Magic beans

 I like coffee.  A lot.  These days, it's one of my primary remaining joys.  To have a cup of well-made espresso in the quiet early morning before a hectic day is a transcendental moment for me.  To this end, I've expended a lot of time, study, and expense in making good coffee in my home.  So when I learned that the "dumbest trade war in history" would almost certainly lead to much higher coffee prices, I decided to lay in a supply that would hopefully sustain me through the storm.  As is my custom, I placed an order with Roastmasters for a shipment of green coffee beans that I expect will keep me caffeinated through the end of this year.  The consignment left the vendor in Connecticut on February 26, 2025 and finally arrived on March 7, 2025- a journey of nine days.  This makes yet another dismal performance of the USPS Priority Mail service that promises 1-3 day service.

According to tracking information, the parcel's odyssey began as expected.  From pickup in Branford, CT it went to the distribution center in Springfield, MA.  Two days later, it was close to its final destination, in Palmetto, GA.  Then it sat there for two days before turning up... back in Springfield MA!  Like an unwilling hostage, the package "departed" and "arrived" at Springfield, MA for two days before moving on.  Then the beans became magic and achieved some sort of quantum duality when at 3:10 am on March 5, 2025 they arrived at both Springfield, MA and Palmetto, GA at the exact same moment.  Lucky for me, they recovered from this mysterious state and the next day arrived in Birmingham, AL and then were finally delivered to my home.  Fortunately, unroasted green coffee beans are not especially perishable.  They now stand ready for me to personally roast to perfection in my Hottop roaster, then brew in my Rocket R58 espresso machine.  Outside lies a troubled, turbulent world, but with good coffee I am more able to face the tempest.

New month, new book

 Earlier this week, The Trollope Society held the final online book club meeting of the novel we'd been reading since the beginning of the year, The Vicar of Bullhampton.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book, which was completely new to me.  Anthony Trollope was an especially prolific writer, so even though I've read his works for many years, there are still many that I have yet to read.  Another such novel is Dr. Wortle's School, which is the next book in the yearlong book club reading list.  This one is a bit shorter, and will be covered in two bi-weekly meetings, as opposed to the six that covered Vicar of Bullhampton.  As I dive into one of Anthony Trollope's last novels, I gather it will cover what was in Victorian times an unpardonable sin:  a man and woman living together, unmarried.  Such a condition is now commonplace, but even still, we have other issues of intolerance and bigotry that are the modern day equivalents of "living in sin".  What lessons will Trollope offer for those who judge and those who are judged by an intolerant society?

February Numbers

 Despite being a shorter month, I sent one more Postcrossing postcard in February than I did in January.  The monthly total are: 84 cards sent, 64 cards received.  I remain ranked #27 in the USA, and #1 in Alabama based on number of cards sent.  Hopefully there will be better numbers in March: after an active few days, there are many travelling cards in the pipeline that should be received soon.  Write on!

Landmark 11K

 Just moments ago, I reached another Postcrossing landmark when card number 11,000 was registered.  In just over 12 years of this hobby, I have sent 11,000 cards to 118 countries around the world.  (I've actually written and mailed many more cards, but those that become "expired" - i.e., lost in the mail or simply not registered by their recipients numbers in the hundreds) Currently, I rank 27th among 75,692 Postcrossing members in the USA in terms of sent cards.  And I rank #1 in Alabama.  I simply don't allow myself to think about what I've spent on postcards and postage stamps over these twelve years; but hey, everyone has got to have a hobby, right?  Card number 11,000 went to  Postcrossing member mailin4u, otherwise known as Cindy, in northern Virginia, USA.  Cindy is a relative Postcrossing novice, with only 1,297 sent cards.  But it's all one big happy postcard-sending family.  Write on!

Darwin Day

 On this day in 1809. Charles Darwin was born.  His life's work gave us the essential foundation principle of all biology.  Or, as the great scientist Theodosius Dobzhansky put it, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."  And yet, over 200 years after Darwin's birth, a significant number of people can't accept reality and his scientific conclusions which have been supported by steadily growing mounds of evidence.  There was a time when I tried to reason with people like that and bring them to the evidence-based conclusions that science provides.  But there is something in human nature that means that certain individuals will stubbornly reject reality in favor of their own fables.  So today I will simply celebrate the remarkable mind that pulled together disparate observations to give us the foundation of biological science.  Happy birthday Charles, and thanks.

Rare card alert

 Today's rare card alert is a truly unique event for me.  In over eleven years of Postcrossing, I've never encountered such a situation.  I received a beautiful handmade card from a sender in the USA.  But when I tried to register the card, the Postcrossing web page returned an error message that I've never seen before:

The postcard US-11035043 is one you have sent!

If you have received a postcard with that Postcard ID written on it, it might be a thank you postcard from the recipient of your postcard.

You see, when there's a problem with a card ID number- when it's missing, illegible, or wrongly transcribed- the system tells you it's not a card that was assigned to be sent to you.  The correct card ID number can almost always be found by using the Postcrossing search page, where various bits of info like the country and town of origin, sending date, name of sender, etc. will allow a database search to return the correct number so the card can be registered.  But I've never had an ID number come back as one I've already sent, myself.  Turns out this ID number was a card I sent to a member in Germany in early January of this year.  Since this card was sent from the USA, it's not likely a "thank-you" card.  There was a written message with the card, from a sender named "Seren".  (This is the Postcrossing username of a member in Japan.  So, probably also not the card's sender.)  So as it stands, I have little to go on, and no way to register this card or thank Seren, the sender.  And that's a pity, as it was such a beautiful handmade card, a collage of intricately cut shapes in many layers.  And according to the written message, Seren and I have much in common: we are both Anthony Trollope fans, homebrewers, and work in biomedical research.  If you see this, Seren, thanks so very much for the impressive postcard!

Priority update 4- fini

 The adage "better late than never" doesn't provide much comfort, but it is true enough this morning.  Late last night I received a text notification that my lost Priority Mail package was on the move again.  After languishing in Chicago for over six days, it arrived at the Kansas City, Kansas Distribution Center.  Hours later, it was at the Kansas City, Missouri Distribution Center.  And then this morning it at last arrived at the Pittsburg, Kansas Post Office, the destination for which it set out on January 15th.  If you're counting, that's 23 days for it to be delivered by USPS Priority Mail, the 2-3 day delivery service.  In probably the last tracking update, it was "Delivered to agent" at the post office, which I assume means a mail room employee from the university I sent it to now has the package and will later today hand it to the individual named on the shipping label.  What a long and convoluted journey this poor package has been through.  But just when I'd given up all hope, it belatedly arrives.  I suppose there's a life lesson there somewhere.  Besides, I mean, the obvious one that "The USPS is a poor, faint version of its former self."

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

 On this day, 213 years ago, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.  He would eventually become one of the greatest writers in the English language.  But before that, he had a difficult childhood.  He grew up under a spendthrift father who was perpetually in debt- at a time when that condition held great shame and often the threat of imprisonment.  Young Charles was sent to work in a factory at a very young age in order to support his family while his father was in a debtor's prison.  This had a profound effect on him.  Not only did it influence his writing, but Dickens also carried a lifelong desire to aid the poor and oppressed, even founding a shelter home for homeless women.  That's not to say, of course, that he was universally kind and benevolent.  He was a distant father to his many children, an unfaithful husband to his devoted wife, and a cantankerous client of his many publishers.  Yet, he managed to be a prolific and popular author of many novels that have a permanent place in the English literary pantheon.  And each year, his classic A Christmas Carol is read, performed, and shown as a movie (in countless iterations) to a degree hardly seen with any other piece of writing.  Thought his life ran a short 58 years, his lasting influence on the culture cannot be overstated.  So on this day, let us remember a true titan of the written word, Charles Dickens.

Priority update 3

 There's no good news to report, I'm afraid, regarding the package I sent to Kansas on January 15.  I've heard nothing about it since talking to Rob at the Pittsburg, Kansas post office almost a week ago.  The search request has turned up nothing, and after arriving in Chicago, the package has not moved for several days, according to the tracking web page.  It's clear the USPS has dropped the ball on this one, so I filed a request for a refund of the shipment costs of $10.45.  Within the maze of web pages on the USPS site, it's difficult to do this, so the closest I could come is put in an insurance claim.  I didn't claim any value of the contents of the lost package, since it was of low value and I had no documentation of the value of the USB drive I bought over a year ago, and is probably worth only a dollar or two at most.  But I really am adamant that I deserve the shipping costs refunded, since the USPS has utterly failed in the one job they had to do.  The refund request is "under review" over 24 hours after I filed it.  I don't have a lot of hope of a good outcome, but that's my view on everything connected with the US government these days.  Disappointment will be the watchword for the next four years, I'm sure.

Priority update 2

 There's been a little movement on the lost package front.  After my phone conversation with Rob at the Pittsburg, Kansas post office on Friday evening, the tracking status page for my package showed in big red letters that a Missing Mail Search Request had been initiated.  But then late Saturday evening, I received an (apparently automated) email saying that "We regret to inform you that your missing item(s) cannot be located due to insufficient information in the description of your item(s)."  This was puzzling, since I provided all info requested in the initial online missing mail form that I filled out, and gave Rob further info about my package.  I suspect an automated system generated the email without knowledge of my interactions with Rob.  The Saturday email had a link to update further information, but this link is non-functional.  I went directly to the USPS missing mail page and found where I could check the status of existing missing mail searches.  But when I put in the search number or the original tracking number, no search is found.  If I use the form to create a new search, the first step is to enter the tracking number and when I do, there's an error message saying a search request is already filed.  So at every step, there's a hurdle that blocks any action.  Meanwhile, the red letter status of the tracking page has gone away, and reverted to a placeholder status of "Moving through network- in transit to next facility."  So I have no confidence this package will ever arrive at this point.  If nothing more happens in the next couple days, I will file a lost package claim, unless the web site blocks that as well.  My package had no significant value, but since it's not been delivered, I feel that I deserve reimbursement of the shipping cost of over $10.00.  Amusingly, I also got an email with a link to fill out a survey on my satisfaction of this whole incident.  I think I'll hold off on that until some resolution is reached.  Stay tuned.