One year ago today: July 25, 2023 poorly written.
Five years ago today: July 25, 2019, working under the house.
Nine years ago today: July 25, 2015, mysterious ducts
Random years ago today: July 25, 2012, I bought the sidecar.
Another sale, this one $40. That’s all it takes. The reason you hear this first is twofold. One, I check the orders first thing in the morning, usually 5:30AM. Two, the novelty of the eBay sales has not yet worn off. Sylvania 6KD6 (six volts six active pins of 9 available), Box 6, Shelf 2. Soon as it’s light enough to take out the trash, I’ll get it from the shed on the way back. Just like that. I also sold three more pairs of doll eyes, which I know nothing of, but get the commission since I handle the orders from here. Once more, the orders are in my email, but no in my eBay message center.
I contacted Agt. M for the new stereo CD, asking if a more modern upgrade is available. That player is a must for long distance travel, as music CDs can bore me almost as much as all the Bible radio. Remind me to have him find a better set of speakers, I hear a slight rattle at volume. Oh, we have another order, I’ll be right back. I declined the offer and by this time the red cardinals are all over the back yard and it is light. It’s coffee time; wonderful sounds are best accompanied by wonderful aromas. Allow me to make the coffee and you will agree.
That gives me a small project for the day. My GE cassette tape deck, Model No. 3-5301B, made in Indonesia. It has an earphone jack and a six-volt power input jack, which I can make into a reliable portable unit. Curious what the B meant, I downloaded the manual. My own home filing system is not so great. It becomes outdated as things around here are generally on the move. I had a whole folder of those peel-off vinyl numbers saved, but where? Now I need them to label the boxes and they’ve disappeared. I’ll find them but what a hassle. Never mind, I found them and a whole carton of mailing envelopes worth around $20. The blog that dares to feature a sheet of used lettering. Then again, I did not spend the morning watching TV.
Abandoned cabins, Colorado.
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Yep, I need ten minutes in a room with a cattle prod and the people who designed the eBay order system. I see it now, a bunch of dumb bastards who know nothing about shipping throwing random pieces together over the years to patch the flaw. Worst episode so far is me looking into orders for anything new coming in. Then I discover items that are paid don’t go through the order screen, they go direct to “paid & shipped”. No notice of payment, it took me an hour to figure out how idiots process that scheme. Now, in keeping with blog rules, I am compelled to show you a picture of some flattened cardboard boxes. These are sliced to the proper dimensions and used to categorize the tubes. It was a big part of this afternoon, so it rates mention. Exciting? That depends on many things, including how it compares to what others did instead. Nomsayn?
Whoops, that photo got posted upside down. Isn’t that just too bad? Then I find out, imagine this, people who have been using the [eBay] system don’t know themselves what is going on. They’ve memorized the series of seemingly haphazard screens to get through the system and now can’t explain what is going on to somebody who is following he flow of events. The system is fraught with pitfalls, but there will never be improvement because they have a majority of users conditioned to skid by on the surface. Ask them to explain the order, payment, and shipping process start to finish in chronological order and you get a blank stare. The really don’t know.
Another snafu is the refund system. If I didn’t say, the listing screen for inputting orders has a dozen of so text boxes, all set to overtype. Except one, the quantity. It defaults to insert mode. To a touch typist like me, I knew this would spell trouble. Somehow a quantity of 8 got entered when I only had 2. Making matters worse, there are two spaces labeled quantity. Once for the quantity for sale, and a second which should be more correctly called “count”.
Next thing you know, some guy orders 8. I cancel the order and send him a message that I have only two. Aha, so other people also have the same e-mail problem—eBay has two message screens and you can only hope the other guy reads the correct one. Anyway, eBay overrides the cancel and lets him order 8 and bills him for $140. Since nothing is shipped yet, I’ve seen this before. It is best to cancel the original order in its entirety and start over. So I sent the guy a refund by hitting the refund button. The display comes back that he only gets $113. You can’t correct it. It behaves like there is a fee to send a refund to be paid by the buyer.
I’ll get it, but the system was designed similar to GPS, that is, graphics artists who did not understand the underlying process or an understanding of maps. I have another order, I’ve learned not to look in orders, but to see whether I’ve been paid or not. If so, like as many users as has eBay, I assume everything else went as it should, duh. For clarity, if I see the money, I ship it regardless of any of the schmozzle of other things that might be wrong in the process. Screw ‘em. And nobody already in the system is a good teacher, because they’ve all swallowed the same bunk. They get frustrated because to them it seems so simple—but a trained shipper receiver like me wants a single page that displays the complete status of an order instead of four random pages. For example, the page that shows the price does not display the order number.
I believe this is the last one of this batch. There will be more, as nothing will make a cabin this old totally proof. They love that attic best, they can come down between any of the interior walls to feed. Part of the plan is to note they prefer “people food”, having learned to avoid spring traps and regular bait. It has to be peanut butter, French bread, or cooked macaroni, and even then you must ensure there is nothing else, not even a crumb on the floor; No mean feat around here, as I still have not got a decent vacuum cleaner. The vermin make scurrying noise, which has now ceased, and giving me hope this is the final critter in this brood.
If you miss the days when this blog reported things like thousand-mile motorcycle trips, well, so do I, pal, so do I.
ADDENDUM
Quite late, I dropped over to the club we played last week to see what. The crowd loved us but the decision is layered through the upper staff. Fortunately, we had a favorable impression, plus the eldest member (the guy who is 92) said he wanted us back. I mentioned to the Commander that for my guitarist, that’s 45 mile round trip. He caught my meaning, saying he would take care of that. I was in the library until closing, other than that the Reb called later whild walking Chooks. Sammy is now almost into a world of his own. Nobody wants to say goodbye.
