Starting today (November 20, 2010) and going throughout January 15, 2011, I'll be adding to this blog-entry. Will explain the choice of dates later. Right now, however, I'm going out to run errands--which will include shopping for our kids. Catch you later. (Current time is 8:41 a.m., btw...)
Mini-Entry #2
It's a little after ten at night on the same day, and I had a wonderful shopping day. Because of my lymphedema and the fact that I'm not to the stage where I can wear footwear yet, I rarely do a lot of walking around outside of in my own home, but I made the exception today in order to actively participate in the IYN project for Christmas of contributing items to go into gift bags that will be passed out in San Diego, California--a place where runaway kids migrate to from many parts of the country due to its relatively-favorable year 'round climate.
The first place I went to was the post office in Markleville (Note: To those who don't already know, any town that isn't followed by the name of a state will be somewhere in my home state of Indiana. Because this is read all over the world, I'll follow all other towns/cities with the name of a state, even if it's obvious to U.S. citizens that New York City is in New York and Chicago is in Illinois.). I wish I had been thinking more clearly at the time, and I would have gotten the name of the nice person who waited on me there.
Anyway, I chose the Markleville post office because of it's closeness to the parking lot and it's extra-easy access for handicapped people. The purpose of going there was to pick up three flat-rate, ready-to-seal boxes for priority mail. One box would be used to send items, and the others would be used in the future for whatever...
From there, I went on to shop at the Dollar General Store in Pendleton.
Two very pleasant clerks helped me out there.
Dawn was the one whose line I went through when it was time to check out, and she was very helpful in honoring my request to put the items I'd gotten for IYN into one bag and to put items I'd bought for my personal use into another.
When I shop for the purpose of putting together a box to send to our headquarters (something I hadn't been able to do for a long time, even though I made regular donations through PayPal as well as doing my online shopping through GoodShop so that a percentage of what I paid would go to IYN), I usually get the box ready to mail except for one side. As I shop, I will place the items inside of the box so that I can tell how close it is to getting full. I like to fill the boxes to capacity without getting them so full that they won't close properly.
The other clerk, Melinda, not only directed me when it came to finding some items I needed in a store that had recently been rearranged (Pardon the interruption, but I need to make a trip to the little girls room and, then, call my mom to tell her goodnight.)...
(Still busy with some other things. . .Will continue this story a.s.a.p.)...
It's now early on Sunday morning with several hours of sleep between where I left this off and now, so I will continue this story before starting another one.
As I was saying a little bit ago about Melinda, she not only showed me where some of the items I was looking for were now located after the store had been rearranged to accommodate Christmas shopping displays, but she was also nice enough to go out with me to my car (which, for those who don't know, is actually my mom's car, which I'm driving until mine gets repaired and fitted with a current license plate) and help me to put things inside.
From there, it was on to the post office.
By now, the Markleville post office was closed (closing at eleven on Saturdays), so I went to the one on Raible Avenue in Anderson. There's a longer distance to walk before getting inside and to the service counter, but it keeps later hours and has very handicap-friendly access as well.
I was waited on by a very helpful clerk named Kim.
It had been awhile since I'd sent off a TLC package (or any kind of package using express or priority mail), so I got a very helpful refresher course from her.
For one thing, I'd been sending packages by express mail at previous times. It got them to their continental USA destinations very quickly (generally overnight) and for a flat rate, but it cost a few dollars more (not quite four dollars more, as it turns out). Priority mail gets things there almost as fast (generally, within two to three business days) and, in one of the special boxes which I've described, only costs $10.70 to send.
For those wanting to send TLC packages to IYN containing items from our wish list, this would be the way to go. The size to which I'm referring is what's called the medium sized box, and it's around the size of a shirt box. You'd be amazed at how much one of those boxes can hold without popping open!
Anyway, I have more to tell, but I will save that for another entry...
Mini-Entry #3
It's now Sunday morning at a little after eight-thirty (11/21/10), and I'm here to write a little more. One thing I've decided to do is to make this entry also serve as a kind of ongoing Christmas newsletter, so I'll be connecting here to a journal with the unusual name of:
Begun On Birch Bayh's 81st. Birthday
A journal begun on Thursday, January 22, 2009
Below is how it got it's name (the introduction that appears at the location of the blog):
Welcome to my main blog (that is, the one I'm using as a kind of journal or diary about anything and everything) here at WDC!!!
How did it get it's title?
The answer is that I started it on the 81st Birthday of former U.S. Senator from Indiana, Birch Evans Bayh, so I thought that it would be a pretty catchy title.
Since its first entry on January 22, 2009, it has been written in "once in awhile" but, as of now (meaning March 7, 2010), it should be written in on a much more regular basis, so please keep checking back. . .
In order to keep this blog-entry from becoming too long with too many things, I'm going to be delegating my information to various other locations and try to keep this entry area as directly related to IYN activities as possible through the time I write my last part of it on January 15, 2011.
Continue to come back here, as I haven't finished building the infrastructure of this blog-entry--and won't have it finished until sometime on January 15.
That's all for now. Catch ya later!. . .
Mini-Entry #4
Here I am back in spite of modem trouble and other glitches--including being blocked from logging onto Blogger/Blogspot. Wasn't for anything personal. Just a site glitch of some sort. This I know because the problem was a widespread one instead of being one I was experiencing alone.
Anyway, I'm glad that I'm here finally. . .
A whole lot is happening with IYN and can best be found out by visiting our website. You can find two links to that in the right-hand margin of this blog.
I'm quite a bookworm, so, when I buy books these days, I try to shop using GoodShop. Not only that, but I encourage others to do the same.
I'm hoping to get back to Epinions again and start writing there more. Ditto re: Writing.com. Some of the things I'll be writing there are book reviews, and I'll definitely be encouraging those reading them to use the GoodShop portal at least part of the time.
That's all for now...
P.S. I think it's about time to start decking the halls a little...
Mini-Entry #5
It's Christmas Eve, and there has been a change in plans. This will be the last addition to this blog-entry. I'm now going to be starting a new one...
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