Category: Personal

Until I get married, that is.
On a related note, my new passport arrived yesterday. It’s evidently filled with science in the form of RFID. The page with all the personal information and photograph is not on the inside of the front cover, but rather on the first page inside the cover.
What’s the big deal with RFID anyway? Don’t all the passports get scanned by an optical reader which then queries some huge database of worldwide passport holders so the Customs guy can verify what’s printed in the booklet? How does adding short-range wireless to the passport speed things up at all? The guy still needs to hold it in his hand? Does the extra second needed to run it through the optical reader slow things down too much?
At least I don’t look like too much of a chump in the photo…

UPS seems to be extremely confused with parcel delivery to my apartment address.
About half the time, they deliver parcels properly.
The rest of the time, they screw everything up. Some examples:

• A few years ago, they delivered a package when I wasn’t here. Rather than leave it with my apartment manager’s office (who is authorized to sign for, receive, and securely store parcels on behalf of residents), they left it outside, in the rain, for three days until I got home. Fortunately, the contents weren’t damaged by the rain during this time. When I called to complain and ask them to deliver to the manager if I’m not available, they somehow misunderstood and marked my address as “DO NOT DELIVER” in their system and refused to deliver packages (though I could pick them up at the local UPS facility) for about a year until repeated phone calls finally cleared things up.
• On several occasions, they’ve attempted to deliver packages when I’m not here, and just take it back to the local facility rather than delivering to the apartment manager. (On one attempt, the manager’s office was closed and I was out, so they just took it back to the facility after leaving a note. That’s fine.)
• On a few other occasions, they just leave packages, including “signature required” ones, at my apartment doorstep.
• Finally, today, they left the package with my neighbor (who, while an amiable person who says “hello” whenever we run into each other, is not someone who is authorized to receive parcels on my behalf).

Is it really that hard for UPS to understand the simple procedure:

1. If I, the recipient, am there, deliver package to me. Get signature from me if required.
2. If I am not there, deliver package to apartment manager’s office. Leave a note on my door. This is SOP for this apartment, and UPS, FedEx, DHL, and the USPS usually know this.
3. If neither I nor the apartment manager is there, leave a note and take the package back to the local UPS facility. I’ll come by that night to pick it up.
4. Under no circumstances should packages be left in the rain, on my doorstep, or with unauthorized neighbors.

Easy, huh? Evidently it confounds UPS.
Don’t even get me started with the US Postal Service, though. When I file a “hold mail” request, that applies to all mail, not just letters. They should also hold any packages until I return to collect the mail, rather than repeatedly attempt to deliver the packages, fill my mailbox with “We attempted to deliver this package, but it’s too big for your box. We’ll try again.” and “We’ve attempted to deliver this package. Since we’ve been unsuccessful at delivering it (even though the mailboxes are attached to the wall of the apartment manager’s office -AR), we’ll be returning it to the sender.” notices, and eventually return the parcels to the befuddled sender.
I swear, my apartment complex appears to be located at some sort of weird nexus of package delivery suck. The only things that seem to get through without any hassle are letters and compact, heavy packages labeled as hazmat/ORM-D (e.g. ammo), probably because the latter scares the driver a bit.

The Ambulance Driver recently crunched his truck.
Fortunately, he and KatyBeth are uninjured, but the truck is a total loss.
If you’ve got a little extra money lying around (and I know there’s not much to be had in these times), it’d be fantastic to send a little his way so he could get back on his feet with a replacement vehicle.

A Haynes manual makes vehicle maintenance easy and occasionally fun.
The fill port for the front differential on a 2002 Subaru Forester is remarkably hard to access.
Gear oil smells nasty.
The dealership charges about $200 for flushing and refilling the diffs, but it costs about $7 in new gear oil to do it yourself. Both myself and the owner of the Subaru (my friend Mark) think that $193 savings is a good thing.

Those who know me in person will rapidly discover that I exhibit a strong resemblance to the stereotypical “absent-minded professor” — my daily activities are almost entirely intellectual, and I often neglect such basic things like eating, de-cluttering my apartment, etc.
Therefore, one of my resolutions for the new year is to actually get out and do things with my hands.
I’ve started by doing work on cars. As my car is in good repair, there’s little I can do, so I’ve been working on cars belonging to friends (obviously with their permission, and oftentimes with their help). It’s interesting, it’s fun, there’s a lot to learn, and it’s hands-on work.
This working on cars started out with the simple: changing of oil, oil filters, and air filters. Simple stuff, really, and doable with a minimum of tools. While down there, one can also inspect the underside of the vehicle and note any things that look damaged, worn, or out of the ordinary. While changing the oil on my friend Mark’s 2002 Subaru Forester, he and I discovered that the rubber boot for the left, front CV joint was torn and had thrown CV grease over the underside of the vehicle. It clearly needed to be repaired or replaced.
After he called around, he opted for repair rather than replacement. He got a new boot, fresh grease, and assorted other small tools and we both worked on the car for several hours yesterday. Although we had some problems getting the control arm off, we finally managed to do so, and then got the CV axle off completely. We took the inner joint apart, cleaned it, inspected every part, re-greased it, put a new boot on it, and put it back together and re-mounted it in the car. So far, so good.
Very greasy, yes, but very interesting. It’s quite stimulating to actually do work with one’s hands, rebuild something that was previously broken, and have it work.
I think I may do this more often…

I’ve finally had enough time to catch up with the last month or two of blog feeds that I read.
Can you guys cut back on the posting a bit so I don’t feel left so far behind?

I decided to clean up my vehicles a bit, and took of the few bumper stickers that were on them.
While most of them came off with nary a mark (I did run some Goo Gone, then washed and waxed the spots where the stickers were just to be on the safe side), one required a bit of scraping with a razor. Unfortunately, in my clumsiness, I scraped through the paint in a few small spots. I promptly washed, dried, and waxed over those spots so they wouldn’t corrode, but the little scrape marks still stand out to me.
Unfortunately, I know nothing about touching up such spots on a car. The spots are all within a 3×3″ area, with none being larger than a quarter inch on a side.
It’s a bit of a long shot, but are any of my readers skilled at such things? I’d pay for all the supplies (e.g. paint, primer, etc.), but cash is a bit tight, so I may have to pay in beer or ammo.

Who needs them, really?

As of — amusingly enough — 27 minutes ago, I’m 27 years old.