Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.
Today we made the 80 mile round trip back to Dallas to yet another clinic appointment. Today's was to the hand doctor to see about getting a shorter cast (on that allowed my wife's elbow to bend). We decided to take an alternate route and take a side road for 2.5 miles to cut out our time on 35E North. Our last trip was quite frustrating since we spent about 40 minutes on 35E North (and we only had to go 4 miles). This time I was determined to avoid that road but since the hospital clinic is just off that highway that presented a problem. I really like the new google maps, specifically the way you can drag your route to include side roads and Google will automatically find the best route including that road. I found a promised east/west road and made sure my route included it and not 35E North. This cut down on the total miles but increased our estimated travel time. There was only one problem though and we did not know about it until we took the exit for this road. The problem was that the road was closed and I mean closed for 2 of the 2.5 miles that I wanted to take it. So we meandered north and south and west until we got past the closed part and all was well. We still made great time compared to our last trip. Sadly, the wife had to keep her splint on that they had installed during her 2nd day at the hospital. They did add a layer of hardened material so instead of a smaller, lighter cast we ended up with the same cast only heavier and harder. We are supposed to go back in 2 weeks for a follow up. Her neck doctor appointment is next week so it is possible she will have her neck brace off before her cast.
Yesterday I wanted to run to the Frisco library as the (4) movies I had checked out were due and we had watched them all (or at least enough of the bad ones to know we did not want to continue - who would have known the original "Cheaper By The Dozen" really sucked?). I also needed to buy some stamps for my once a month mailing of our lease check. I headed down the road to the Frisco library. It happens to be located directly across from Pizza Hut Park. Yesterday happened to be the date of Edgefest 17 which is an all day festival of hard rock music sponsored by a local radio station. Tickets were like 50 bucks and it started at 10 AM. By the time I got to the library around 2 PM, the parking lots were full, the side street parking up to 3/4 miles away was full as well. I was quite committed to bring home some different movies so I parked a long way off and made my way to the library amongst throngs of beer toting young people who seemed quite indifferent to the parking situation. The music was quite loud despite the distance and you could hear it pretty well inside the library even. I picked out some movies quickly and jogged back to the car and was on my way to my 2nd errand.
I needed cash in order to buy stamps at the Frisco USPS and seeing as how I usually get cash at the ATM inside my place of work I had to find another ATM that would not hit me with a surcharge. There happened to be one down the street from where the USPS was located so I stopped in there first and got a $20 bill. I briefly thought about buying a coke or candy bar to make change just in case but thought it would be rather fun to pay the kid's allowance in Sacagawea dollars. I exited the 7-eleven and headed down the street for my stamps. The postage vending machine was easily found and took my $20 bill on the first try. The LED screen stated that I had $20 in credit and then it said that no more than $5 would be given in change. I quickly figured in my head that this would mean that I would need to buy 2 books of stamps (at $8.40 each) and then one single stamp. They were forever stamps so I thought, "Why not?" Well let me tell you why not, it is because you cannot buy more than quantity one of a book of stamps at a time. When I punched in the code for the book of stamps it just reiterated the $5 max change message and then spit my 20 back out. This begs the question, 'If you will not give more than $5 change and if the highest price item is $8.40 then why would your vending machine even take $20 bills?" Since it was Sunday, there was no handy US Postal worker to ask this question to so I took my 20 and headed back to the 7-eleven. By the time I arrived back, there was some sort of great Slurpee rush or something going on as the line to the register was quite long. I bought a 2 liter of Coke for just under $2 leaving me with a $10, $5 and (3) $1's. I got back to the postal vending machine and try as I might (and I tried around 10 times) the machine would not take my $10. No problem I thought, I have 40 cents in my pocket and a 5 and three 1's so I will just get a book of stamps. However, after taking my $5 bill, the machine would take no more bills. It would not even suck them in! My only option then was to buy some 41 cent stamps and some 1 cent stamps. I bought 10 each and got out of there and made the 5 mile trip back home.
Life should not be this hard folks. I just wanted to rent some movies and buy some stamps. Well, the kids are bathed and awaiting me to come into the living room to watch one of those hard fought for movies. Until next time...
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
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