Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Flat Rate Box
I appreciate the big smile and the attitude of my mail carrier 'Russ'. I send out far more packages than the average guy, and once in a while Russ needs two hands to pull it from the mail box. One day I apologized to him for all the exercise I provide, he smiled warmly and said "George I'm glad to have a job, just keep them coming!"
I have a lot of experience with the flat rate boxes, both good and bad, but what I like is you don't have to weigh it, just ship the darned thing light or heavy; sometimes I'm in a hurry.
Whatever fits, goes. But when I send a pulley out for example, I use the smaller shipping box that stands 8 inches tall, the pulley is only two inches or so tall, so then I fill up the box with stuff to keep the pulley from bashing a hole throught the box. Several times I've swept the floor of my shop and just poured in saw dust, metal shavings from the lathe, dirty gritty packing, Styrofoam peanuts, and a lot of empty plastic sacks, and more!
One day a friend was watching and said, "The guy you are shipping that off to is going to kick your ass for sending him all that crap! I replied, it's usually Randy Allmand, and yes he's bigger than me, but he can't drive all the way up here from Silver City New Mexico to kick my Ass :-)
Covington Post office views me as a customer, when I finally get to the front of the line, I often get a smile. The folks there noted that it was rather ridiculous to force people to stand in line, so they allow you to drop these prepaid packages that are ready to go on a table to the right of the serving windows, "closely monitored area under the camera's eye". Prior to this, I could wait in line up to 15 minutes to hand the parcel to the person at the window only to have them set it on the same table.
One time I was in downtown Kent, and decided to drop a Flat Rate box there, I saw about a dozen people in line, and one window open, there were other postal workers there, but maybe not qualified to open another window? I went to a window where there were a few packages dropped, and set my prepaid ready to go item down, as I spun around to leave, the guy behind the counter yelled at me. "Hey you can't do that, it's against the law!, pick that package up and get in line like everyone else!" I sheepishly obeyed, and noticed the other people in line staring at me. As I waited my turn, I was thinking asbot the mistake I made droppign down town in the first place.
I have a lot of experience with shipping pulleys now, and recently I have felt guilty about shipping all this crap to my friends and customers. I started to take a razor knife, and cut the box at the corners, this allows me to fold the top flaps in further and makes the box far shorter and easier to pick up, I add a lot less packing too! Things were going fine till I got a call from Randy Allmand in Silver City New Mexico. He got a card in the mail that he had packages at the post office he needed to pick up, when he got there, he was told they had been sent illegally, and if the Post Master there in Silver City had wanted too, he could have sent them all the way back to Kent, and forced the sender to repay and resend them legally.
I told Randy, this is insane, if he had an issue, why didn't he take it up with he Post Office that sent it to him? Why does he punish you the 'receiver' for my sins?
I told Randy I wanted to talk to Silver City, they are the only post office in the USA that can bash up a box, and deliver it smashed open all too often, and parts missing,. Randy says, hey they are a lot better now, it's possible that that happened before it got to Silver City, "don't make trouble for me George, this is a small town, and I don't want to be driving down here for every reason the Post Master can think of to hold my mail, besides other people working in that Post Office are always helpful!"
As I set here thinking about the logic of not allowing me to cut the box down, I think about Mother Earth and her needs. What can I fill this box with to assure that pulley arrives inside the box? If it's loose, you can simply rock it back and forth and it will wear a hole through the card board.
The answer is Sand! It's friendly stuff to the planet, it'll keep the pulley centered and it's great packing material.
I was thinking, they're looking to downsize the Post Office, can you imagine a better bureaucrat to transfer to your new Government Health care program than the Post Master at Silver City?
Let's look at the facts here, I did call my Post Office and talked to the manager there, he said. "Even though we decided to mail your package as it was packaged by you, the Post Master in Silver City STILL has the authority to reject it"
I have a lot of experience with the flat rate boxes, both good and bad, but what I like is you don't have to weigh it, just ship the darned thing light or heavy; sometimes I'm in a hurry.
Whatever fits, goes. But when I send a pulley out for example, I use the smaller shipping box that stands 8 inches tall, the pulley is only two inches or so tall, so then I fill up the box with stuff to keep the pulley from bashing a hole throught the box. Several times I've swept the floor of my shop and just poured in saw dust, metal shavings from the lathe, dirty gritty packing, Styrofoam peanuts, and a lot of empty plastic sacks, and more!
One day a friend was watching and said, "The guy you are shipping that off to is going to kick your ass for sending him all that crap! I replied, it's usually Randy Allmand, and yes he's bigger than me, but he can't drive all the way up here from Silver City New Mexico to kick my Ass :-)
Covington Post office views me as a customer, when I finally get to the front of the line, I often get a smile. The folks there noted that it was rather ridiculous to force people to stand in line, so they allow you to drop these prepaid packages that are ready to go on a table to the right of the serving windows, "closely monitored area under the camera's eye". Prior to this, I could wait in line up to 15 minutes to hand the parcel to the person at the window only to have them set it on the same table.
One time I was in downtown Kent, and decided to drop a Flat Rate box there, I saw about a dozen people in line, and one window open, there were other postal workers there, but maybe not qualified to open another window? I went to a window where there were a few packages dropped, and set my prepaid ready to go item down, as I spun around to leave, the guy behind the counter yelled at me. "Hey you can't do that, it's against the law!, pick that package up and get in line like everyone else!" I sheepishly obeyed, and noticed the other people in line staring at me. As I waited my turn, I was thinking asbot the mistake I made droppign down town in the first place.
I have a lot of experience with shipping pulleys now, and recently I have felt guilty about shipping all this crap to my friends and customers. I started to take a razor knife, and cut the box at the corners, this allows me to fold the top flaps in further and makes the box far shorter and easier to pick up, I add a lot less packing too! Things were going fine till I got a call from Randy Allmand in Silver City New Mexico. He got a card in the mail that he had packages at the post office he needed to pick up, when he got there, he was told they had been sent illegally, and if the Post Master there in Silver City had wanted too, he could have sent them all the way back to Kent, and forced the sender to repay and resend them legally.
I told Randy, this is insane, if he had an issue, why didn't he take it up with he Post Office that sent it to him? Why does he punish you the 'receiver' for my sins?
I told Randy I wanted to talk to Silver City, they are the only post office in the USA that can bash up a box, and deliver it smashed open all too often, and parts missing,. Randy says, hey they are a lot better now, it's possible that that happened before it got to Silver City, "don't make trouble for me George, this is a small town, and I don't want to be driving down here for every reason the Post Master can think of to hold my mail, besides other people working in that Post Office are always helpful!"
As I set here thinking about the logic of not allowing me to cut the box down, I think about Mother Earth and her needs. What can I fill this box with to assure that pulley arrives inside the box? If it's loose, you can simply rock it back and forth and it will wear a hole through the card board.
The answer is Sand! It's friendly stuff to the planet, it'll keep the pulley centered and it's great packing material.
I was thinking, they're looking to downsize the Post Office, can you imagine a better bureaucrat to transfer to your new Government Health care program than the Post Master at Silver City?
Let's look at the facts here, I did call my Post Office and talked to the manager there, he said. "Even though we decided to mail your package as it was packaged by you, the Post Master in Silver City STILL has the authority to reject it"
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
What is a Weasel Fart
What is a Weasle Fart?
That question was asked of me last Saturday, and I just didn't have a clue. I thought there might be others out there in the world struggling to find the definition, and that's the purpose of this page, "To share my new found knowledge."
During the Summer and warmer months, it's easier to find strong thermals that can lift a glider higher. As the late fall and winter months arrive, the lower sun angle heats the ground and air to a lesser extent, and there is less thermal activity.
This is a time when Soaring Birds and those who wish to soar with them learn to make use of the 'weasel fart'.
A weasel fart is a small and light thermal that is far more difficult to 'sniff out' or recognize. The larger thermals with their rough edges are easily recognized by bird and man. Sometimes they are rough enough where gliders bounce off, they sometimes make a 270 degree turn to enter the thermal 'straight on' in an attempt to ride the thermal higher.
Could it be that Mountain Ravens know the Weasel Farts best? They often winter over in their Mountain Retreats and they rely on covering a lot of ground to find food each day. They know when the Sun reaches a certain point in the sky that the Weasel Farts are there to 'sniff out' and by working them carefully they might gain enough elevation to make their winter rounds with far less work. All Ravens know that when the Sun is sinking in the afternoon sky; it's best to be close to home. If you're not, it may be a long 'flap' back to the roost.
Thanks to Mark Chirico at Seattle Paragliding for adding another new phrase to my rather limited vocabulary. Chalk Talk is a fun place to spend a Saturday morning.
George B.
Home
That question was asked of me last Saturday, and I just didn't have a clue. I thought there might be others out there in the world struggling to find the definition, and that's the purpose of this page, "To share my new found knowledge."
During the Summer and warmer months, it's easier to find strong thermals that can lift a glider higher. As the late fall and winter months arrive, the lower sun angle heats the ground and air to a lesser extent, and there is less thermal activity.
This is a time when Soaring Birds and those who wish to soar with them learn to make use of the 'weasel fart'.
A weasel fart is a small and light thermal that is far more difficult to 'sniff out' or recognize. The larger thermals with their rough edges are easily recognized by bird and man. Sometimes they are rough enough where gliders bounce off, they sometimes make a 270 degree turn to enter the thermal 'straight on' in an attempt to ride the thermal higher.
Could it be that Mountain Ravens know the Weasel Farts best? They often winter over in their Mountain Retreats and they rely on covering a lot of ground to find food each day. They know when the Sun reaches a certain point in the sky that the Weasel Farts are there to 'sniff out' and by working them carefully they might gain enough elevation to make their winter rounds with far less work. All Ravens know that when the Sun is sinking in the afternoon sky; it's best to be close to home. If you're not, it may be a long 'flap' back to the roost.
Thanks to Mark Chirico at Seattle Paragliding for adding another new phrase to my rather limited vocabulary. Chalk Talk is a fun place to spend a Saturday morning.
George B.
Home
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Lab
Our Cabin, how things evolve
We've had a remote cabin for many years, it a great proving ground for AE (Alternative Energy) solutions. in the beginning, disposable propane bottles fed the cooking stove and the lantern. About 15 years ago, one of our friends bought us a refill adapter that allowed us to fill disposables from a 5 gallon propane bottle. What a significant savings this seemed to be at the time. Put the empty in the freezer for a bit and then screw it onto the adapter. Sometimes you got a complete refill in one shot, sometimes you needed to return the bottle to the freezer for an additional cool down. Some folks make a tool that allows them to open the safety valve for refills, I always thought this was too much trouble, it's a lot quicker to cool em off before filling. If you're smart, you'll weigh a full bottle and have some idea as to what you need to put back in. If you overfill one, it will vent via the pressure relief valve, if you have a bunch of overfilled bottles in the trunk, and you have a spark, you could blow yourself up. Building a simple balance scale could help you to fill at the proper weight. Placing a drop or two of oil into the valve will help you detect an improperly seated (leaking) valve. Sometimes you can plunge the head of a finish nail into a leaking valve and get a proper seat. Only takes a minute to check them. I carry them in our open utility trailer or in the back of the pickup for an added measure of safety. Done properly, it can save you money. You can get the refill adapter at Harbor Freight, and probably lots of other places. If you're not going to take precautions, spend the extra money and buy the bottles or get an adapter and run your stuff directly from the 5 gallon or larger bottles. We will probably use the smaller bottles for years; running the propane torch, using the lanterns outside for yard lights. Lighting in the out house. They have their place, and we have dozens of them.
Propane makes noise, some lanterns seem to make enough racket where they're hard to talk over. On top of this annoyance, they are a safety hazard. The longer you listen to them hiss, the more attractive electric lights get. Of course, you could try kerosene, we did, but it was difficult to get a good wick, good lamp and good fuel all at the same time. There were times I thought we'd be better off with smudge pots. I know some people get the hang of it, but we never did.
Sooner or later, you rediscover the electric light. I used to grab tail light bulbs out of junked cars, I'd collect them in a little plastic box for replacement bulbs and lighting solutions at one cabin or the other. You often start out with a Deep Cycle battery from Wall Mart and run 12 volt stuff. Some folks find a little black and white 12 volt TV and enjoy getting a little bit of the evening news. You can haul your battery back to your vehicle for a charge now and then, but as you would expect this gets old after you do it for a few years, or is it the fact that we get older?
The next step seems to be the modified sign wave inverter. Connect this with short heavy leads to your battery and you will do away with many of the problems found with the poor man's 12 volt system mentioned above. With the inverter, you can power 120 Volt AC compact florescent fixtures and have bright lights with a lot less current draw off the batteries. I personally like the 13 watt twisted bulbs that are found in lots of stores across the country. You can power almost all the small household appliances off a decent inexpensive inverter, TV, Satellite receiver, blender, electric shaver, Computer, Water pump, and much more. If the Modified sine wave inverter was this cheap in 1980, I would have gone this way from the start. The inverter does use a little energy in the standby mode, but running 12 volts any distance creates more losses than a run of 120 volts AC.
After you start living with 120 volts AC off the grid, you start plugging in more things. You discover direct TV, and how easy it is to run your receiver and color TV off a small inverter. In fact, I found our 19 inch color TV, and DSS receiver ran very well off a $40 inverter! Ahh, the cabin is getting very comfortable.. propane for heating water, you can take a hot shower, catch up on the news before bed and enjoy the peace and quiet when you want it. Pretty soon you're spending more time there and pushing your system to the limits. Don and Patti Rowe have the best deals on inexpensive inverters I could find, and I looked a long time, check them out.
You may have arrived at a point in life where it might be worthwhile (or at least fun) to know what the world has to offer in the way of off the grid solutions. There's good news for folks that enjoy working with their hands, lots of this stuff can be built at home for less money. If you have wind at your site, consider building your own wind machine, if you have lots of sun, buy some solar panels and build your own system. If you're forced to use an engine for your power source, maybe there's a way to harness more of that energy and put it to work heating water for the shower or washing dishes?
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