Jul. 1st, 2002

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Today was the first business day for the new postal rate of 37 cents for the first ounce of first-class mail. Pretty much all other rates changed, too, with the only decrease occurring in the cost of a 2-lb Priority Mail package. (Which reminds me, one of the "news" shows ran a teaser advertising a segment on Priority Mail which was supposed to air tonight. I would be very surprised to find the report to be positive, both owing to the nature of television "news" and from my personal experience observing Priority Mail in action.)

It would appear that the good citizens of Pagosa Springs had waited precisely for this day to descend upon our humble store and clean out our stock of stamps like locusts wiping out July corn in Oklahoma. What amazed me at first was the certitude with which most people came looking for 3-cent stamps.

"I'd like 17 three-cent stamps."

"Gimme 26 three-centers."

"I want to buy 4 three-cent stamps, please."

It's like... what?... these people maintain an inventory of the stamps they've bought? Do they scrabble, from time to time, in their desk drawers to count out exactly how many first-class stamps they have?

A couple of people actually figured that they'd eventually use up any stamps they bought and went wild; they asked for a full sheet of 50, or multiple sheets.

In short order, however, by the sheet or by the odd lot, we sold out our stock of 5,000 stamps. And still they came. They bought out our 1-cent stamps. We ran out of 2-cent stamps. In retrospect, it's clear I didn't order enough of the threes. Our rolls or 37s are gone, too, as are almost all of our panes of 20, so I underestimated the demand for first-class stamps, too.

The priority rate has changed, in a big way from where I stand, and I can see the store profiting from it. We generally steer customers toward UPS when packages get heavy enough, since the cost starts to beat the U.S.P.S rates hollow, not to mention that UPS ground packages are all tracked and come with $100 of insurance as part of the deal. With the new Priority Rates, "heavy enough" is lighter now than it was Saturday.

* * *
I downloaded an application called Terracotta from SourceForge and it appears to run right out of the zip file, as it were, except that my ISP doesn't provide GD support for PHP, apparently, so that the code that tries to create thumbnails of uploaded JPGs throws an error in the attempt. It's a pretty slick system, at first glance.

* * *
Had I been attached to a dynamic blood pressure monitor this morning, the equipment would surely have registered a steep spike when I eyeballed our water bill, which shows we used 20,000 gallons last month. A little quick math shows that to equal 667 gallons per day, on the average, or just about a half a gallon a minute, every minute, for 30 days.

The number was noticeable since our local paper reports that the water district's next level of restrictions, effective tosay, apply severe penalties to any customers who consume more than 8,000 gallons per month.

When I got home, I walked down the driveway to the water meter, only to find it to be a plastic-encased sensor of some kind with no display, only a wire going down into the ground. I climbed back up and got my e-tool (that's 'e' as in 'entrenching', not 'electronic'), and then went back down to look for the meter.

I found it, uncovered it (the interior seems about as roomy as a Minuteman missile silo), and checked out the meter reading. For the minute or so that I stared at the meter, I detected no movement in the dial that shows flow. I'll look again tomorrow morning and check. I have no idea what might have caused us to use so much water last month (or 18,000 gallons the previous month).

I am hoping it is not a replay of a leak we had a few years ago that ended up with us having to pay nearly $1000 to fix (about $10 in parts, with the balance paying for the labor to find the leak, which turned out to be at the meter), as well as a small fortune for the nearly 250,000 gallons that actually leaked. (Why our tenant tried to keep the leak a secret, I'll never know... why would someone throw a metal car bumper into a bonfire? He did both.)

* * *
Anyway, the action at the store kept me from home until well after UPS pickup at 4 pm. My plan was to take a nap and then "start" to work (on my translation). I was so beat, though, I could drift off, but when I went downstairs to start working, my heart just was not in it.

Heart or no heart, though, I did slog through the rest of what I had planned to do today, with an interspersed break to eat some salad and a couple of miserable franks. I have been finding that I prefer the pages that are solid text to those with a lot of math on them, or with so-called "fault trees" that look a little like program flow charts and take forever to edit. In any event, there are 12 pages left in the translation.

* * *
Drew, Shannon and Huntur are due back tomorrow from California. Nobody's heard from any of the gang for the past couple of days, so I don't know when to expect them or how they expect to travel (overnight "swoop" or what). Godspeed.

* * *
Lee went out on a consulting job tonight. One of our customers had wailed about the problems she was having with her computer, so Lee offered her services and spent some time at the customer's house this evening. The problem is not yet completely solved, but Lee appears to have consultant's blood in her veins: she got a check from her client.

And on that note, I shall say good night.

Cheers...

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