I could see myself doing this, especially if I knew that today was the deadline for that sort of payment. Finding it, picking it up and taking it home, and meaning to deliver it to you every time I left the front door but somehow, never quite getting round to it. And then feeling very ashamed when I finally got round to it, and running away having dropped it off.
We have the world's worst mail system locally, including a mailman who regularly drives the wrong way on a one-way street and has almost collided with me several times. Our mail regularly gets mixed up with our neighbors, and it's a rare month where I don't have something belonging to a neighbor that I need to go and hand-carry back to them! And they to me...
The problem, of course, is that I am, ah, not the best when it comes to executive function, and in fact I can end up sitting on someone else's piece of mail for days or even weeks (small whisper: or months) simply because i can't get my shit together enough to hand it back to them. And then, of course, I feel horribly guilty, particularly if I can tell it is something important (as your visitor probably could). If I had gotten a bit of your outgoing mail mixed into my incoming mail by somebody else's incompetence, I might easily have spent the last several weeks intending to give it back to you, and remembering it at 3 a.m., and resolving to do better, and fucking up...
And only getting it back to you when the guilt and alarm became so overwhelming they overcame my dysfunction and forced me into action. And I would have done exactly what your (probable) neighbor did.
Not intending to scare you. Just being dysfunctional.
Very odd. There's probably a simple (!) explanation somewhere, as nothing seems to have been stolen...
I wonder if he stole the mail, from my box, before the postman picked it up. Saw who it was addressed to and figured he would have trouble cashing it, and so decided to return it.
That might explain how he got hold of the envelope in the first place. I did wonder if perhaps the postman had dropped it, without noticing that he'd done so...
But why would he do that?
Surely throwing it in a bin, or just dropping it for someone else to find, would be easier & less risky than possibly being seen and maybe recognised returning it to your address.
Seems a shame that someone who might have found it lying in the street, and has gone out of his way to bring it to you, should be suspected of nefarious intent.
But why would he do that?
Surely throwing it in a bin, or just dropping it for someone else to find, would be easier & less risky than possibly being seen and maybe recognised returning it to your address.
Seems a shame that someone who might have found it lying in the street, and has gone out of his way to bring it to you, should be suspected of nefarious intent.
Very likely, but I would honor a reformed thief. What seemed strange was not ringing the bell and hurrying away in the dark. I doubt it was found in the street as it was as pristine as when I had addressed it. I will never know, I am just glad to have it returned.
OpenReach. Van parked on the pavement and idling while I'm trying to get past on my crutches. Driver seemed unconcerned he was forcing me out into the road and polluting the atmosphere. Next time I'll squeeze past and tough shit if my crutches catch the paintwork. Inconsiderate twat.
OpenReach themselves bloody useless. Didn't think to get the reg no. and they refuse to deal with the complaint without - I refuse to believe that they can't cross-reference the address and time and figure out exactly who it was. Scarcely the point though - their engineers pull this sort of shit all the time, along with far too many other people.
Oh, I wasn't invisible. Not once I'd banged on his window anyway. The crutches just happen to be my particular reason for being particularly annoyed on this particular occasion. Young children are also invisible to them, like the ones that another van driver parked directly in front of beside a busy main road I was walking them down some years ago, and again couldn't seem to understand why he was being an utter turd.
Ah well - I don't have any experience of being incommoded by OpenReach engineers, but I have been nearly knocked over by hurrying passers-by in the supermarket, and in the car park appertaining thereto.
Be it noted that it's men who do this - women seem to be very much more aware of an Old Man on crutches.
Yes, that's a weird thing about the way we're socialized--it's invariably men who knock into me if we're both approaching a spot where it's narrow enough that someone has to step aside, and for whatever reason, I choose not to, that one time. (Maybe I'm holding a child, maybe I'm on crutches or pushing a stroller, maybe I've got two bags of groceries in my arms. Some sensible and very visible reason.) A sensible person with working eyesight would note the problem and choose to wait or step aside at the narrow bit. Women always do. Maybe half of men do. The other half barrel on through and then stare at me, puzzled, as if they hadn't noticed I existed, while I pick myself and my encumbrances off the sidewalk. It's not ill will, it's that they genuinely didn't register I existed until we made physical contact. So weird.
I may add that not only are women much more aware of a Pheeble Old Man on crutches, but also much more willing to help, if they can. My local Co-Op and Tesco food shops are especially good at this.
Friend's car broke down and she needed help to push it to the side of the street. Did any of the young men who passed by a-flexing of their muscles and a-walking of their big dogs help? Nope. But the woman with three children and a load of shopping did.
To be fair, though, some men do sometimes rise to the occasion. A while back, my car broke down outside the village Co-Op (dead battery), and I phoned my Neighbour F to come and rescue me. It took a few minutes for him to arrive, and (noticing that I was still there, with the car bonnet open), the young chap on duty in the shop came out to offer help - his own car was parked nearby. A kind thought, but Neighbour F arrived just at that moment.
I wonder if, for reasons that don't do to dwell upon, women and girls are socialised to be more aware of their surroundings, whereas a man can walk around oblivious and feel completely safe.
I think it’s that women and girls are trained to take the feelings and needs of others into account from early childhood, while some men are not—and give us all a clear look at what human beings are like in their natural state.
I seem to remember some women playing what they called Patriarchy Chicken - in situations where they would normally step to one side to let a man pass, they would stand still for the man to go round them, and it was interesting to see how many men walked straight into them.
I seem to remember some women playing what they called Patriarchy Chicken - in situations where they would normally step to one side to let a man pass, they would stand still for the man to go round them, and it was interesting to see how many men walked straight into them.
My issue walking through crowds is moving to dodge someone and them moving in the same direction then both of us trying to dodge the other way too before we get close enough to collide.
I seem to remember some women playing what they called Patriarchy Chicken - in situations where they would normally step to one side to let a man pass, they would stand still for the man to go round them, and it was interesting to see how many men walked straight into them.
My issue walking through crowds is moving to dodge someone and them moving in the same direction then both of us trying to dodge the other way too before we get close enough to collide.
Yes - at which point, hopefully, mutual amusement occurs...
I seem to remember some women playing what they called Patriarchy Chicken - in situations where they would normally step to one side to let a man pass, they would stand still for the man to go round them, and it was interesting to see how many men walked straight into them.
My issue walking through crowds is moving to dodge someone and them moving in the same direction then both of us trying to dodge the other way too before we get close enough to collide.
Yes - at which point, hopefully, mutual amusement occurs...
My issue walking through crowds is moving to dodge someone and them moving in the same direction then both of us trying to dodge the other way too before we get close enough to collide.
Whenever that happens to me, I give them a big grin and say, "Shall we dance?".
As for "giving way" to people, my walk to work includes a rather narrow bit of pavement which is littered with obstacles: wheelie-bins, lamp-posts, planters with flowers, tables outside cafes and restaurants, you name it ...
There's a raised bit of walkway between the pavement and the road at the narrowest point, and if I notice someone with (say) a pushchair coming towards me, I'll go up on to the raised bit. If there's someone coming towards me and one of the aforementioned obstacles is in my path, I'll wait and let them pass. I don't care whether they're male or female; I just think it's polite to wait.
I feel mildly irritated if they don't bother to acknowledge or say thank you, and I might mutter "you're welcome" under my breath, but to be honest it doesn't bother me a jot.
TICTH Farcebark; when they tell me that 150 people have put messages on my timeline for my birthday, why can I only see two at a time? I'd like to be able to at least react with a "❤" to everyone, but I can't if it won't let me see the messages!
TICTH Farcebark; when they tell me that 150 people have put messages on my timeline for my birthday, why can I only see two at a time? I'd like to be able to at least react with a "❤" to everyone, but I can't if it won't let me see the messages!
Can I give them a kick as you put them in the fiery furnace? In the last week I've seen several clearly fake shop ads for merchandise I know doesn't exist - at the very least it's fake unlicenced merch and much more likely it's a scam and the shop and merch don't even exist at all.
Bookfarce have rejected all my reports and let the adverts stay up.
I honestly think that social media companies need to be held criminally responsible as accessories to fraud if they don't take down fraudulent ads when they have them reported to them.
Oh yes, report blatantly illegal activity (selling passports, driving licences etc) and that “doesn’t go against their community standards”, but say a rude word and you get banned
Same @Piglet, I'm on a different platform, and would dearly love to ditch it, but it's a place where I get good covid info and see disability advocates that I respect, so I am still there, but feel conflicted about it
A certain large supermarket company which I must not name. They have rejected a tender to renew the contract to supply a major item, unless a new leader is in place from the supplier. So my son loses his job, although he was working to secure the best deal for his company.
A certain large supermarket company which I must not name. They have rejected a tender to renew the contract to supply a major item, unless a new leader is in place from the supplier. So my son loses his job, although he was working to secure the best deal for his company.
From the other side of the world you probably can't see the steam coming out of my ears but I sincerely call self appointed bishop Brian Tamaki and his misguided sycophants to hell for their invasion of a children's event at a library where a transgender man was reading to children. The police are involved and charges may be laid.
(of course this will result in his followers seeing him as some kind of martyr)
This is the same idiot who claimed that the earthquakes in Christchurch were caused by the number of gay people here. I said to one of my gay friends that if I had known gays were so powerful I would have been in fear and trembling.
Like another Brian - "he's not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy."
Am grumpily consigning to the hot place everything to do with pathology charge changes where I live and the pain of dealing with an interstate hospital. Form has been received from them with incorrect address (which I notified them of about 5 years ago). Then having to ring collection rooms to find out what the charged for items are going to be. Form has 10+ tests to be run and some will have to be paid for. Stupid stupid government doing this for people who need tests all the time!!!
Further to my post about the self appointed bishop - today's paper had some brilliant letters to the editor. NZ has recently passed a law banning gang patches. Someone suggested this law should also cover the bishop's henchmen, who also wear patches which I thought was a brilliant suggestion.
I noticed from the accompanying photos that some of these men were wearing t shirts that proclaimed them to be "Real Men". I don't think real men go around terrorising children listening to stories at a library.
I also realised that this hit me harder than I realised because libraries have always been a safe place foe me, and those people turned it into an unsafe place.
I couldn't agree with you more @Huia, libraries should be safe spaces for everyone! They are really important places in communities.
I often think of the oldies who used to visit weekly along with the preschool storytime crowd, the kids who would come in after school, the homeless guys who would come in to read the papers and warm up on a cool morning. The fill as many needs as possible and divisive people can stay away!!
Classic FM!
I appreciate that its overnight output is designed for those who have to be awake by necessity, but as a bad sleeper I do not always appreciate their choices.
Having already been involuntarily awake for 2hrs at 4am this morning, and desperate to get a couple more hours sleep before I had to get up I did not appreciate having my brain further stimulated by Copeland's Fanfare for The Common Man particularly as it was followed by America from West Side Story and then Beethoven's Eroica.
So here I am, a further 2+ hours gone by, still awake with the morning traffic whizzing past the window.
Might as well get up now
I share your pain. If I wake and can’t get back to sleep ( 5.30 this morning), because of tinnitus I put Classic fm on, but I too find it is often too ‘noisy’, not soothing at all. I suppose night workers need something to keep them awake.
I used to listen to Radio4, but that changes to world service after 1:00-sih, and I didn't find the programmes there very restful. Certainly trying to avoid any programmes broadcasting news atm.
My preference would be audiobooks, but have killed off any number of CD players over the years, from running them repeatedly night after night.
I used to listen to Radio4, but that changes to world service after 1:00-sih, and I didn't find the programmes there very restful. Certainly trying to avoid any programmes broadcasting news atm.
My preference would be audiobooks, but have killed off any number of CD players over the years, from running them repeatedly night after night.
Audiobooks (and podcasts) are available from a variety of sources, including Audible if you're not avoiding Amazon. Our library service has a reasonable, if somewhat eclectic selection.
A certain large supermarket company which I must not name. They have rejected a tender to renew the contract to supply a major item, unless a new leader is in place from the supplier. So my son loses his job, although he was working to secure the best deal for his company.
Comments
We have the world's worst mail system locally, including a mailman who regularly drives the wrong way on a one-way street and has almost collided with me several times. Our mail regularly gets mixed up with our neighbors, and it's a rare month where I don't have something belonging to a neighbor that I need to go and hand-carry back to them! And they to me...
The problem, of course, is that I am, ah, not the best when it comes to executive function, and in fact I can end up sitting on someone else's piece of mail for days or even weeks (small whisper: or months) simply because i can't get my shit together enough to hand it back to them. And then, of course, I feel horribly guilty, particularly if I can tell it is something important (as your visitor probably could). If I had gotten a bit of your outgoing mail mixed into my incoming mail by somebody else's incompetence, I might easily have spent the last several weeks intending to give it back to you, and remembering it at 3 a.m., and resolving to do better, and fucking up...
And only getting it back to you when the guilt and alarm became so overwhelming they overcame my dysfunction and forced me into action. And I would have done exactly what your (probable) neighbor did.
Not intending to scare you. Just being dysfunctional.
I wonder if he stole the mail, from my box, before the postman picked it up. Saw who it was addressed to and figured he would have trouble cashing it, and so decided to return it.
Surely throwing it in a bin, or just dropping it for someone else to find, would be easier & less risky than possibly being seen and maybe recognised returning it to your address.
Seems a shame that someone who might have found it lying in the street, and has gone out of his way to bring it to you, should be suspected of nefarious intent.
The simplest explanation is often the correct one (Occam's Razor).
Very likely, but I would honor a reformed thief. What seemed strange was not ringing the bell and hurrying away in the dark. I doubt it was found in the street as it was as pristine as when I had addressed it. I will never know, I am just glad to have it returned.
Sounds as if things have not improved much since Anthony Trollope described the US porstal system in 1862: http://www.online-literature.com/anthony-trollope/north-america/33/
OpenReach themselves bloody useless. Didn't think to get the reg no. and they refuse to deal with the complaint without - I refuse to believe that they can't cross-reference the address and time and figure out exactly who it was. Scarcely the point though - their engineers pull this sort of shit all the time, along with far too many other people.
I know whereof I speak.
Be it noted that it's men who do this - women seem to be very much more aware of an Old Man on crutches.
I may add that not only are women much more aware of a Pheeble Old Man on crutches, but also much more willing to help, if they can. My local Co-Op and Tesco food shops are especially good at this.
To be fair, though, some men do sometimes rise to the occasion. A while back, my car broke down outside the village Co-Op (dead battery), and I phoned my Neighbour F to come and rescue me. It took a few minutes for him to arrive, and (noticing that I was still there, with the car bonnet open), the young chap on duty in the shop came out to offer help - his own car was parked nearby. A kind thought, but Neighbour F arrived just at that moment.
My issue walking through crowds is moving to dodge someone and them moving in the same direction then both of us trying to dodge the other way too before we get close enough to collide.
Yes - at which point, hopefully, mutual amusement occurs...
Embarrassment. We are, after all, British.
As for "giving way" to people, my walk to work includes a rather narrow bit of pavement which is littered with obstacles: wheelie-bins, lamp-posts, planters with flowers, tables outside cafes and restaurants, you name it ...
There's a raised bit of walkway between the pavement and the road at the narrowest point, and if I notice someone with (say) a pushchair coming towards me, I'll go up on to the raised bit. If there's someone coming towards me and one of the aforementioned obstacles is in my path, I'll wait and let them pass. I don't care whether they're male or female; I just think it's polite to wait.
I feel mildly irritated if they don't bother to acknowledge or say thank you, and I might mutter "you're welcome" under my breath, but to be honest it doesn't bother me a jot.
Can I give them a kick as you put them in the fiery furnace? In the last week I've seen several clearly fake shop ads for merchandise I know doesn't exist - at the very least it's fake unlicenced merch and much more likely it's a scam and the shop and merch don't even exist at all.
Bookfarce have rejected all my reports and let the adverts stay up.
I honestly think that social media companies need to be held criminally responsible as accessories to fraud if they don't take down fraudulent ads when they have them reported to them.
If it weren't for the fact that I find it a useful way to keep in touch with friends, I'd tell him to sling his hook.
Is that not unfair dismissal ?
(of course this will result in his followers seeing him as some kind of martyr)
This is the same idiot who claimed that the earthquakes in Christchurch were caused by the number of gay people here. I said to one of my gay friends that if I had known gays were so powerful I would have been in fear and trembling.
Like another Brian - "he's not the Messiah, just a very naughty boy."
Where I come from, bishops are appointed by other people ...
I noticed from the accompanying photos that some of these men were wearing t shirts that proclaimed them to be "Real Men". I don't think real men go around terrorising children listening to stories at a library.
I also realised that this hit me harder than I realised because libraries have always been a safe place foe me, and those people turned it into an unsafe place.
You're absolutely right - if there's one public space that ought to be completely safe, it would be a library.
I often think of the oldies who used to visit weekly along with the preschool storytime crowd, the kids who would come in after school, the homeless guys who would come in to read the papers and warm up on a cool morning. The fill as many needs as possible and divisive people can stay away!!
I appreciate that its overnight output is designed for those who have to be awake by necessity, but as a bad sleeper I do not always appreciate their choices.
Having already been involuntarily awake for 2hrs at 4am this morning, and desperate to get a couple more hours sleep before I had to get up I did not appreciate having my brain further stimulated by Copeland's Fanfare for The Common Man particularly as it was followed by America from West Side Story and then Beethoven's Eroica.
So here I am, a further 2+ hours gone by, still awake with the morning traffic whizzing past the window.
Might as well get up now
My preference would be audiobooks, but have killed off any number of CD players over the years, from running them repeatedly night after night.
Audiobooks (and podcasts) are available from a variety of sources, including Audible if you're not avoiding Amazon. Our library service has a reasonable, if somewhat eclectic selection.
Indeed it is, and his lawyer agrees.