!!!
What ARE these small people doing in my house, and why are they calling me Papa??
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Mail order in America
Since a great number of Americans shop online these days, the competitive pressure to deliver products cheaply and efficiently is quite high. It is considered "typical" to order a product on Monday, and have it arrive by Thursday, for example. But today, we have a rare extreme example.
Since we now have kids, we need to figure out how to carry all of our "stuff" when we go on longer car trips. G and I debated many solutions, and at least one of the cheaper ones was to supplement the car's storage with a waterproof, soft-sided roof carrier.
I called one vendor that sold this product (in Seattle, Washington), explained that we needed it by this weekend, and asked if they could guarantee it by Friday. They indicated they could, and could even meet this with their standard "ground" shipping, which is free (since the product cost just over $100). With this assurance, I ordered the carrier from their web site just before noon on Monday.
Well, I just received the tracking information, and it is rather amazing - it is going to be delivered today (Tuesday). Here is the tracking information:
Recorded activity for UPS tracking number 1Z58FV860342192663:
Since a great number of Americans shop online these days, the competitive pressure to deliver products cheaply and efficiently is quite high. It is considered "typical" to order a product on Monday, and have it arrive by Thursday, for example. But today, we have a rare extreme example.
Since we now have kids, we need to figure out how to carry all of our "stuff" when we go on longer car trips. G and I debated many solutions, and at least one of the cheaper ones was to supplement the car's storage with a waterproof, soft-sided roof carrier.
I called one vendor that sold this product (in Seattle, Washington), explained that we needed it by this weekend, and asked if they could guarantee it by Friday. They indicated they could, and could even meet this with their standard "ground" shipping, which is free (since the product cost just over $100). With this assurance, I ordered the carrier from their web site just before noon on Monday.
Well, I just received the tracking information, and it is rather amazing - it is going to be delivered today (Tuesday). Here is the tracking information:
Recorded activity for UPS tracking number 1Z58FV860342192663:
| Date | Time | Location | Activity |
| 8/19/2008 | 6:39:00 AM | HENRIETTA, NY, US | OUT FOR DELIVERY |
| 8/19/2008 | 6:28:00 AM | HENRIETTA, NY, US | ARRIVAL SCAN |
| 8/19/2008 | 4:16:00 AM | E. SYRACUSE, NY, US | DEPARTURE SCAN |
| 8/19/2008 | 1:50:00 AM | E. SYRACUSE, NY, US | LOCATION SCAN |
| 8/19/2008 | 12:33:00 AM | E. SYRACUSE, NY, US | ARRIVAL SCAN |
| 8/18/2008 | 8:58:00 PM | WILLIAMSPORT, PA, US | DEPARTURE SCAN |
| 8/18/2008 | 8:24:00 PM | WILLIAMSPORT, PA, US | ORIGIN SCAN |
| 8/18/2008 | 5:05:53 PM | , , US | BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED |
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Snow in August!
It's true, it's true! This evening we were driving back from the yacht club through an incredible cloudscape. It was about 8 pm - the sun was setting, to a largely clear sky in the west in sharp contrast to the other horizons. To the north, huge, towering clouds had formed in the sky, with white tops and blue-gray flat bottoms. Below the bottoms of some you could see slanted shapes of gray stream to the ground - intense rain showers. Lightning could be seen in many directions off in the distance. The combination of the reddish-warm sunlight to the great grey clouds was eerie and surreal.
When we drove to the top of the hill approaching Victor, I felt disoriented, although I could not at first discern why. Everything seemed normal, yet not normal. Then it struck me - those white piles in the ditches on each side of the road were SNOW! Not just here and there - continuously, with patches of white also seen in much of the grass. After we descended into Victor village, it was gone again, left as only a memory (or was it an illusion?)
Of course it must have been fine hale from one of those storms we watched at a distance as we drove to the north. But, if for only a minute or so, I had the strongest urge to stop the car and dance -- dance for the snow. The girls got it too - they had already started singing a loud song - снег идёт! снег идёт!
It's true, it's true! This evening we were driving back from the yacht club through an incredible cloudscape. It was about 8 pm - the sun was setting, to a largely clear sky in the west in sharp contrast to the other horizons. To the north, huge, towering clouds had formed in the sky, with white tops and blue-gray flat bottoms. Below the bottoms of some you could see slanted shapes of gray stream to the ground - intense rain showers. Lightning could be seen in many directions off in the distance. The combination of the reddish-warm sunlight to the great grey clouds was eerie and surreal.
When we drove to the top of the hill approaching Victor, I felt disoriented, although I could not at first discern why. Everything seemed normal, yet not normal. Then it struck me - those white piles in the ditches on each side of the road were SNOW! Not just here and there - continuously, with patches of white also seen in much of the grass. After we descended into Victor village, it was gone again, left as only a memory (or was it an illusion?)
Of course it must have been fine hale from one of those storms we watched at a distance as we drove to the north. But, if for only a minute or so, I had the strongest urge to stop the car and dance -- dance for the snow. The girls got it too - they had already started singing a loud song - снег идёт! снег идёт!
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Home for almost a week
Well, its been 5+ days since the kids arrived home, and so far things are going quite well. They both seem very happy with the house, and enjoy racing around, climbing staircases, playing with light switches and finding all the nooks and crannies. Vika absolutely loves both dogs. Diana likes Anya and has a love-fear relationship with Tango. She loves him when he is behaving, but doesn't like being chased - this scares her. We try to explain that if she doesn't run (especially on all fours!) and make girl giggly scared elated squeaky noises, Tango will not consider her a big animated chew toy, run after her and grab onto her clothing for a game of tug.
Now home, much of the idle time activity has changed from coloring books to the doll house, as well as playing with the dogs. Still, we find as parents we are listening to when it is too quiet - that's when the trouble begins for sure!
And then there is food - it is absolutely amazing how much food a small, 48 pound kid can eat. I sometimes wonder if she eats 2% of her body mass every day! Bottomless pit. Well, as we say with Tango - kids are but little walking chemical factories, that change food into kid (OK, and some waste products).
Only one major meltdown so far, and I don't have to tell anyone who. Diana tends to, err, be a bit defiant at times, especially to "come here" requests. To her, this is a big game, filled with giggling, and she KNOWS we don't enjoy said game. When this happens, the poor parent is given two choices - ignore it, or go and get her. And if you get her, you better hold on, 'cause if you let go she'll run away (and lock a few doors, or crawl under the bed, and increase her mass several fold). Its soft of like getting a kid attached to a large rubber band that leads, oh, under the crawl space somewhere - let go and zzzzzzip plop - she is gone. And no, we're not into just walloping her, tempting as it may be (we leave that to her sister, ha ha).
If, after returning said kid to where she was supposed to come in the first place, you want her to stay there, you start the wrestling match. Per the attachment books (we don't know if there is an attachment problem, or if she's just being a 6 year old - remember, we're clueless on anyone younger than 17 years old!), we hold her tight and close to us ("a "time in"), until she stops squirming....
.... or so the theory goes. In the past, we always gave up in the end. This time we decided to see what happens when we persist. Well, we got about a 15 minute squirmally wormally session, and then (possibly triggered by carrying her to her bed for a much-needed afternoon nap), she added in the crying rinse cycle with occasional punctuations of nose blowing for creative effect. After about 30+ minutes of this (the entire time we are talking to her, reassuring her we love her, etc), G finally put her in a shallow warm bathtub (cloths and all). She washed her, then toweled her down for 30 minutes, etc - she cried some more, then finally quieted down. Since the whole thing was about "if you will be still for 3 minutes in my arms, Chuck will take you to the park", I then did just that - almost 2 hours after our original planned departure.
Today we went to the lake. While I raced four races, the kids swam much of the time, until they are legitimate blue-lipped kids (yes, it really happens). They both loved it. Normal kids for the afternoon.
Next adventure, due this week - trying to formally TEACH them something!
Well, its been 5+ days since the kids arrived home, and so far things are going quite well. They both seem very happy with the house, and enjoy racing around, climbing staircases, playing with light switches and finding all the nooks and crannies. Vika absolutely loves both dogs. Diana likes Anya and has a love-fear relationship with Tango. She loves him when he is behaving, but doesn't like being chased - this scares her. We try to explain that if she doesn't run (especially on all fours!) and make girl giggly scared elated squeaky noises, Tango will not consider her a big animated chew toy, run after her and grab onto her clothing for a game of tug.
Now home, much of the idle time activity has changed from coloring books to the doll house, as well as playing with the dogs. Still, we find as parents we are listening to when it is too quiet - that's when the trouble begins for sure!
And then there is food - it is absolutely amazing how much food a small, 48 pound kid can eat. I sometimes wonder if she eats 2% of her body mass every day! Bottomless pit. Well, as we say with Tango - kids are but little walking chemical factories, that change food into kid (OK, and some waste products).
Only one major meltdown so far, and I don't have to tell anyone who. Diana tends to, err, be a bit defiant at times, especially to "come here" requests. To her, this is a big game, filled with giggling, and she KNOWS we don't enjoy said game. When this happens, the poor parent is given two choices - ignore it, or go and get her. And if you get her, you better hold on, 'cause if you let go she'll run away (and lock a few doors, or crawl under the bed, and increase her mass several fold). Its soft of like getting a kid attached to a large rubber band that leads, oh, under the crawl space somewhere - let go and zzzzzzip plop - she is gone. And no, we're not into just walloping her, tempting as it may be (we leave that to her sister, ha ha).
If, after returning said kid to where she was supposed to come in the first place, you want her to stay there, you start the wrestling match. Per the attachment books (we don't know if there is an attachment problem, or if she's just being a 6 year old - remember, we're clueless on anyone younger than 17 years old!), we hold her tight and close to us ("a "time in"), until she stops squirming....
.... or so the theory goes. In the past, we always gave up in the end. This time we decided to see what happens when we persist. Well, we got about a 15 minute squirmally wormally session, and then (possibly triggered by carrying her to her bed for a much-needed afternoon nap), she added in the crying rinse cycle with occasional punctuations of nose blowing for creative effect. After about 30+ minutes of this (the entire time we are talking to her, reassuring her we love her, etc), G finally put her in a shallow warm bathtub (cloths and all). She washed her, then toweled her down for 30 minutes, etc - she cried some more, then finally quieted down. Since the whole thing was about "if you will be still for 3 minutes in my arms, Chuck will take you to the park", I then did just that - almost 2 hours after our original planned departure.
Today we went to the lake. While I raced four races, the kids swam much of the time, until they are legitimate blue-lipped kids (yes, it really happens). They both loved it. Normal kids for the afternoon.
Next adventure, due this week - trying to formally TEACH them something!
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