe its memory clean. Bah.

In the meantime, I even did my exercise video today, so I guess I'm all better. Looks like that's the end of milking this appendix thing for what I could get. No one else is feeding a cat now until I'm in Florida.

I was looking at the TSA --that's Transportation Safety Administration -- site before for the updates on what you can and can't bring on a plane, and I see that the restrictions have been relaxed so that now people can wear gel-filled bras or prosthetic devices that are medically necessary. What does that mean, exactly, that they have been making women remove their breast prostheses and throw them in the trash before boarding a plane? Sorry, I find that completely impossible to believe. For one, how would anyone know, and for another, how incredibly demeaning and degrading. And what, I wonder, constitutes "medically necessary?" And are those still banned on flights to and from the UK? How does that work?

Surprisingly, you can bring food in your carry-on, as long as it's sealed, but still no drinks. Supposedly, I can wear my hearing aids through the x-ray, but I've always had to take them off before, and I expect to this time. I made myself some rather large stickers -- the only size I had in the house, a good two or three inches square -- that say "100% Deaf This Side Only" which I will stick on my right shoulder once the aids are off, which will be once I'm on the security line and fairly close to the front.

And just to finish the topic, they recommend that you don't wear clothes with metal buttons or snaps, or underwire bras. I'm guessing that 50% of Americans travel in jeans (which all have copper rivets on them, or they're not really jeans, are they?) And no underwire? Are they freaking kidding me? Talk about your medical necessity.

--------------------------------------------------
I'm watching Friends
--------------------------------------------------

last :: next

Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
A Message From Our Sponsor - 12.16.2006