Daily Archives: November 7, 2014
FedEx vs. UPS . . .
Today turned out to be really nice, with a high in the high 60’s and a lot of sun. And tomorrow’s in the low 70’s. But pretty soon after that the temps take a nosedive with high’s in the 50’s next week as that Arctic cold front moves across the country, and a low forecast next Thursday of 32 degrees. Even now we’re having night temps in the 40’s, but one thing that’s helped is that Jan remembered our Alaskan coats
When we were in Alaska in 2008, we made several trips from Fairbanks down to the Denali area, and on one of those trips we found a great sale on coats at one of the gift shops. They were $35 a piece for a water-proof, fleece-lined, insulated, hooded jacket.
And you can tell they’re made for cold weather. The cuffs cinch up and have an extra fluffy lining inside to keep out the cold. The waistband also cinches up, as well as the hood and the neck.
They’re not real thick, but they are very, very warm. Much warmer than the hooded sweatshirts and jacket’s I’d been wearing out here. The other nice thing is how water-proof they are. We actually started wearing them as raincoats during the last few days of heavy rains and they were great. Never leaked.
With all the rain, I’ve been having a problem with our driveway bell system. Although the road has started to dry out, in some places the water is still draining onto the roadway from the surrounding land, leaving a soupy surface that’s like walking around in cake batter. This lets the hoses sink down in the muck so that only the heavy trucks will set them off. So 2 or 3 times a day I walk down to both ends and pull the hoses back to surface. Hopefully things will dry out soon.
In the never-ending speed saga, they brought a road grader in today to change them again. This time they took out the four steep humps and replaced them with two wider spaced humps that aren’t as high. They also lowered the height of the two single ones further on down. Now at least cars can get over it without scraping bottom or getting hung up. Of course they may come up with something else tomorrow.
In the battle between FedEx and UPS, FedEx is still the winner by far. A couple of weeks ago while we were at the GGS yard in Buffalo, I ordered something from Amazon that came by FedEx. They delivered it to an address that was essentially a fence gate with a 3’ x 3’ sign on it out in the country with nothing around it.
Then last week FedEx delivered a package here at the gate with just my name, the road name, Gate Guard Services Gate, and North Zulch, TX. No problems.
But UPS? Problems.
I ordered something from Amazon last Sunday. With Two Day Prime shipping, it should have been here Tuesday. Then on Tuesday morning, I ordered something Next Day shipping. It should have been here Wednesday.
According to the tracking, they both went Bryan and just sat there. Finally on Thursday morning they called and said they couldn’t find the address. I said to just Google the road and North Zulch, TX and it will bring right here. But just in case I gave him exact directions with turns, road names, and distances. He said OK, we’ll get it out to you this afternoon (Thursday).
This afternoon, NADA.
Finally, this morning one package shows up, but it’s the second one I ordered, the Next Day one. The other one is still MIA. So it’s back on the phone tomorrow.
I guess they work Saturdays. Who knows?
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Thought for the Day:
Seeing a murder on television… can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some. — Alfred Hitchcock
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