29 December 2007

UPS > USPS + audio > visual

The snow is beautiful, but it hurts to look at it. It's blinding. Even glancing out the window causes my eyes to pull shut. It's supposed to be 40 degrees today and sunny. I can hear the drip-drip-drip of melting snow off the roof into the gutters.

This morning I went to the post office and the bank. Getting out of the house at 9am felt like a good start to my morning. My post office package was a book I sold for Erica. It's going to Louisiana. I wrapped that sucker in so much packaging tape; nearly laminated it. This is because yesterday I received a large envelope from the United States Postal Service. Inside was the front of a package I had mailed to a college student in Dublin, OH. It was just the front. Along with it, a note: The enclosed was found loose in the mail or damaged by mechanical equipment. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused by this incident. In the course of processing mail, items occasionally become separated from the envelope or the package and may sustain damage. Please accept our apologies...

Great. So, I contacted the buyer and explained the situation and told her I'd give her a refund. Then I filled out a form that the USPS nicely included and described what the book looked like, its title and author and dimensions, and sent it to the Mail Recovery Center in Georgia in hopes of it being found. I also instructed that, if it is found, it be forwarded to the buyer. She said if it did make it to her, she'd see how damaged it was and might send it back to me. It's kind of frustrating because I spend $2.50 on shipping and would have made $34 on the sale. Now I'm out $2.50 and $34, and I probably won't be able to sell the book (if it is found) because it's probably too damaged. Maybe I should use UPS from now on...or over-protectively wrap my packages in tape so no machine can rip them apart.

I've been slacking on Moby Dick. I will have to resort to listening to the audio to get through it. I hate this because I've always considered listening to books to be almost cheating. It is much harder to actually sit down and read it yourself. But, this is a book I have to read for class. I don't do audio books for pleasure reading; it doesn't seem right. I have 17 days before I return to Manhattan and 17 hours, 45 minutes, and 25 seconds worth of book left. So, at least an hour a day of listening. Seems do-able.

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