Day: January 30, 2008

I weep for the unfairness of life

By / January 30, 2008 / 2 Comments

Lately I have been lamenting the things in my life which must lay idle. I have the capability to make my home truly beautiful. I have the ability to create a wondrous garden in my yard. I could write stories and novels and get them published. I could devote myself to my children and help them to excel. I could push forward on efforts to help the cartooning business grow. If I pursued just one of these things I could be superlative. But in order to be superlative in one area, I’d have to give up other areas. And so I must pick and choose. My inner child whines and stamps her feet at this because she wants it all.

Then today came several reminders that I, who am incredibly blessed, should not be so greedy. Today I heard from a childhood friend whose current life is extremely narrow because of ill health. The life she is living does not at all resemble the one that she dreamed of when we spent hours spinning futures for ourselves. Today I heard from another dear friend who is struggling with an extremely high-risk surprise pregnancy, a house to sell, a house half-built, four kids, and the probable loss of the job which pays the bills. Many factors in her current situation are not of her choosing. Today I thought of friends who struggle with depression. Today I thought of friends who live far from family and have no companionship local to them. Today I realized that I am not the only one who cries tears in private over things she can not do. Today I remembered there are people who have so much more right to cry than I do. Today I wept a little on their behalf.

Today I realized that rather than stomping my feet and struggling to pick up all my things at once, I need to leave some of them laying where they are. Then my hands will be free to reach out and help some of these others who are suffering so much more than I.

Postal Education

By / January 30, 2008 / 11 Comments

Today at the post office I learned several new things about mailing.

1. If you bring in 200 tubes to be mailed, make sure to sort the tubes first according to mail type. This wins you loads of goodwill from the employees who would really rather not deal with tubes at all. If you forget to sort ahead of time, staying to help sort also wins you goodwill.

2. Try to time your arrival with 200 tubes for a not-busy time of day like 8 am. The employees are much more willing to help when there is no line of people waiting.

3. The goodwill from postal employees means that when you make mistakes on allowable types of shipping, they are happy to help you correct them. Not only that, but they will then explain a bunch of information that while technically available online is nigh impossible to find or make sense of.

4. No package containing an invoice can be sent via media mail. The books can be sent media mail, but the invoice has to be sent separately. (This is the end of us using media mail as a shipping option because I use invoices to make sure that the right contents go into the right packages.)

5. Up to four pounds can be sent internationally via first class mail. This is cheaper than Priority Mail which I thought was the only option. I’d assumed that first class mail disallowed anything but letters. This is excellent news for customers abroad.

6. Up to a pound can be sent domestically via first class mail. This is good news for domestic print buyers.

7. Just because you’ve been shipping things for over a year doesn’t mean you actually understand what you are doing.

Patches’ ears

By / January 30, 2008 / 5 Comments

Patches has been having trouble sleeping. At the beginning of January both Patches and Gleek were having bad dreams. I started sitting in the hallway at bedtime and the issue resolved for Gleek. Patches kept waking up at night to come crawl into bed with Howard and I. He claims he does it because of bad dreams, but is unable to describe the dreams to us.

Then this morning he curled into a little ball and wailed because his ear was hurting. Everything clicked into place. Children with fluid behind their eardrums will frequently have disturbed sleep patterns. They go to sleep just fine, but the fluid collects and pressure builds until the kids wake up. Now I’m looking at all those awake-way-too-early mornings and the irrationally cranky times that Patches has been having lately. It is suddenly blindingly obvious that he’s been suffering from chronic fluid filled ears. Both Kiki and Link suffered similar problems, so I’ve seen this before.

I took Patches to the doctor. Sure enough, his ears are filled with fluid. So now we spend a week giving him decongestants and letting him chew a lot of gum. Then next week the doctor will look at his ears again. If they’re still full of fluid, then we’re off to the ENT and probably headed for ear tubes. I’m so glad to have found an answer to why Patches has been struggling and cranky for this whole month.