Where is K's Package?, Trees and Dan's Cap

Worst week in a long time.


One of my mailbox renter's packages from the backroom is missing.  This hasn't ever happened...not in 18+ years we've been in business.  No pkg has gone missing, EVER.  I've not slept well for the past 2 nights.  I can't believe it.  I'm sad, then mad, then sad, then mad.  Uuugghh.

Scenario:

My customer, I'll call him K, a longtime customer, very shy, mild mannered man, ordered something from Amazon and he told me that the first one they sent got lost in the mail and Amazon was gonna send another one to him and they did.  It was sent overnight and arrived last Sat. by Federal Express.  I called  K right away and left him a msg. that it was delivered and he could come get it.  He didn't come for it until this past Thurs. morning.  When he arrived, I was helping another customer but I got his pkgs for him but I couldn't locate that one.  I told him I'd find it and I'd call later.  Then very softly he says, "It's worth $300.00" and I say, reassuringly, we'll find it.  He looked so concerned..  I got searching for the pkg.  NOWHERE!! damn,  slowly the pit of my stomach got a wrenching feeling.  I tried to remember all that had happened from Sat. to present time running it thru my mind.  Did I give someone his pkg by mistake?  If I did, my customers would surely bring it back...but...hmm, they hadn't brought it back or called me to tell me they had it.  I got worried.  I called everyone that had picked up pkgs that week and asked them, "No" they had only got their pkgs.  I didn't even know what was in the pkg. just that is was worth $300.00.  At the end of the day, I was realizing that it was GONE.  What happened??  I got the sick feeling again.  Then at the end of the work day I left K a msg. saying that I was still looking into it, terribly sorry, but that he should come in ASAP and bring the invoice from his purchase from Amazon and assured him that I would pay him for the item.  He came first thing Fri. morning and I found out that it was an iPod Touch, a 32 gig one.  If one of my customers got it by mistake and opened it, there would be a temptation to keep it.  Damn, why couldn't it have been a stupid book, or something not worth so much...something only K would want so the person would bring it back.

I'm having a hard time thinking that a customer esp. if it was a mailbox customer, would keep it.  Where is it???  Sure, I have insurance but if I put in a claim my insurance would go up next year.  SO, I am now looking into scanning software and getting a (frickin') bar code scanner to log the pkgs in and out for people and now I'm wearing this as part of my wardrobe everyday:

That's my elbow and dang my arm sure looks fat!

This is the key to the backroom where the pkgs are kept.  This is the same room my computer is in.  I'm in there when I'm not at the front counter.  It will be locked every time I leave it and I'm making my mailbox customers wait until I'm finished with a customer before I get their pkgs for them.


Now on to other things.  We decided to trim the trees about halfway instead of taking them out completely.  The gardeners are there today trimming away at the trees as I write.  I don't want to go home until the chainsaw noise is over.  Here's a few pics that I had fun editing to see how the house might look with trees trimmed or removed.  The trees rose above the house by about 16 feet and you can't tell that in the pic.  I didn't do a perfect job on the editing but I learned more techniques with the software that I've had for years!

Orig. pic showing the tall tree

We chose to cut them about this low

This is what it would look like removed

Here is what I have been working on.  It went pretty fast.  My friend Danny had asked me to wash his fav hat and then it got funky-discolored and I thought about dyeing it or using dye markers in a pattern on it and then I got the bright idea to crochet over it!!  He likes it!  It will keep his head warmer now, too.

I just made the pattern up as I went.  I started out with a chain long enough to go around the insignia on the front and then did single crochet around that.  Pinned it in place around, cut the yarn and then began at the top making a circle large enough to fit around the button and continued to dc in the round until I came to the circle that was pinned down.  Then I went back and forth each time hooking into the sc of the circle until I got to the bottom.  Then on the brim, I started at the center back and then dc back and forth adding and decreasing stitches to make it fit.  Then I sewed it onto the hat with a needle and regular thread along the bottom and a few stitches around the button at the top and ta-da, finished.  I got more yarn and plan to make him a scarf to match.  The yarn is soft and is called Naturally Caron Country a washable wool (wool and acrylic) in charcoal.

I'm off to continue to work on the kitchen cabinets.  I made some progress last weekend and I just have to keep at it.  DH just called me and the gardeners are done with the trees.  Safe to go home now. It's a nice wknd again and I just wanta be outside.

This post is a long one.  All week in one post.  Thanks for reading to the end. 

Geez, I get to buy an iPod for K.  Think how much yarn $300.00 would buy!

Hope you're enjoying yourself and doing whatever blows your hair back!!!!

Edited to say:  The trees do look better now.