I kinda tore into UPS the other day when I described their wasting my time and a driver being impolite to me. However, the very next day, they decided to play ball with me. I needed a driver's license which, unfortunately, a Canadian cannot acquire unless he presents his most-renewed driver's license. It got one-day shipped to me by 10 30 am, problem is it came earlier than then and I wasn't awake. I called UPS and explained how crucial it was that I have that package, and told them I was ready to track down the driver if need be and just needed to know where he'd be by such and such time. They called the driver and then called me back, and said that the driver was coming BACK to my house to deliver the package. I was astounded, really, that after yesterday's shenanigans they'd actually do me the honor of returning to my home with the package I so desperately needed; my Canadian driver's license.
I went to the DMV and expected the standard long wait, but much to my amazement, when I took my number out of the ticket dispenser (262), I read 261 off the digital sign and realized I was NEXT in line. I ran, like straight up ran, back to my car which was luckily parked right outside the door, grabbed my folder with all my important documents in it, and ran back inside just as my number was being called. They took their own sweet time to get my license made, but it got done nonetheless, and now I could finally go and buy that car. I went to the bank and ended up taking a cashier's check, which I then drove over to the Honda dealership to buy my '07 Camry, 87000 miles on it so for 11,5 I think I made out alright.
As soon as I got the Camry the first thing I did was go back to the UPS office to collect my packages. I didn't make a big stink there because they helped me out in the morning today, and sure enough, there were my packages from Amazon, and they handed them straight to me.
After coming home I ran a bunch of errands one after the other in quick succession; make money orders for work, buy a juicer, buy a shoe horn, put together remaining IKEA furniture, bang bang bang there was no stopping me. The only thing I haven't done yet is clean the house.
When I was at the grocery store, there was some amusement there, mostly me acting like an idiot I suppose. I asked for "help" in the produce section and this guy comes out of the back, and I stand in front of the oranges and ask him "So which oranges are the sweetest?" And he hems and haws for a bit and then tells me their 58-cent navel oranges are probably as sweet as they get. Then he falters quite a bit and tells me about how the firm oranges are better because they're probably further away from "going" and then the texture doesn't really matter (I was questioning him about all of this of course) and so I ended up buying some oranges under his guidance. Whether it was expert or not I'm not sure, the juice tasted well but there was very little of it to be had. 5 oranges for 300 ml of juice. Of course, that isn't going to stop me from trying again today.
So today I wake up fashionably late (I NEVER wake up fashionably late, and it was mostly because I was up until 1 last night putting furniture together and clearing my e-mail hard drive) and I go for a ride. I met this 68 year old guy on the ride who was riding almost as fast as I was. It was my easy day, but I was nonetheless still impressed with this guy on his bike that he put together from spare parts. Then I found out while riding with him that he was an engineer and a triathlete. Luckily for me he was never an Ironman, otherwise I would've been totally unable to keep up. He said he's had multiple injuries and multiple surgeries, and I observed that the only sports he still does (or can still do, rather) at his age are swimming and cycling. Cycling just seems like a solid longevity sport to me, something that can be done comfortably at any age (assuming no cycling-related injuries anyway), low-impact but still difficult, builds strength and cardiovascular ability. The only real problem with cycling is that it doesn't involve the upper body. Swimming has been touted as the ideal form of exercise because it blends almost 50-50 what a cardiologist or sports scientist would call "isometric" and "isodynamic" muscular activity. Any sports scientist is free to berate me on here if I got it wrong, but that's what I can remember from my days on cardiology rotation.
I rode back with him and then went for a $9 buffet, which for me ended up being $11 after tax and tip, I tip heavy for anything under $10. I found out I can't really eat my way to the bottom of a buffet like I used to in the past, which honestly isn't necessarily a bad thing. So now I'm back home and I'm gonna vacuum the entire place, iron my shirts, and go out and buy a few more so that I have 8 or so ready to wear. I'll give the social security office a quick call, but I already paid my dues going there earlier this week, so they should already have started processing my application since the ECFMG cleared my J1 paperwork the day after I visited them.
Sometimes, when people wrong you (in this case they just barely wronged me), if you give them time (which I rarely ever do), I guess they can surprise you.
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