Tag: online shopping

Distract Me from Reverb.com

Okay… it’s a really good thing that the new episode of Daredevil came out on Disney+ about five minutes ago because I found myself on reverb.com tonight looking at tenor saxophones.

While they are nowhere near as expensive as electric guitars, they are on the pricey side and I do not have the money no way no how.

Stay away from reverb.com, Robert. Stay. Away.

Selmer Mark VII Tenor Saxophone… I played one when I was in high school and it’s still among the finest musical instruments I’ve ever been in the same room as. I really miss that high F# key.

Running Shoes

I just ordered a new pair of sneakers from New Balance. I always order from New Balance because my feet require a shoe size that you cannot get in regular stores (14 extra-wide). You can get my size online from New Balance without a special order. That’s not the point of this post though.

The point of this post is that when I went to the site and started searching I went to the running shoes section. Yeah, I did that. If you’ve known me at any point between birth in May of 1971 and weight loss surgery in May of 2022 then you know how absolutely ridiculous the idea of me buying running shoes is. Run? Why run when not chased?*

Now? In 2023? Post gastric bypass Rob? Running for real might be on the table. Jen thinks I should try for next year’s Run Disney 5k. I mean, it’s preposterous, but… who knows.

*Oft quoted line from the film Real Genius. If you haven’t seen that movie, go find it. It’s a moral imperative.

New Lens Day? I Hope!

We ordered a new Nikon Z mount lens and a couple of memory cards from Best Buy this morning. The intention being a curbside pickup in Salem, NH.

An hour or so ago I got a notification that the memory cards are ready for pick up. Jen got a notification that the lens was being readied for pickup in Nashua, NH.

Oops.

I don’t care where I have to go to pick the thing up, I just want it for the vacation. It’s a 40mm, f2 full frame prime lens and I am sitting here kinda drooling over the thought of it. Nikon doesn’t seem to have a 35mm or 50mm Z mount lens yet, so this puppy is pretty much the sweet spot in between them. It’s also tiny, which is super nice. I’m really hoping I can wander around Disney World with a 40mm prime on my digital camera, and a 50mm prime on my film camera. Double fisting like a boss, right?

Speaking of film, I am still waiting for the notification that my test roll of film scans is ready to download. It’s been a couple of days since the lab notified me that they had the film. Now I just need the scans so I can be sure using Dad’s Pentax lens on my Nikon camera will work. I know it will because the camera is an SLR and I can see through it without any problem. I just want to make sure the film shots look okay. I’m hoping the adapter doesn’t screw with the focus, or let any light leak into the camera, or anything like that. If I don’t see the scans today I will likely see them next week, but there will be a few days of picture taking opportunities in between. I’ll probably just use the lens that came with the Nikon when I bought it off of eBay. I’ve already packed up the film I’m bringing along. There’s more than I can see myself using, but I will be set no matter what. There’s also this groovy new mirrorless camera that will be drawing attention away from film, so I’ll likely shoot less film that I was planning. I can’t say for sure though.

I am a nerd. You knew that already though. I think we’re all good with it.

Three hours and 32 minutes until vacation.

Packing List Fail

I mentioned recently that I ripped the hell out of one of my pairs of jeans the other day and had to order some new clothes. I ordered a couple of pairs of jeans and a few shirts. I got a delivery message that same day with a delivery date of today. Nice.

Today I noticed that a second pair of jeans is also ripped to shit. At this point in the story please note that I rarely buy clothes and the two ripped jeans are probably 3-4 years old. I think it’s been that long since I resupplied.

Well that sucks, but at least the post office will be delivering two new pairs of pants today, right? Good timing, I guess.

That’s what I thought at least. The postman brought me a package today and it was very small. Way too small for two pairs of pants and a few shirts. Small enough that it actually held one shirt. The hell?

I checked the delivery email again. Big letters: DELIVERED, then a link to one of the shirts I ordered. Then in small letters: Processing, then links to everything else. Oh you sonofabitch. I just suck at reading. Really, I am just not that good at life.

I guess I am down to one pair of jeans now. Unless of course the third pair is also ripped and I just haven’t noticed. How much do you want to bet on that?

It’s Finally Coming

I ordered it on March 6th. That’s 14 days ago. Two weeks.

I got a shipping notification from the seller on March 9th. When I ran the tracking number though it said the number had been created but not picked up. Using my vast shipping/receiving knowledge from 20+ years ago, that generally means the shipping label has been printed but the package has not been dropped off with or picked up by the post office.

I sent the seller a message yesterday. I tried not to sound pissy. There’s a pandemic and the previous administration did everything it could to destroy the USPS. I get that it might be rough getting things to where they are going. I hope the seller didn’t read it as if I was pissed off because I wasn’t.

Today I tracked the package and it now says it shipped on the 19th. The same day I sent my non-pissy but possibly still pissy email. I tried to run the tracking number again a few minutes ago and the whole system is down. Go back and re-read the previous paragraph. Specifically the third sentence.

When I tracked earlier it gave the estimated delivery date as Monday the 22nd.

After work on Monday I am going to play the guitar through the 30 watt channel on my amp and hopefully, fingers crossed, not tear down the house and shatter windows all throughout the neighborhood. The attenuator is coming and we are going to see if we can tame that amp a smidge. Again, fingers crossed.

Rock and Roll (or something similar).

Can’t Blame UPS for This One

Well, it’s Christmas Eve. Time to make one last check on the straggler packages that haven’t been delivered yet. First thing I went to was The Big One (which isn’t that big, we agreed to go small this year, and we already bought a Big One that counts for Christmas so it’s all good). The estimated arrival date is now, We’ll Let You Know. I checked the tracking number with UPS and they still don’t have the package. The number is in their system, which means someone at the warehouse actually printed out a shipping label, but it hasn’t made it to UPS yet (did I mention I have a ton of experience running a business’ shipping office? I do. I have a little less experience running the receiving office, but I’ve done that too).

Someone has a birthday in early February. Do you think we’ll have the package by then? I’m not holding my breath. I got refunds for a handful of non-Christmas things I bought from Amazon that got lost in transit, but this puppy ain’t even left the building yet. You can’t blame UPS (or Fed Ex, or USPS, or whatever carrier you want to blame it on) for this one.

It’s all okay though. Like I said, we’ve already done a big gift pre-Christmas, and I have a nice placeholder for the missing Big One too, so Christmas will not be tainted any more than Covid-19 has already tainted it. We’re good.

Aside from all my bitchin’ and yakkin’, allow me to wish y’all a Merry Christmas Eve. HoHoHo.