a blip in my day

Vibrant Sunrise

 

Our blinds are always pulled down at night and in the early morning hours when I'm getting ready for my day I generally don't take the time to look out any of the windows. For some reason I noticed some bright hues sneaking in through a crack in our living room windows and I took a moment to check it out and when I opened the front door I was just in awe. The vibrant sunrise was beyond anything I could describe. I tried my best to get a good picture of what was in front of me, but the photo below doesn't begin to describe the reality.

 

 

 

 

Online Shopper's Woes

 

I have an Amazon account and for a couple years now I have been able to do more and more of my shopping online. It is a luxury and has completely simplified my life until just the last few purchases I made. All of a sudden they are telling me that our address is "not deliverable".

 

Unfortunately and very frustratingly, our physical address and mailing address are not the same. We don't have a mailbox because of where our driveway is situated and we would have to cross the road to get the mail and it is just not the safest spot to do so. For that reason we opted to have a PO Box, and the trouble is our PO Box is not in the same town our physical address is in and when mail/packages gets sent to the post office of our physical address, they send our mail/packages back to the shipper.

 

Ugh!

 

Double UGH!

 

The real problem is that these sites like Amazon ask you for a physical and mailing address and then when the shipper doesn't read those correctly, they end up causing us issues. I called and spoke to a variety of folks and I've been stunned with how condescending they can be. The one fellow I spoke with was so awful, something inside of me rose up and wanted to slap him through the phone. He was chewing something while he was talking down to me and so I actually asked him if he was chewing gum and he said he wasn't. I, proceeded to tell him I know he is chewing something and I thought he was unprofessional.

 

Neither of us "won" this fight. sigh 

 

Fast forward a conversation or two, I had the "displeasure"  of talking with the post master at the post office that should not be getting our mail if the shippers would read their information correctly. So, being at wit's end I called Mr. Postmaster and asked him if there was any way we could get packages forwarded to us when this happens. He, too became very condescending in tone and had the gall to say, "Well, what is wrong with you just using your correct address?"

 

UGH!

 

I explained to him again our problem, that we have to provide both addresses and the shipper chooses the incorrect address.

 

You all get it, right?

 

He got it the second or third time around and then agreed that I have a problem, but no there was no way he could forward anything for me.

 

Sometimes I wonder about folks in customer service.

 

 

 

Dinner and a Ride

 

We made dinner plans with our Amish friends for tonight and ended up at one of our favorite restaurants. After we were finished with dinner and nice conversation we decided to go the long way home. We spent an hour or so driving around, and finally ended up in the fellow's "hometown", which is not a town, but out in the middle of Amish Country.

 

I thought it was cool to listen to my husband and his friend talk about various places they noticed and remembered certain incidents or folks. One little conversation had my friend and I in stitches and calling our husband's "old men".

 

My husband pointed out that the family who lives "there" had a few dwarf children. My friend's husband misheard and questioned, "They got a divorce? 

 

Oh mah goodness! It was a moment for sure!

 

My friend straightened them out quickly midst giggles and finally our "old men" got on the same page and understood each other again.

 

Whew!

 

I guess dwarf and divorce do sound a lot alike, come to think about it.

 

If this is a sign of things to come as we age, I think we are going to live be living in "hilarity"!

 

As we traveled the highways and byways we also made a pit stop and I had a chance to take a few pictures. We stopped by a winery in the area, we didn't go inside, but took in the countryside around it. We also noticed this wall of old wine barrels. It is the backdrop for many engagement pictures, even my son and his wife had their engagement pictures taken here.

 

 

 

I really like this picture. The scraggly tree in the middle of the picture and the little out buildings tucked into the countryside. The fence, so straight, and dutifully making its way around the fields.  

 

These two dogs didn't really like us stopping there and taking pictures. They protested heartily, so I snapped their picture and it did nothing, they still barked up a storm.

 

I like the sky being a backdrop to the leaf-less trees up on the ridge. The little out building makes the hill and fence look homey to me.

 

There was a creek lazily flowing through the property. There was some trash in the creek so I didn't feel like getting a huge section of it. I wanted only the pretty section.

 

By the time we headed the nose of our car towards home the sun had gone down completely and the very dark night came out and a one bright eyed headlight and one regular eyed headlight followed us much of our way home. That bright headlight shining right into my rear view mirror nearly blinding me. I was so glad when he finally turned off.

 

That was my day. I don't like conflict and the whole shipping problem IS a problem for me and for that reason I will have to have another chat with someone from Amazon to see how to resolve this issue. But problems are only a small part of life so I don't want to dwell on it too much. For me it is much better to try and take in what God has to offer. This earth is his and I believe he wants us to enjoy our surroundings. The early morning sunrise, I take it as a gift from him. Time spent with friends driving through old countryside stirring up memories, that is a gift from him.

 

Thank you Jesus for all the small blessings you provide me. Even with the shipping conflict, you show me where I need to change, maybe I should have had a bit more grace with the gum or food chewing customer service personnel and not have told him I thought him unprofessional. Help me to continue to grow in your love and peace and grace.

 

Amen

 

Thank you for reading and being here! If you enjoyed this blog post, you may want to go over to my Facebook page and "like it" so you always get updates when a new post goes up. Also, please feel free to share with your family and friends. Blessings all!

 

Looking in my Rear View Mirror

 

I am doing a giveaway on my Facebook page. I will be choosing the winner on March 23, 2014 at 6 PM. Go to the pinned status on the Facebook page to find out how you can sign up for the giveaway.