Reading (For Dummies)

What happened to UPS?

UPS seems to have become terrible recently. My last three packages had some rather troubling problems.

Package 1: I sent this as a return to Sierra Trading Post, using their return label on an otherwise clean box. This package was left at my door. It had the Sierra Trading Post return label scratched out, and the return address on that label circled. I'm pretty puzzled about this one.

Package 2: An order from a groovy company in San Fran, this was something that was sent to me. Its delivery reads like a who's who of problems.

Day 1 (5/16): Postal Code for my package is incorrect (no, it's not), UPS will try to resolve this.

Day 2 (5/17): Apartment number for my package is incorrect (no, it's not), UPS will try to resolve this.

Day 3 (5/18): Out for delivery.

Day 5 (5/21): Out for delivery again (wish I was making this up, there was no informatino about any 5/18 delivery attempt). Delivered at 11:56am. Wait, no, not delivered! We need a signature! Supposedly they left a note (actually, they didn't). I was actually at the UPS facility at the moment they attempted delivery, trying to straighten out package #3. The guy at the UPS place was able to find out about this package, and promised to divert it to a closer UPS center. You can guess how that worked by continuing to read.

Day 7 (5/23): Apparently they tried to deliver the package a 3rd time today (??? where was the second attempt) in spite of my earlier request and confirmation/callback. I call UPS, and they tell me that Chula Vista will call me. Instead, I see my package experience an "unexplained exception, please call UPS" in its travelog several minutes after hanging up the phone.

Package 3: Another order from Sierra Trading Post, this was a v. nifty ice axe that I'm planning to use both this coming weekend and next weekend to climb some of those big rocks that have ice at the top. Package status:

Day 1 (5/18): Package exception, "this apartment building is actually close to us, we should have the UPS facility that's an hour away, in Chula Vista, handle its delivery." Something like that.

Day 4 (5/21): First delivery attempt on May 21st. Delivered. Undelivered a few minutes later. 3rd delivery attempt made several minutes after that. I called UPS and told them to hold on to the package. They called back and said "Okay, it's being held here (Chula Vista)".

Day 5 (5/22): I drove to Chula Vista to get it (~1 hour each way), but they didn't have it! Guy apologized, said he would re-route to Kearney Mesa (which is maybe 15 minutes from my house). He also found Package #3 and said he'd do the same thing for it.

Day 6 (5/23): Not wanting to waste my time and gas driving, I check out UPS' website for the package status. It's on the delivery truck??? I call UPS, tell them to have Chula Vista call me. Chula Vista calls me, "Okay, we messed up, it's definitely going to Kearney Mesa now." I check the UPS site again and see "Exception: Package damaged." Call UPS again, tell them to have Chula Vista call me (again). Chula Vista calls back, says the package has been damaged (this is my ice axe!), but they reboxed it and will send it to Kearney Mesa. UPS delivery site says that my address was wrong and has been corrected, and that they will re-attempt delivery tomorrow. ARGH.

So I still have neither package, I have no idea where either package is, if either package is going to get delivered, or what, and it sounds like my ice axe may be damaged (which kind of makes it useless for winter mountaineering). UPS has been far more clueless than they were, say, six months ago, when a package of mine got stolen. Back then, they seemed to have a very good accountability chain. A phone call to the 800-number could get a driver to your door within an hour if you asked the right now.

So I guess the question is: what happened to UPS?

Green World

This week is national "Bicycle to Work Week," and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of bicycling to work. I've actually been driving all week as a form of semi-protest...I bike to work every day, get cut off often, manuever around potholes, broken glass, etc.

All of the above are the reasons I'm getting tired. In Syracuse, bicycling was fun, it was an escape. I realized in my Shakespeare class that it really was the place where I got away and changed a bit. In Syracuse, once I rode past south campus, I could count the cars that were on the road on one hand -- over the course of a 30-mile ride. It was heaven.

The gift and curse of living in a city of over a million is that you can't get away from people enough. I often joke at how I can't do a thing as trivial as pick my nose or scratch my posterior without being in someone's field of view. Same with bicycling here -- cars are everywhere.

Last night, though, I re-discovered the part of town that I used to live in -- the center of Point Loma. I actually rode over to PLNU and was in heaven (pardon the pun, it's a Jesuit university). No cars, no people, just me, the trees, and a stellar view of the Pacific Ocean. Well, there was one person, in a thicket, practicing bird calls...

Bicycling is supposed to be about fun, something I've missed in my workaday world of bicycle commuting. I'm definitely glad it's staying light later so that I can have some fun again.

Charleston

Summing up Charleston: basketball, budweiser, rednecks, pool

Work sent me to Charleston for our Information Assurance summit. It was probably the coolest conference that work has ever sent me to. My former life as a 'researcher' often sent me to symposia that discussed the details of money colors and timelines; this conference was about what's happening now, what our issues are, and how we're going to solve them this year. It's actually refreshing to be doing work that goes into production immediately, instead of laying groundwork for systems that will probably never see the light of day.

The trip there was naturally with its hiccups. We missed a connecting flight in Dulles airport and slept on the airport floor, after a fine meal from McDonald's (the only food we could get, a woman at the ticket counter picked it up for us). So of course we were all running on empty pretty much the whole week. I still managed to do a complete rewrite of my alma mater's outing club's trip and membership system (wow, ruby on rails is friggin' amazingly simple) during our downtime.

With a newfound sense of appreciation and love of work, I return to fix our systems...