Gratitude Monday – Just One of Me

I am very grateful to say there’s only one of me about and Dog willing it’ll remain that way.
Back in August I sent a cheque along to the power company to pay the bill. I pay bills by cheque posted in the old way, via Canada Post, and I feel good doing it.
Time passed and I got the September bill which noted I still owed for August.
I called and made the power company check all their records. No trace of my payment.
In early September a postal worker in Edmonton, where my cheque went, was arrested for stealing mail.
Oh, goody.
My first thought was he had my cheque. That’s okay if he hadn’t opened it, but if he did, then he’d have my name, address, phone number, and legal signature.
But what if he didn’t steal it? Then where is it? Did someone else take it?
So I waited and tried not to worry and wondered if the daily mail would bring me a bill for, say, a new charge card already used to the hilt.
The amount of the cheque, less than $75, was nothing to worry about. Only the power co. could cash it so putting a stop payment on it wasn’t worth the $20 fee. And a stop payment doesn’t stop anyone from stealing personal info.
Then last Wednesday I got my bank statement and there was the cheque. It looks like the power co. got it the day after I spoke with them.
I’ve got a credit now with the power company— I confirmed this would be the case if the cheque showed up-and my identity is, to the best of my knowledge, my own.
I’m out a bit of pocket change for late payment charge on the power bill.
I do not care.

Gratitude Monday- The Bottom of Main Street

Rocky Mountain House is really quite scenic. I'm grateful to live in a town where I can see the mountains from almost anywhere. These pictures were taken at the bottom of Main Street looking west and/or southwest.
The first is looking southwest.
Please enlarge all pics to get the full effect.





The newspaper office where I worked is just a wee bit up the street from the little park in the foreground. The editor's office has a great view very similar to this. This is to the west.


Looking southwest again. That's the post office and a liquor store in the same building. How can you not love a town where you can get stinko and mail a letter from one convenient location?





Happy week, everyone.

Firm Politeness

Every day we get the chance to decide what kind of a day we’ll have. Good, bad, happy, sad, calm, angry. It all depends on how we view the world, and what can be reasonable anticipated as a logical outcome given the information we have.
And that brings me to yesterday’s misadventure.

My husband and I sent letters of protest to federal elected officials about a bill currently before Parliament. Bill C-51 seeks to control alternate health substances to the point of what is tantamount to illegal search and seizure.
Under it if a supplement is deemed bad it can be seized from store shelves without compensation to the owner. Further, a major portion of health supplements would be taken off the shelves. This is due to some extreme regulation nonsense from a few years ago wherein Health Canada has been busily dragging its feet on necessary approvals.
In short, said bill would hose us ostensibly for our own good. That’s a subject for another post, though. Today’s point is about the Post Office.

Bills to Members of Parliament, if addressed to the House of Commons, are sent postage-free. We can rant and rave and rail and thank our elected politicians by snail mail at no cost to ourselves. This is a good thing.

I had a feeling when I popped the unstamped letters in the mail on Tuesday that I’d see them again. I was not disappointed.
Some poor thing at the local outlet of Canada Post put them back in the box with the handwritten message “Postage required.”
I had a choice. I could be upset and stomp down there and tell off someone for being a complete and total idiot. I could rant and rave about not knowing your job and wonder rhetorically how stupid are you? Or how stupid do you think we are?
But, you know what? Everyone screws up and not everyone knows the letters were postage- free. Yes, when you work for Canada Post you ought to know that. But if it’s someone new he or she isn’t going to know everything.

In the great scope of the world this is barely an inconvenience. It is by no stretch anything to froth at the mouth over. I had a choice. I could screech or I could be polite but firm.
I walked the few blocks to the post office, held up the letters to point out the “postage required” notation and said, “No, they don’t.”

The person I dealt with agreed and the matter was taken care of in a few seconds. Whoever wrote the note knows by now s/he was wrong and was spared public humiliation.
A problem was cleared up with firm politeness. It’s how I’d want to be treated. Wouldn’t you?