A Galaxy Far Far...Well, Three Days Away

UPS Sucks.

The Star Wars Trilogy never arrived, so I call up UPS since their site hasn't updated the tracking info since the set left Illinois last night at 10:30pm (ET), and I come to find out that the set was scanned as "arrived" at Philadelphia airport at 1:27pm (ET); 15 hours after being checked as "departed" Illinois!!! FIFTEEN HOURS to fly from Illinois to Philadelphia.

According to Yahoo! it's a 12 hour DRIVE...so it takes 3 hours longer to FLY THROUGH THE AIR! Being that it arrived in Philly at 1:27pm, it has already missed its Saturday 1:30pm delivery....meaning the $12.50 I paid Digital Eyes to pay UPS to arrive NEXT DAY will arrive 3 days after being shipped, on Monday. I was fuming.

So I call UPS and of course there's no explanation as to why a plane takes 15 hours and a truck would have taken 12 hours to go the same distance, and since the package arrived after the delivery trucks left for Saturday deliveries, I would have to wait until Monday, even though I paid for Next Day (to which UPS claims, that excludes Saturday deliveries, at which point I point out to the UPS drone that their website clearly says Next Day Air INCLUDES Saturdays....to which they respond, "Oh well"......OH WELL !?!?!

[Sarcasm mode on] Great customer service..... [Sarcasm mode off]

So I call up Digital Eyes and go through the same thing, wanting to know what I paid them $12.50 extra for when I could have saved that and gone with standard USPS Ground and still have gotten it on Monday. The Digital Eyes drone goes through the same "Oh well" attitude that the UPS drone did. They even went so far as to suggest that "(I) should have cancelled the UPS Next Day" and just gone with standard shipping to save the $12.50....to which I explained that had I known 3 months ago when I placed the order that they were going to steal my $12.50 and not deliver any faster than normal delivery, I would have. The drone says he can't refund the $12.50 because it was already shipped out AND being that it was sent on a Friday it would not arrive until Monday anyway, regardless of the Next Day, because UPS doesn't deliver on Saturdays. I explained to him that "Yes, UPS does deliver on Saturdays because 1) It states they do on their website and that's what I paid for and B) I saw a UPS truck in my complex around Noon" (thinking it was my delivery, but of course, my package hadn't even landed after being in the air for 15 hours).

After getting absolutely nowhere except being told I should "Order earlier to avoid this in the future" I explained that I placed my order for this package on June 3, three months ago, and if that's not early enough then they have serious Customer Service issues. I told him I would not deal with Digital Eyes in the future, and I mean not to, it's just as easy (and a lot less stressful) to just wake up Tuesday mornings and head off to Wal*Mart at 7am, Target at 8am or Best Buy at 10am and do it the old fashioned way since I really save no money either way.

So, no Trilogy today...and since I was already in a foul mood from the weather and kidney stones and adhesions and a migraine, I just shut my eyes and fell asleep for a good 5 hours. I didn't feel much better when I woke up, but I went out to my mailbox to check my snail mail and found Scooby-Doo & Scooby-Doo 2 waiting from Netflix (the greatest invention of convenience since TiVo). I didn't watch the Scooby movies yet (though I have already seen the first Scooby-Doo when it was in theaters and rented both to watch back-to-back) but I did watch Disney's Home On The Range (which I missed in the theaters, the only Disney movie I missed since Aladdin). I will write up a review tomorrow for it at Rob's Video Views, but to summarize; it was a fun movie, and if memory serves it's also the last "traditional animated movie" to come out of Disney Animation Studios, which is a shame because as good as computer animation is, there's nothing like good old paint and cell animation. I definitely recommend renting it.

So, now I'm off to soak in the tub for a bit and let this percocet I took kick in, and then at 11pm I'll catch the season premiere of MadTV (much funnier than SNL has been in years).

RobMac

Awaiting Departure...

Well, I didn't go to the wedding yesterday, and I caught less flak for it than I was afraid of. I really didn't have it in me, and I'm glad I didn't go (in the physical sense) because there was a 3 hour gap between the ceremony (no mass) and the reception! It would have been a much longer day than I was even afraid of.

While yesterday was no cake-walk, I am glad I remained inside and napped off and on all day. Today's not much better, I'm still very crampy and I have the beginnings of a migraine. The weather is oppressive and rainy...not my friend.

I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of The Star Wars Trilogy DVD set, it was shipped from Digital Eyes yesterday via UPS Next Day Air so it's due to arrive at any time now. It's a 12 hour drive from where it's coming from, so by air it should have gone from airport to airport in a few hours, but UPS's site hasn't updated since it left Illinois last night around 1030pm (ET). The UPS site says "Delivery by noon or 1:30 p.m. on Saturday". It better be, I paid extra $$ to get it early.

I was watching my backlogged TiVo shows yesterday and on Wednesday's The Screen Savers Alex & Kevin teased the audience (in studio and at home) by revelaing their copy of the Trilogy on air. Sigh.....I am so jealous.

I will try to blog again tonight after checking out the Trilogy. I am probably going to scan through the films to check quality of picture and sound, but am mostly looking forward to the extras, Disc 4 and the commentaries on all 3 films. So I'll try to comment tonight.

This will be a day long remembered, it has seen the release of the Star Wars Trilogy, it will soon see the release of Star Wars: Battlefront.

RobMac

Stones, Storms & Weddings

I've been passing more pieces of my kidney stone, some big, some small, but in good numbers. I have been quite crampy over the last few days because of it. I am not looking forward to today.

Ivan is heading our way, or at least the remnants of Ivan, and that makes the weather dark and rainy, with a low barometer reading, making me cramp up from the surgeries I've had. My surgical adhesions from having my abdomen opened 5 times go nuts when the barometer drops and it's overcast or rainy. I'm feeling it already, and I just woke up. I'm not looking forward to today.

I'm looking forward to today because my cousin is getting married. I'm not looking forward to today because my sister has already bowed out of going (she's a grade school teacher and since school started back 2 weeks ago she's already contracted chicken pox from her students, there's an outbreak now), one of my other cousins also bowed out of going...they can't travel the 5 states or so to get here. I want to go, I want to see my cousin get married, but I don't want to go because I have pains in my back around to my bladder from the stent and kidney stone fragments, I have pains in my lower back and abdomen from the surgeries and the weather is making them worse, and it's at least a 75 minute drive each way to the wedding/reception, and the wedding itself will take at least an hour, with the reception lasting a few more, and I'd have to stay there at least an hour or two to be polite and say "hi" to everyone and eat.
I'm looking at a 6 hour day, sitting up/standing/driving. I'm not happy.

I want to cancel and I'm sure my cousin would understand, but I have these things called parents that really lay guilt on thick when they want to. "Sure you're sick but it's your cousin, it's not like she gets married every day, besides your sister already cancelled as did your cousin, so you have to go to represent." That's what they'll say. My comfort should come after everyone else is happy.

Yesterday I had to go over my parents house to install new blinds because my father couldn't look at a diagram of how to screw a clip to a wall to hang the shade, so he decided to go play with his friends, leaving mom to call me and come over to install them myself. Did I mention I was sick? Did I mention I was hurting a lot over the last few days? Doesn't matter, the old blinds are down and unless they're put up they'll be exposed to the world, not that the world cares to see two 60+ year olds in their bedroom. I had to go. After I got there and saw how dad had incorrectly installed the clips and therefore couldn't figure out how to hang the blinds, I had to take the clips down and put them back up right, then hang the blinds to the clips, which were behind some valences (?, those hanging curtian things). I finally got them up. Mom said "thank you" and gave me my ironed shirt for today's wedding, but dad was MIA the whole time and even when he came home (I assume he eventually came home) there was no call from him for a "thank you". Sigh. I guess it was just expected.

I have until about 2pm to make up my mind about telling my folks I'd much rather stay home and feel somewhat crappy than go on a long ride to a wedding (which I'd like to attend) but then feel like total shit over the next few days while I recouperate, only to be poked and prodded and then violated next week with surgery. I have this deadline because I'm going to hitch a ride with them, it's easier for them to drive than for me to sit behind the wheel of a car for two and a half hours to go to/from the church/reception, at least this way I can cry softly to myself without having to worry about other drivers killing me (which might not be a bad thing, come to think of it).

My life sucks.

RobMac

The Towers as seen from an Amtrak train outside Manhattan a few years ago...the only picture I have that I took myself. (This is a screen-cap of a video, so sorry for the quality) 

Nothing Ventured....Nothing Gained

Uneventful day. I ventured nothing, and as such nothing was gained.

I called the hospital to set up my pre-admission testing appointment; which is going to be Trilogy Tuesday, September 21, at 9am. I'll get poked and prodded and then on Thursday I'll go through what no human (or animal for that matter) should have to go through; I'm going to have an instrument shoved up my (procedure description removed from polite conversation), and then we'll see if I need to go through it all again. Sigh. Did I ever mention how much being sick sucks?!

DigitalEyes is still registering my order for the Star Wars Trilogy DVDs as "In Stock, Ships in 24/48 hours", but it's said that since Monday, so who knows when they'll send it out. I have a UPS Next Day on it, so hopefully I'll have it for the weekend, I'd really like to focus on it and enjoy it rather than have it be my Recovery Distraction on Thursday.

A&E aired a truncated version of the documentary Empire Of Dreams: The Making Of The Star Wars Trilogy on Monday night, it was about 90 minutes long whereas the full version on Disc 4 will be 151 minutes long (about an hour longer)...it was interesting with lots of never-before-seen stuff (and trust me, I'm a fan who's looked for all the footage I can get ahold of) but I can't wait to see what's in that other hour. One very interesting thing that was shown that hasn't been seen for almost 30 years was the original opening crawl of Star Wars circa 1977 (that means minus the Episode IV - A New Hope title!). When they showed it I was caught off guard, not sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. There's been so much speculation since 1979 about what the original opening crawl to Star Wars had, was there an episode number and title? Many said no, some said yes, no one could be certain (though I remember it simply as Star Wars). It got worse over the years as the new chapter and title stuck with each sequel. Of course, this started because when The Empire Stikes Back went into production, Lucas had to explain that this was part of an ongoing story, part of a story that actually started in the middle! So the Episode IV - A New Hope title was stuck on Star Wars in its rerelease in 1979 to establish to people that Empire was on its way. That was just one very neat thing to see...there were plenty of screen tests, auditions and interviews that haven't been seen in over 20 years....so it'll be very informative and fun.

Tomorrow starts another lonely day of looking longingly to the curb for that brown UPS truck to deliver my most precious package, much like Luke looked longingly at the binary sunset on Tatooine wishing to one day find his true meaning.

RobMac

A Few Days Off

I took a few days off from Blogging to give my brain a rest, though that didn't really happen. During the last two days I watched Jersey Girl and you can check out my review here, but in a nutshell; I liked it. I also watched Star Trek: Generations in its entirety and while the edge enhancement was a bit annoying, the DTS surround track made up for it with the punch some scenes deserved.

My kidney stone has bothered me more than usual lately and this morning I passed a nice sized chunk that seems to have been growing inside my stent...and from the shape of it I'd say it was blocking about 85-90% of the canal....and now I feel less pressure when I stand, sit or walk, so it appears to have been the culprit of the pain over the last few days.

As if the stone wasn't enough, I also suffer from "swimmer's ear" from time to time (I have had it most of my life) and on Sunday morning I seem to have gotten some water in my left ear during my shower and I have been unable to hear out of it since. I think all the water's out, and I even put a few drops of rubbing alcohol in there to dry it out (a remedy I found on several medical websites) but to no avail. I have the sniffles and my left nostril is clogged, so I may have a cold, which may have infected the Eustachian tube (the canal on the inside of the ear that drains the inner ear through the nose) which might have caused the tube to swell or even close...so I'm waiting for that to settle. Right now I have about 10% hearing in my left ear, so I'm all unbalanced and in a fair amount of discomfort. It never ends for me...seriously.

So this week I have to go for pre-admission testing for my surgery next Thursday (the 23rd) to have the stent removed (and hopefully not replaced), I also have to get a haircut today or tomorrow for my cousin's wedding on Friday (the 17th).

I am currently awaiting the arrival of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD box-set from Digital Eyes, which showed as "In Stock" on Saturday, since they probably aren't open on Sunday I waited, but checked all day yesterday for a "Shipped" notice from them, as of yet; nothing. It still shows as "In Stock" on their website so it could ship at any moment, giving me almost a week head start of anyone else queuing up at the stores next Tuesday (the 21st).
It could have shipped already, I will just have to wait and see what arrives in the mail.

There's a new Father Of The Pride tonight, so be sure to tune into NBC (HD if you have it) at 9pm Eastern for a few good laughs.

RobMac