Feb 11 - dunning

I spent much of the day sending/exchanging emails with people signed up for the Sunshine 1200k ride in May.  I'm chasing people to finalize their registration information so that I can lock in hotels and ferry.  People don't read, they mess things up, they pay for things twice and not at all for others -- life doesn't have to be this difficult !

I still have many "?" marks against people.  http://www.sunshine1200k.com/purchases.pdf

They've booked hotels but not ferry or the other way around, some inconsistency or something that makes me think that they haven't done all the required bookings.  Whether it's their fault or not, if they get to Key West, for example, without a reservation and have to sleep in the lobby of a hotel or scramble to share with someone else, it will ruin their ride.  I want to make it the best experience possible.

Then, of course, there are the other questions that float in ... can you handle an extra bag with my CPAP and make sure that it's at the overnight hotels (yup, know about those as Jeffrey has one); I'm bringing an extra bag with multiple cameras, chargers and laptop, can you manage that ... ok, make it small and non-fragile !  Our luggage truck is going to be challenged, I can tell.  I'll probably bring my little trailer just in case, for things that can move from Key West to the ride's end without seeing the light of day.  I just know we're going to be loaded up.

I'm up to 1624 in my FL 1200k inbox.  I'm sure that I also have 1000 outbound emails. 

On Tuesday I had scheduled a USPS pickup.  With a package to mail that doesn't fit in the mailbox and not wanting to simply leave things out on the grass, you can schedule a pickup.  You indicate where the parcel will be and the postman or lady, gets out of their truck and takes it away.  Most of the time they don't have to leave their truck.

So on Tuesday the mailman came and went and the parcels were still sitting at the front door.  Imagine my surprise when I then got an email saying that they'd been picked up !  What does one do then ?  So I called the Post Office, never really expecting to get any satisfaction.  After a long wait I finally got through.  I then had a hilarious story for George Cederholm and called him straight away, too good not to share.

Long story short, I simply scheduled another pickup.  I didn't register a complaint -- why bother.  The agent told me that sometimes they scan before they get the package.  What do they scan ?  She didn't know. 
Here was the funny part -- "To  be honest with you, I don't know how it works".  George and I had recently exchanged emails about a co-worker who used that phrase a lot.  Cracked me up.

Well, second day lucky.  The mail is gone.  It's too bad that it takes just as long to get from the front door into the mail truck as it does to cross the country !

We're not spending much on A/C these days.  In fact, my bill just came in for the last month and the $ spent on water almost exactly = the $ spent on power.  That won't last long.  On the other hand, our natural gas bill is higher than normal ... but that's still < $50.  

Today ... ride hopefully ...

Onward !