PO; Training; Miss Congeniality

The three books I sold at Amazon over the weekend needed to be mailed today, so I stopped off at the PO on my way to lunch.

I could tell I was in for trouble the second I hit the parking lot. Far too many cars for there not to be a long line at the counter. And indeed there was - a very long line.

Has it ever occurred to the PO officials to stagger the lunch hour of the clerks. Obviously, there will be lots of customers who want to dash by on their lunch hour. But there's usually only one or two clerks. The other clerks are at lunch.

Rather than stand in line, I thought I'd zip off to another PO. But I couldn't remember another one nearby. The closest one I could think of was about five miles away, so off I went. But when I got there, I realized what I'd thought was a post office was a bank.

By now I'd remembered another location, so I headed in that direction. I missed it and had to turn around and go back. I parked, went in and discovered that the line was as bad as the one at the first post office.

There was a sign that said that it might be necessary to inspect mail sent media or book rate. Which is the way I was going to send the books. Apparently when they say media, you can't include anything else. I wonder what the difference is between media rate and first class.

Fortunately the clerk did not see fit to rip open the padded envelopes which I'd already sealed. At long last, the packages were on their way. So a simple task that should have taken 15 minutes wound up taking almost an hour.

I remember my first look at the software. Panes, tabs, menus, boxes, etc. Everywhere. So much of it is due to the optional ways you can utilize the interface. But I can see that it could be daunting to many.

As with so many software packages, the more you use it, the better your understanding. Even after six months of use, there are many features I'm not absolutely sure about.

So the training sessions should be most interesting.

I couldn't park in the track lot, so I had to use the one by the tennis courts. Because of this, I entered the path at the mid-point. Which seemd a little odd at first.

Usually, I'll start strolling along, and at some point I'll find myself at what feels like a natural cadence. This takes about 1/2 mile. Then I set out to catch up to anyone in front of me. And then pass them.

At first, I had trouble gaining on a woman ahead of me. When I finally was even with her, I told her she was fast. She gave me one of those who-is-this-weird-person looks.

I've got to learn to curb my efforts to win the Miss Congeniality crown. Soon or later, someone is going to beat me over the head with an umbrella. This gabby quality is totally at odds with my personality. As I walked today, I was thinking that aliens had taken over my body and that I was turning into a pod person.

PAX!