Let’s just keep distracting ourselves with chatty things.
Julia asked if we could have another stranded-mail check-in, and I’d like that too. I’ll go first. The package I sent to Paul’s sister on December 11th finally arrived several days after Christmas. Something I ordered for Henry on EBay arrived in the week after Christmas, too, and I could see from the postmark that it had been mailed December 8th. We got lots of Christmas cards after Christmas, many postmarked weeks earlier (the record was the one postmarked December 9th that arrived December 31st). I don’t THINK I had anything completely lost in the mail, but on the other hand I don’t keep very good track of such things, so I can imagine suddenly saying “Hey, whatever happened to…???” And of course I don’t know how many Christmas cards might have been lost.
Speaking of suddenly thinking of something, I suddenly realized I’ve been focusing so hard on January 20th, I wasn’t remembering Valentine’s Day. We don’t do MUCH for Valentine’s Day (I put dinner on heart-shaped plates, and I buy myself a box of chocolates because I have given up on making that happen any other way), but I do always buy the kids these giant Hershey Kisses, and a pandemic year is not the year to accidentally forget a tradition. I was able to order them for Drive-up, AND they were 50 cents less if bought that way, AND this week is 20% off all Valentine candy, so that was good timing.
(image from Target.com)
I wish there was a way to say “No reply needed” on letters to representatives/officials. Or rather, I know there is a way to say it, and it’s by saying it, but in my experience they don’t HEED such instructions. I needed to write an email recently to a bunch of people in charge of our school system, and now emails are coming back to me saying the things that they have to say when they get input from a parent, and I am wishing we could SKIP IT. One email said the things and ALSO promised to reply at more length later on, and PLEASE DO NOT. And last time I wrote a letter of this sort, someone CALLED ME to say the things they are required to say, and that was the WORST.
Maybe someone here can give me stranded package hope. I ordered Dave’s Christmas present on October 30 – it was handmade, one-of-a-kind (the lyrics to a favorite song handwritten by the lead singer of the band that recorded it) and was eventually shipped out via USPS priority mail on December 17.
It is still sitting in Wisconsin, where it originated.
I mailed a bunch of our Christmas cards on the same day (December 17), and friends in the south just received them yesterday, so I am still hoping Dave’s item eventually makes it here?? Don’t worry, I’ve contacted USPS and they were completely unhelpful and asked for a thorough description of my item, which makes me feel very concerned, because why would they need that unless presumably my item is OUTSIDE OF IT’S PACKAGING, FLOATING AROUND A USPS FACILITY??? I do not understand.
How famous is this band and how did you order the thing? If it’s not Paul McCartney, there’s a decent enough chance you can get them to do it again. Aside from shipping, it doesn’t cost much to do plus is a big PR thing. Have you tried contacting them directly? Likely they have a tracking # too and can see it’s stuck and you’re not lying and then selling the new ones on ebay or something .
If you need help and is someone based in New Orleans especially, let me know. I know a guy. I also know a music writer and a tour manager/merch person. None of these works for Paul McCartney or Elton John or Adele level…well, it *might* but more complicated.
That happened to me. Mailed priority mail on Dec 10, sat in a post office until Dec 12 per the tracking and then nothing. It finally moved on Jan 5 to a regional center and I received it last week. So there is hope yet. I had given up and asked the seller to either resend it or refund me, but they asked me to wait a few more days. Sure enough that same day the tracking showed that it had at least moved.
I mailed 3 items priority mail on December 18 from the DC suburbs: One arrived in the Chicago suburbs on December 26. One arrived in Minnesota on January 8 after being shipped through Mississippi for some reason. One arrived in New York on January 8 after sitting in the regional facility in Maryland for 3 1/2 weeks.
Anytime there’s a very contentious issue in my area, there are endless school board or city council meetings at which dozens of people get up to make the same freaking point. Often they do it in matching T-shirts, evidently the sign of civic-minded critical thinkers. It doesn’t seem productive.
Also unproductive-seeming is the alternative, which is to write a letter that receives a form response. Like, I will say my piece and then you will yield to the well-heeled opportunity hoarders. I get it. But let’s not pretend that we’re doing anything other than shouting into the void.
On January 13, we received 3 pieces of mail postmarked December 12, December 18, and January 6 (all from family members who live in the same town 5 or so states away)
Thank you for your continued posts, Swistle!
We had one notorious USPS distribution center here in Maryland that seemed to be severely backed up. The package I sent to my parents in Minnesota on December 12 (3-day priority) finally arrived on January 6. My mom’s birthday is the 8th, so she opened it as a birthday gift! It was coffee and chocolate, so it kept fine.
I wanted to get back to the subject of supplements from a couple of posts back. I remember you saying you took evening primrose tablets and it piqued my curiosity. If you don’t mind saying — was there a particular symptom you were using it for? I had terrible hand eczema (perhaps akin to your hives), so I thought “why not” and didn’t notice much difference. But now I’m out and hands are getting itchy again. Hmm.
Also, in case it’s helpful — I’m 51, and my friend group is swearing by magnesium at night. One friend says it helps her to get back to sleep after she gets up in the early hours to pee — like it turns off the anxiety somewhat. Others say it helps relax muscles so you don’t feel as “creaky” in the morning. My husband bought some recently and I’ve tried it 3 nights now, and I do certainly feel more relaxed, muscle-wise.
I don’t know if hot flashes are part of your perimenopause symptoms (ugh, our 40s, amirite?), but I found Estroven supplements helped reduce that symptom. And my husband said he noticed when I stopped taking them as an experiment (mood-related, I’m guessing).
These are totally not paid plugs, just things I wish I had known earlier. I feel like no one talked about what a freak show perimenopause is.
I take Magnesium and I think it’s helpful? I read in the “Period Repair Manual” author Lara Briden (https://www.larabriden.com/period-repair-manual/) that it was one of the most important supplements in your 40s. I think it helps my brain from swirling, I also think I need to up my dose.
I found Estroven worked great for my peri menopausal hot flashes, but my GP warned me that black cohosh can cause liver damage. She put me in a low dose of Prozac instead. It doesn’t work quite as well as the Estroven but it makes the hot flashes manageable.
Your Maryland distribution center might be backed up because all of my mail from Colorado, to places which would not include Maryland if you draw a straight line, WENT to Maryland in December, and hung out for various timeframes. Why? Why Maryland? The good news is, they did all eventually make it to their final destinations.
Thank you for this information on magnesium! I am 49 and anything that might make me less creaky is getting put into my regimen.
I don’t remember WHERE I read/heard it, but I read/heard somewhere that Evening Primrose Oil capsules were helpful for peri-menopause/hormone/PMS symptoms. It might have been the same OB/GYN who mentioned B-complex, but that’s not where I have the memory filed, so maybe someone mentioned it here or on Twitter?
The Christmas card I mailed to my parents on December 7th came on January 11th, after the thank you note we wrote for our Christmas gifts. (trip from VA to NJ)
I wrote a letter this summer about the appalling plan that our school district had/has/is using for the current situation and I received a very long personal email back from the superintendent. It made me wonder if they need to keep all correspondence and replies since it was personal, but also very talking points, if you know what I mean.
The record for Christmas card mailing/arrival distance was one that appeared on January 7 after being postmarked December 7. I am keeping my cards up on the wall just in case more show up, but we haven’t had any in several days so I’m thinking the last stragglers have finally arrived.
My daughter would love that giant Hershey’s kiss so I have put it in my Target cart!
We do mail order 90 day supply for a medicine my daughter takes. The last refill was mailed on December 18 and it still isn’t here. So I got the joy of contacting the RX company because Daughter is nearly out of meds. They said they could send an overnight replacement for the lost shipment. Great! HOWEVER… there are no more refills available. So then I had to contact the doctor and explain why we needed refills sooner than anticipated. And while doing that, RX company advised me to request a short term supply to get filled in person to tide Daughter over until the mail supply arrived. HOWEVER… the pharmacy will reject that supply since their records will show the RX has recently been filled. So while at the in person pharmacy I would have to call the mail order company back and have them override the rejection to get the short term supply covered. Are you freaking kidding me?!? I did all but the in person short term supply (it isn’t a dire medication and I just cannot) over a week ago and we still have neither the original shipment or the emergency replacement.
YES. I had this happen to me, actually, a decade or so ago.
Mailed prescription to mail-order pharmacy.
Wonder what’s going on after, like, a month, as I finish one package, look for the next, and realize I’m out; call them. They said they never received the prescription.
Rushed doctor’s visit to get a new prescription, immediately followed by local pharmacy visit (and the doctor sent it to the wrong pharmacy – the local pharmacy without a parking lot, instead of the pharmacy that was the same distance from my residence but which *did* have a parking lot – so instead of just parking in a parking lot, I had to parallel park on a major street in the dark in the rain *during rush hour*) to get that prescription filled.
Local pharmacy says insurance denies filling prescription because it was *JUST FILLED* by the mail-order pharmacy that apparently did have the prescription somewhere, after all, who woulda thunk it, but obviously “filled a half hour ago several states away by a mail-order pharmacy” is not the same as *me having it* and thus a chunk of time on the phone with insurance people while in the pharmacy.
It was a very unpleasant day. But I did eventually get the prescription.
I hope the medications you seek arrive soon. It would be worth calling the mail-order pharmacy to get the shipping number for both the lost-in-mail and overnighted packages – it is amazing how many times they think it has shipped until they check for the shipping number and then realize there was a hangup (like it being already filled but lost in mail but someone didn’t read things and thus denied it) somewhere.
After buying all my Hanukkah gifts for myself and handing them to my husband to wrap (well, put in gift bags), and being very happy with all the great, thoughtful gifts I got, I’m thinking I will take your route and buy myself Valentine’s Day candy. I know you really like See’s, and I know you’ve posted on it before. Are you willing to reshare your favorites? Ones that don’t have nuts. I buy for my kids from here: https://www.vermontnutfree.com/ but I’ve never even tasted then because they are very expensive. And if I buy myself (I mean, my husband gifts me) ones that may be cross-contaminated, then, oh well, my kids can’t eat any of mine :) Usually I buy cheap ones 1/2 price from local store after 2/14, but if I am doing something online anyway this year, I may as well do something nice.
Ooo, let’s see, my favorites WITHOUT nuts are Dark Raspberry Cream, Milk Strawberry Cream, Milk Butterscotch Square (they have a limited-edition Dark Butterscotch Square, but I have not yet tried it), Dark/Milk Vanilla Cream (I like the Dark even better than the Milk, even though I usually prefer milk chocolate), Scotchmallow, Dark/Milk Butterchew, Dark/Milk Bordeaux.
Yum! Thank you.
If you want a nice variety mix without the Decision Making involved in a custom box, the “Soft Centers” mix doesn’t have nuts (except coconut).
Oohhh, Oohhh. I like the replies from officials. We have a town council and they’re garbage, for the most part. And I will write the things and I will hear back from one person. No one else even acknowledges that they received it (which is mostly what I want: I have received your communication regarding x, I’ll keep it in mind) but these dudes, because ,obviously, don’t even bother a little bit. IT’S INFURIATING. I’m fairly certain they’re not reading their communications. And then I get all re-INFURIATED because you CHOSE TO RUN FOR THIS POSITION, DUDE. Do your job.
This is the only time I want communication and I want it in the manner I initiated, thank you very much. The one reply dude is always like “I can call you” and I’m always like “DO NOT.”
And I wrote to my US congressperson and checked the “I would like a reply” box. Because, again, I want confirmation that you got this and are at least pretending to consider it. I live in Massachusetts, for the most part we are on the same page. But things are extra dire right now, so, replies it is.
One thing we ordered from Amazon totally disappeared. It was supposed to get here December 10 and has been “running late” ever since. We were able to get a refund so oh well, I guess…though it did mean one of our big impact kid Christmas gifts didn’t happen with that piece missing.
An ornament exchange envelope I sent 12.17 still has not arrived, and a package I sent to my sister 12/15 finally arrived 1/11…in a city that is three hours away from us by car. Yikes.
I am agreeing so hard on the representative replies. Save your form emails and letters! I don’t want them! Especially if you actually don’t care what I think and we both know we are just pretending that my email will matter.
My stranded package (which shipped 11/25) arrived on 12/24. My husband ordered two bookcases (cheapo ones) at the same time. One arrived. The post office reported that they could not find our house to deliver the second one and said they had shipped it back to the place we bought it from. After calls to customer service and a lot of swearing (not at customer service, to himself) my husband ordered another bookcase. The next day, the original missing bookcase showed up. Naturally.
Yay thanks Swistle!
Mail successes: got a few packages in early jan that were sent in first half of december. Also got a few replacements sent via 2 day ups shipping which arrrived on time, and sent back duplicate.
Mail failures: still missing a package sent on 12/12, and now its replacement sent out on 12/31 via USPS has also disappeared.
Ordered GRAY item 12/4, says it was delivered 12/13 (it was not). Called large company 12/19 and they could see it was lost but would not send a new one as the exact item was out of stock (note: same item, PINK color WAS available but nope, company would not replace it with that). So I ordered PINK just in case as it was a main xmas gift. PINK showed up within 2 days. GRAY showed up 12/24! Out of the blue! Oh look, color pun.
So I wrapped GRAY as intended, and on 12/31 I returned PINK via their return UPS label to the UPS Store. And there it sits. As of today there is no scan other than UPS store receiving it 12/31. UPS store claims it was sent out…into oblivion. I’m out that money until this box somehow moves through the system.
But considering the large amount of online purchasing I did this season, I feel somewhat ok with writing that one off as a loss.
Was this a Comfy by any chance? Because those are the 3 colours I could choose from here and 3 of us got them for Christmas and they really are fabulous in a chilly house and totally live up to their name! One of my fave Xmas gifts this year!
We all got a Comfy in 2019 and they got a lot of use in 2020 :-) This was actually a big fluffy kid-sized bathrobe.
I’ll play, though it’s secondhand. My friend got a package on Wednesday January 13th, that shipped November 19th. It did have to come full east coast to west coast though, so she was just glad the postal service wasn’t completely gutted so it could still make it.
Tangentially related to the response issue: the thing I’m most disliking in terms of communication are emails from my kids’ schools about opening. Specifically, we’ve been online only since March, which is not ideal, but is understandable given our community transmission rates etc. Last week our governor changed the rules for school openings. We’ve now received 5-6 emails from the kids’ schools saying things along the lines of we’re not sure what we’re doing, we are still thinking it over etc. I mean one email letting families know they are working on it is fine. Continued, repeated emails saying they still don’t know are not necessary and kind of stressful. Every time I get one I read through the wall of text in a mild panic only to get to the end and discover they still don’t know what they’re going to do. Just let me know when you have a plan, schools! Or if you want some input.
Last spring things got so bad my husband’s phone marked the school district as spam. 3 kids, 3 schools, plus district wide notifications. We were getting phone calls nonstop.
I think this is because the matching shirt people mentioned above are harassing your school people, who are stalling and pushing back. So, one letter, for the shirt people is fine if it says what they want to hear. If it does not, they start the phones again, necessitating another “we are crunching #s, or whatever” email. Because the reply then can be “please see our most recent email.” And THAT works for a day or two, repeat.
We have ppl in town with YARD SIGNS, who got in the school committee, and are generally making the lives of administrators miserable. Especially after the gov. Changed the metrics and we went into acceptable territory for like 3 weeks and than Thanksgiving we tanked and now, even with looser metrics, most of the state is in burgundy OUT OF CONTROL SPREAD.
I think the CDC has a nationwide map of spread level and there are two shades of red, and ppl are always “colorblind! Bad choices” to which the reply is “right, but the whole map is just the one, extra bad red, so being able to discern variations in red isn’t the current problem”
My daughter ordered a case for her new phone (Xmas gift) on Dec. 26, and it is not here yet. To be honest, I think it’s the particular company (which may or may not be in China, I have no idea but I have my suspicions) and not necessarily the USPS. But the good news is, she is so anxious for it that she’s checking the mail at least twice a day, so I don’t have to walk out there in the cold myself. Tracking info says Tonight, by 9pm, so my nice long stretch of not having to get my own mail might be ending…. might. ;)
1. Re: Postage
On the positive side, I kind of LOVE this surge of post-Christmas mail! I LOVE “fun mail” is extending into January. And I hang up all of the photos I receive on a bulletin board in the foyer and they stay up year-round (so it is not as though I have “taken down” Christmas themed things, and the photos missed the window to be displayed).
2. Re: Letters to Representatives
I kind of have an angsty energy lately (ha!) that I am (to the amusement of my husband) channeling into a couple low-level city issues. I am so ANNOYED and ANGRY at the response from my city councilor. City, I see your poor response, and I am forced to…write ANOTHER email that you will feel obligated to respond to! I am in the mood where I can and will play this game forever!!
Sent a package from Connecticut to Philadelphia on 12/17. After finally leaving it went to Omaha. Last tracking update is 12/25 “in transit to next facility.” I was feeling pretty hopeless as it’s nearly a couple hundred dollars worth of Christmas presents but all of these comments have restored my faith a tiny bit.
Yes mine was in transit to next facility for almost a month and then whoo hoo it magically arrived!
My parents live outside of Philadelphia and Philly had so many trailers full of mail waiting to be sorted that they had to rent a warehouse to store them in. I myself was waiting for a package sent 12/18 and it finally arrived 1/6, Massachusetts to Connecticut via Florida! If you are wondering about your package you can file both a “Where’s my package?” customer service request and a more escalated Missing Package Search request. Hopefully one or the other will shake your package out of wherever it’s stuck.
My sister did say that Philly was very overrun which is likely why it got sent to Omaha in the first place. I filed a “where’s my package?” request and got no response (which I expected as I’m sure they’re way behind on those too), but then I got a “how did we do?” survey in regards to the unanswered request which was…frustrating.
The exact same thing happened to me. I sent the “Where’s My Package?” form and then got a survey before I even got a response, which was dumb. Then I did eventually get a response but it was useless and basically just reiterated what I already knew from tracking the package myself. BUT about three days after all of that went down my package finally moved and was tracked in a new location and then it arrived at its destination two days after that. So *maybe* filling out that form and survey does make a difference.
We don’t normally do much for Valentine’s Day, but I was just thinking about candy for it this morning. For a brief and glorious couple of years Hershey’s sold their Cherry Cordial Kisses here in my local stores. Alas, they seem to have abandoned Canada as a market for a lot of their specialty kisses so I’m monitoring websites for not-outrageously-priced packages that have been bootlegged up here. Not much luck yet.
If you haven’t tried them, they’re like a cherry chocolate but filled with just the goo that the cherry normally floats in, no actual cherry. They are one of my absolute favourite holiday chocolates.
I HAVE A PACKAGE OF THOSE IN MY HOUSE RIGHT THIS MINUTE!! They are waiting for my next Day Off from keto (Inauguration Day), when I plan to consume MANY. They are SO SO GOOD AND ADDICTIVE
You are actually not in the majority of persons who contact elected officials–I can attest that most expect a reply to their contact. Husband is president of the local school board, and as you might imagine, parents have many, many, many Opinions. If he doesn’t reply to an email or call, ugliness can ensue.
Communication annoyance: when I fill out a Contact Us! form and it asks how I want to be contacted and I choose email to then get a phone call. ARRRRGH! If the field for my phone number isn’t required, I don’t put my number in just so they can’t contact me by phone.
We bought a car just before Thanksgiving and financed it through the dealership. Which I thought would be through a financing company from the large auto maker company. But, nope. It looks like the dealership went to several local lending institutions until one said ok. Cool. However, because banks/credit unions/etc. need to inform you when you have been denied (I think), we received a letter from a state-wide bank on Jan. 11. The letter was dated Dec. 12 and the postmark was Dec. 13. It was mailed from a city 2 hours from us.
All of my Christmas gifts made it in time, although my mom’s was the latest and I couldn’t get it to her before Christmas. I had it sent to my house thinking she would spend Christmas with us but then Covid Spike! So she opted to stay home. I ended up mailing it to her and it got to her house with no issue.
I ordered holiday cards on Dec. 22 . They were going to be New Year cards. I received a notification from the card company that the cards were printed and shipped and I should receive them Dec. 28. It took a week for the tracking to change from waiting for pick up to scanned into UPS system. Then it took 4 days for the box to go from the pick up in North Carolina to the transfer from UPS to USPS in IL (Chicago). Then for some reason the package needed to go to a USPS regional sorting facility in PA, where is sat for another week before being sent back to MI (Detroit) where it eventually was left on my porch on the west side of MI. I bought some metallic markers and will change the sentiment on the card to something pithy. Happy Inauguration! maybe
ARGH the phone call contact when one has asked to be contacted by email grinds my gears. Why ask if you’re just going to disregard my request?
IT IS LESS THAN A MONTH UNTIL VALENTINES/ GALENTINES DAYS! Must go get some treats for my fave gals. Love the idea of dropping off packages!
My mail update:
First of all, I received a Christmas card yesterday (January 16) that was mailed pre-Christmas and, get this, it was mailed by a friend who lives less than 3 miles from me! How in the world did a card just circulate around in our town for almost a month?!
On the package front, I live on the east coast and shipped a package to Texas on December 15th with guaranteed arrival date of December 21st. It finally showed up last week, 27 days after I’d mailed it. For reference, I’ve been mailing Christmas packages to Texas for over a decade and it has never taken longer than 5 days. Based on tracking records this year’s package sat in the same sorting facility 15 miles from my house from December 17th until January 9th, which is when it showed up in Dallas. It arrived to its destination in El Paso two days later.
I did file a “Where’s My Package?” complaint and received an unsatisfying response from the Post Master in El Paso who basically reiterated the information I could already see from tracking the package myself. But it was shortly after that when the package finally moved to Dallas, so maybe filing a Where’s My Package form does make a difference?
Mail update: everything eventually arrived, with one glaring exception. I ordered something for my Mom from L’Occitane on December 18. I did not expect it to get there in time for Christmas, but I also did not expect that, one month later, it will still be showing as “pre-shipment” at USPS.
This one is not the USPS’s fault – I think the company made a label for it and just never sent it. Calling them tomorrow to complain/get a refund/get a replacement sent out is on my list for tomorrow.
Random chatty topic: my spouse uncomplainingly loads and unloads the dishwasher and I do all of the cooking. Works great for the most part. Lately he’s been taking a “see no evil” approach to things that come out of the dishwasher less that completely clean, and I do not know what’s up with that. In his head, I think he thinks that everything coming out of a “clean” load from the dishwasher is in, fact, clean. Which is not always the case! I had stashed some deliciously stinky cheese (Humboldt Fog) in a reusable silicone storage bag. The bloomy part had sort of smeared on the inside, and did not get clean in one cycle of the dishwasher. Cut to a week later when I took out the silicone bag to put something else in and lo and behold, the remnants of the Humboldt Fog were still…abiding in the bag.
Ah, the difference between “sterile” and “clean” – and many dishwashers don’t even quite sterilize.
(The terms: they are so different! So incredibly different! Send an appropriately temperature-resilient pooper-scooper, fully loaded, through an autoclave baking, and it will be sterile: no live germs [etc.] at all. It will not be clean.)(I admit to being fine with using plates, for myself in casual munching, that have a smidgen of lettuce dishwasher-baked onto them or something like that, especially if it’s just a crumb-catching plate for toast. But putting into the cupboard that way? Nope. And cheese bag? Nope.)
I love Humboldt Fog and every other cheese that company makes. Cheese sisters!
Yeah, back in September when I complained to our school district, I had 3 school principals call me. On the phone! One elementary, one middle and one high. Good times. I even got to talk to the superintendent on the phone. Good stuff!!!! These days they don’t even reply to my e mails anymore!
My mail tale: My parents (they live in California, we are in the Midwest) mailed us two boxes on 12/7, and they paid for priority mail. One came within a week or so. The other one came on 12/28, completely free of postage, stickers, and bar codes–just their address and ours. So, no wonder it was “IN TRANSIT” for three weeks.
I’m in the same boat with not keeping track of stuff I’ve ordered and then remembering months later. This year I made an email folder for receipts and immediately put everything in there and checked it often, so I was better, but still not perfect. A couple of Etsy things never made it, and one I got a refund for. I have a medical procedure this week and my normally dependable husband has been a total idiot about it, so I have ordered Valentine’s chocolate for myself in retaliation. Or something.
Swistle, I got several messages from people today (Jan 19) letting me know they received my Christmas card postmarked Dec 16th. These re people who live in the same quadrant on the country.