Monthly Archives: January 2009

The local post office has been extra busy the past week or two. College students are mailing textbooks that they have sold - most of them packing boxes while in line.

This may seem like normal behavior to many. It must, or there would not be so many people preparing shipments while moving forward in line. Postal workers do their best to keep the line moving so the rest of us are not kept waiting. I am not so worried about a possible delay, but I am concerned about the books.

I love books. I collect them, sell them, read them, and have a wish list for more. I am on a never ending treasure hunt for good condition used books at library fund raising sales and I buy new books from distributors. I have shipping supplies in my home at all times.

My recent trips to the post office have turned into a somewhat amusing study in human nature.

I watched one young man buy bubble wrap and a box and then borrow scissors  and tape so that he could carefully cushion a textbook for shipment. I offered advice to a couple of students that started to use Priority Mail tape on Media Mail shipping labels. I also had a very good conversation with a woman that was shipping books that the library had sold on Amazon.

…And then there was the student with 6 or 7 full size books and 1 small priority box. I wanted to help her, but I am not sure that we were in the same dimension. She must have tried at least a dozen times to cram all of those books into that little box. The first 3 went in okay, though I cringed knowing she hadn’t wrapped any of them to protect the covers, but the other books simply would not fit. She tried shoving the 4th book in. She tried sideways and upside down. She stuffed and pushed and forced and bent until I couldn’t take it any longer. As nicely as possible I pointed out that there were bigger boxes available…but alas when I left she was still beating up those books.

I wrap books before shipping. Once someone else pays for the book it is theirs. I have no right to destroy it with poor packaging. After watching the show at the post office I am going to be even more diligent when buying books online. I am going to ask questions from the sellers. I want the guy using the bubble wrap to ship my book!

I am excited to hear that a new Winnie the Pooh book will be published in October! Return of the Hundred Acre Wood.

I went looking and found a few more details in an article by JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG of the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123151851400268315.html?mod=rss_Books 

Pooh and Tigger are favorites of mine, so I will be watching for this book. Let’s hope they make a movie, too. I wonder who would play Tigger?

Of course, we should expect Pooh Bear merchandising.  I am not one for commercializing everything, but Pooh will need all the help that he can get in this video game world we live in.  I am going to start looking for items to add to my inventory now.

Everywhere I look there is trash. Fast food bags and cups along side the roads, cigarette butts by the hundreds at every stop light, dirty disposable diapers in parking lots and even on benches at the mall!

This week someone left an empty cigarette pack, beer bottles, an aspirin bottle and other trash in the snow next to my husband’s truck. Then we noticed the beer case with more empty bottles ON his truck. Like someone found a convenient place to party between trucks.

At our house we have a rule. We do not litter. Period. Ever. Anywhere. Even if we do not recycle it we take the time to throw it in the appropriate places. Not in someone’s yard, in front of their business, on their vehicle…it really is not that complicated. What do these people think happens to their dirty trash?

There are no trash elves folks. Pick up after yourselves. Use your ashtray. Take along a trash bag. Let’s keep the world clean. We all have to live here!