FOLLOWUP TO ORDERS ARE LATE - OR NOT AND NEW POST - NO MATTER WHAT ONE PREPARES FOR - SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENS

 First an update – last weeks jeans post – So they were suppose to come on Wednesday, then late Wednesday we got an email that they were delayed and would be coming Friday – so, of course they came on Thursday!  Now most people would think it great to get a day earlier than the amended date of arrival – But what if we had not been home?  What it was raining all day?  What we if we gone away as it was not coming until Friday?  The package would have had a good chance of disappearing!  This is one of the main reasons we don't order things – delivery is so iffy.  (We had sort of resolved this problem, at least items were not sitting out in front of our house, by using a service from the Post Office called “Street Addressing” for our Post Office Box – which allows the Post Office to sign for the items and deliver them to our box (technically the item is being delivered to the Post Office itself, not us, which is how they get around the idea that other carriers cannot deliver to a box intended to receive Postal mail (which includes that box you put up next to your door at home for your mail delivery – which is why the other delivery companies do not put anything in that box).  But since we are not going out, we have to have things delivered to our house – and then keep looking out the door all day to see if the item was received.  It would have been nice if when they left the package, they did not leave it against the door which meant we had to go out the side door to the front door to get the package as we could not open the or walk out the front door.

Now this week's subject -

Our area was just missed by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Henri last weekend.  First it was to hit the east of our Island, then it was going to hit the east end of the Island, then it was going to hit further west along the Island – it finally passed the Island on the east side by a good bit, so we had rain but no wind.  

Wind is what concerns us the most.  Our local electric utility has not done well dealing with major storms to the point that the utility company which was managing and running it was fired and a new company hired a short few years ago.  That company failed in a major way last year with Hurricane Isaias – some people had no electricity for weeks afterward.  Their system to let them know about outages and later get information about restoration time frames did not work.  (A friend of a neighbor worked at the utility and neighbor let us know we would be out for 3 days minimum.  Information was wrong – we were lucky and we were back on that night.)

When a storm is coming we prepare.  Every cell phone and laptop computer, no matter how old (or if the cell phone has service) is plugged in to charge and left to do so until we until we know we are not having an outage.  Why every one?  Well, cell phones can dial 911 if one has no service, so the older phones can be used in an emergency if our current ones' batteries are used up.  Our cable company has wifi running in the street outside our house and we can always use laptops – whether Windows 10 or XP (the assortment of laptops we have) with the wifi to access the Internet to contact someone in an emergency.  Our flashlights are checked to make sure their batteries are good.    We have a camping lantern which runs on batteries or a charge pack – we make sure the charge pack is fully charged is also charged and left charged until we know we are okay.  

I also clear areas where we will be walking.  I got this idea from how rooms were set up in the 1700s.  The furniture was placed against the walls (other than items such as beds) when the furniture was not in used.  When an item of furniture was needed it would be carried to the center of the room (and beds were too heavy to carry easily) and used – time to eat?  Table and chairs carried to center of room and family eats.  Done eating?  Table and chairs put back against the wall.  Main reason was that it allowed one room to be used for many purposes.  A secondary reason (which applies here) is that one could walk through the room without walking into anything even in low light.  I first tried this idea during Hurricane Sandy and it worked well.  We could easily walk around the living room, front hall, and dining room without a flashlight until it was dark at night.  I move items we keep on the upstairs landing of our house into the spare bedroom so we don't trip on them.  (Two low, small tables with bear figurines on it.)  

So we did all our preparations in anticipation of losing our electricity.  We thought how lucky we were that the storm hit further east and our electricity was safe – the main rain from the storm was far west of us in New Jersey and further upstate New York – though we did get a LOT of heavy rain.  It rained from just before we stepped out the door Saturday night to pickup Chinese food (was not raining at all when we ordered it and rain was not suppose to come until late – concert run by NYC got caught in the rain also had to be canceled mid-concert – though I think them foolish for having it once the storm was coming).  The rain continued all day Sunday and well into Monday morning.  

Monday we went out and checked around  - everything thing seemed to be okay.  There was a dove who seemingly was sitting on our side steps as when we opened the door she (our assumption for no particular reason) was flustered or pushed off the steps and was walking around confused.   We then went out for fast food lunch.  On our return the dove was still walking around dazed and confused and we were concerned it had been injured as it did not fly.  (There are usually two of these doves around and we don't know what happened to the other and if this one was waiting for the other or confused as to where it was.)  I tried calling wild animal agencies with no luck and husband went to move her to see what was going on – she then flew off – thank goodness she was okay – just dazed – and we did not have to worry about her not eating.

So all seemed fine and we relaxed.  Monday night we walked into the basement to empty the dehumidifier before going to bed.  Husband said “Why are my slippers wet?”  Since we have never (to our knowledge) had a flood in the basement – we had not thought about same.  From what we can determine rain came in the basement side window.  We were vacuuming up water until almost 5 in the morning with a wet vacuum.  I have been going down often to empty the dehumidifier for the past two days.  The carpet (indoor/outdoor) is seemingly approaching dry – we moved the dehumidifier to a different stop which seemed damper and may have to do so in a couple of other spots.  Also have a fan running downstairs during the day.  We have had to toss a large sheet of card board and when it is dry down there will have to check for which other items need to be tossed – most items are in plastic boxes or bags so hopefully nothing important or expensive is lost.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
No matter how or what emergency one prepares for, something will happen that one did not expect.  Do the best you can to deal with emergency possibilities ahead of time.

MORE INSTRUCTION BOOKS DEALT WITH - WHY ARE ORDERS ARE ALL COMING DAYS LATE THESE DAYS?c

 Well, another week gone by.  I have scanned some more instructions books and just discarded some for items we no longer have.  The last several weeks of books have not been thrown out as I am going to tied them together and put them out when next I put out recycling as I did with the earlier scanned ones when I last put out recycling.

In normal times I out recycling weekly for pickup.  A stack of tied together newspapers, magazines, etc.  and a cardboard box of cans, bottles, and jars.  I recycle the boxes we get into the house this way as some years ago the second plastic box we had from the township for recycling was taken (as was the first one) by the garbage crew as they decided it was too broken to use.  So I keep boxes in our side porch – small ones – for a normal week in normal times and we used 4 soup cans and nothing else to put in.  Big ones for weeks when there is a holiday and I do a lot of cooking with a lot of things to recycle, and medium sized boxes for in between.  These days we can use only one can or two cans in a week.  Combine this with we not are temporarily not getting our newspapers in hard copy, and most weeks if I put the stuff for recycling – it would not be seen.  So I have been putting out the recycling when the carton I use to collect it all in is overfull and I put it in the larger can they gave everyone some years ago – this holds about 2 months worth, maybe more with how many items we are using these days.

So the instructions to be discarded sit in a bag in our office set aside to go out.  

We did go get to go food shopping yesterday – a good sized fill in trip.  Though much more relaxed than the 2 months major shopping we had done through most of the pandemic.  Even used a coupon – we complained about a frozen meal we had bought (main course – lacking in meat) and they apologized and sent a coupon for the next purchase.  I almost forgot not only to use it – but how to do so – husband remembered.  

I ordered 2 pairs of jeans – yes, we ONLY order something if we cannot get it any other way.  I noticed the knee of one of my pairs jeans had a hole – looked in Walmart – they no longer carry these jeans and have no acceptable (to me) alternative.  Husband looked up the jeans company – and we ordered from them.  Jeans were to be delivered today – no, now they may not come for another couple of days, so we even if we wanted to run errands we have to stay home to wait for them now as they are left in front of our house – easy to be seen and taken as we live on a main road.  Add to that bad rain storms over the next couple of days and we could not go out if we wanted to.  Same thing happened with some items husband had to order for his handcrafted business and a different delivery company – also got notice at last minute that not coming on day specified by them.  (Is this a new trend?)  

So more time to scan instruction books and do other housework which needs to be caught up.  Right now, as normal for when I am writing on Wednesday night – our washing machine is washing our clothing.  When same goes into the dryer – the towels go into washer.  When clothes come out will fold in bed while going to sleep tonight and towels will go into dryer.  Towels will be folded tomorrow night while going to sleep.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Lately more things seem to go wrong.  Do you find this to be true?  Just have to go with the flow and take things as they come – and I am not someone who likes that loss of control.

How is your organizing going – anything special which works for you?

APOLOGIES FOR MISSED LAST WEEK'S POST AND FILING/SCANNING PAPERS

 OOPS!!!  When I sat down to write tonight's post I realized I never posted last week.  My apologies.  Have you found that your sense of time passing has been negatively affected by staying home during the pandemic?  Mine has.  Something seems to me that it occurred last week and when I look in my calendar/items done list – it was months ago.  Since we cannot change the past, on to this week's post.

In between keeping up with normal daily and weekly stuff to do, I have scanned and saved, then put into the pile of paper to recycle more of those warranty papers and instruction books.  I have finished the ones for stuff in our office (furniture and other stuff), the ones for our computer stuff, and I am working on our telephones and related items (such as answering machines).  

Today I got in two quick scans as I was finishing up with other work for the day – account reconciliations for statements from the credit unions.  

 I pulled out the first telephone instruction manual to scan – a cordless phone - and looked at the picture on the cover.  Hmmm, it should be over there on husband's office work table  - it isn't?  I know the phone in question is white, I can see it sitting on husband's table – but the one there is … red?  I put the book aside until husband finished what he was working on.   I pulled another “book” out of the pile – the phone on the wall next to my side of our bed.  It is not actually book.  This leads me to mention - “Who the heck designs this instructions?”  Many of them are not books, but rather a large piece of paper folded into sections – the sections as they appear on the paper do not actually always make sense.  In this case at the front of the folds is the title “page”.  After that I was not sure what order the “pages” were intended to be.  I scanned what was there and if the order is wrong – so be it, it is still usable.  I realize the manufacturers do not intend the instructions to be scanned or copied – but!!!!!  Sometimes the pages fit as a letter sized scan, sometimes as a legal sized scan – this one had one set of instructions which started on one “page” continued on the next and then partially onto a third one.  The first two “pages” could be scanned (side by side pages) as a legal sized page, but then the other piece was hanging there with the next section of the instructions!  Another similar large paper consisting of “pages” at one point had the sections numbered in a clockwise direction and then one had to go the next “pages next to them and figure out how they fit into the instructions!    

How do YOU keep track of your various instructions and warranty papers in case they are needed again?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Filing papers (of any type) may seem to be boring and useless – but one day everyone finds that they need some paper of theirs and cannot find it.  Filing in a logical way helps one keep track of papers that one may or will need some day.  Filing does not have be alphabetical – files can be labeled and used for certain types of papers – as long as papers in files and the files are arranged in some way which makes sense to you – that is what you need.  (In my scanning I have put the same instruction file in more than one folder when not sure  where to put it.  For instance – office telephone instructions scan is in both the telephone and the office files on the drive.)