I recently had a couple of experiences with two of the biggest shipping companies in the world that made me laugh. In the first case, said company delayed a delivery to our office because a suite number was missing. Amazing that a company can ensure packages reach their destination anywhere in the world but cannot find a suite in a building with only two floors being occupied. Even better, the package was sent on a Tennessee day trip just to make it back to Tempe that same evening.
The second experience with a different shipping company, although this is probably not their fault, we recently bought a new computer system for the office. We have been receiving the system, one box at a time over the last three years. I felt I needed to apologize to the delivery person after the third daily delivery in a row and even offerred him something to drink for his trouble. Based on his comment, it appears it is not unusual and he told us a lot of computers are being delivered over the last few days!
It seems like last summer, all that was talked about was the fires that were spread all across the state. This summer, in a sudden turn of events, the talk has moved to a side-effect of several fires near the Phoenix metropolitan area: blackouts!
Punished by heat and humidity, metro Phoenix pushed its weakened power grid to the limit Monday, and utility officials fear continued muggy weather will push the system to the point of collapse.
The high temperature Monday was 112 degrees, with the dew point at 64 degrees. Demand for electricity from APS and Salt River Project peaked at 11,967 megawatts Monday.
So these last few days, we all have been asked to conserve power when possible.Our office is completely dark except for a few desktop lamps and the AC has been set to a higher temperature — something that never happens around this office.
As you know already both Sarah and I took some a few days off this week to spend time with friends and family that were visiting us. It would’ve been just another extended weekend had it not been for a couple of things.
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Today I had to return to the office after a great weekend with friend and family. It was a bit weird to go back but something that I could not longer avoid. We spent the weekend under the sun, mostly playing golf and hanging out at the pool. The weekend may also be the last time that I can just goof off for a few days in the next few months. I hope I am wrong about that but we’ll see what the future holds.
It was nice to be away from the computer for a little while, I would say the only thing that I missed during this break, was the lack of information about what is going on in the world around you. I guess that is a side-effect from disconnecting yourself from the www, something that I am quite happy to do once in a while.
Clinton is in town for a week-end of golf and a few days to relax under the sun. I’ll be back after a few days.
