Weekly Catch Up

There are several little things that come up every week that I don't put on here.  This title Weekly Catch Up, will be my entries adding the random things that I am thinking about or go on throughout the week.  If you can think of a Catchier, fishing themed name, let me know.  

I haven't been fishing in quite a while.  There is a chance at a little bank fishing this weekend coming up.

I have lakes not too far from here that I can bank fish.  The water is still too low to get a boat in.  I hope that changes by next spring since I have to put the boat in the water to fix the boards on the trailer.

This next weekend I will be going down to Oklahoma City to visit Mizike.  His son will be getting baptized on Sunday.  I'm taking my fishing poles and hope to sneak out for a couple hours to try a little fishing.

We did have a fish fry this weekend to eat up some Sept, 2010 crappie out of the freezer.  Our brother and sister in law and kids came over.  I fried hush puppies, five pounds of crinkle cut french fries and 4 zip lock bags full of crappie and white bass.  It was great to have family over for the afternoon and not have to worry about a 20 hour drive afterwards.

I woke up Saturday feeling under the weather.  Strep throat has been running through the family and I must have gotten it.  I took some ibuprofin to help my fever and sore back that accompanied it so that I could cook fish that afternoon.  It started wearing off after the company left and I laid around the rest of the weekend trying to recuperate.

Saturday night while we were watching TV the floor started rolling.  My recliner was moving and I looked at Christina thinking she was messing with me.  She looked at me at the same time and I said we must have felt an earthquake that happened South of us.  Sure enough, Christina's sister called us to see if we had felt it.  By the time I went to bed everybody was posting about it on facebook.  It hit fairly close to Oklahoma City near where Mizike lives. 

It is time for me to winterize my boat.  I won't be taking it out any more this year.  My gear lube and gear lube pump have been lost in the move so I need to find a new one.  I would like to get that taken care of when it's not snowing on me for once.  I always wait too long and have frozen fingers.  It's not hard to do, but it is hard to know you are putting the boat away for the winter. 

Pheasant season and ice fishing will be around the corner.  That will give me something to look forward to.  We have also gotten netflix recently.  We don't have cable or satellite and have decided not to spend what they are asking for it here when we don't like to watch that much television anyway.  I haven't found many fishing shows yet but haven't looked too hard for them.  I would like to watch the FLW Tour and B.A.S.S.  We have ESPN3 free through our internet provider so I still get to watch college football.

Since we have moved into our house the post office has on multiple occasions insisted that we put a mailbox up on the curb.  I have not changed my address from our brother and sister in laws since I have not been able to get it put up. 

Wednesday night I got home and saw another sticky note saying that since we are new residents we have to put up a mailbox or get a mail slot at the post office, they will no longer be bringing the mail to the mailbox on the porch for new residents.  I was a little upset as they are requiring that new residents have to do this and have been leaving us sticky notes in our mailbox since we first moved in.  They didn't give us any time to get a mailbox shipped in, find post hole diggers and get a mailbox put up, along with unpacking all of our belongings and get our place habitable to live.

Thursday, I had to go to the post office to mail out the las vegas advisor I sold.  The lady at the post office asked if we have gotten a mailbox put up yet.  I let her know that we had one on the way and would be putting it up soon.  She said they have all new residents put mailboxes on the curb.  I said o.k.  She took my money for the package then asked me about a change of address.  I filled one out and gave it to her.  The first thing she said was, "She will start holding your mail until you get your mailbox up." 

I was pissed.  My hands were shaking, and my blood was boiling.  I had just told them that I was in the process of getting my mailbox put up and she still had to go the extra mile to make sure I changed my address so they could hold my mail.  I told her what I thought of the multiple sticky notes I had received and how that made me feel as a new resident.  I also told her she could go a step further than just hold my mail and ship it back to where it came from, because I wasn't coming in there to pick it up. 

For somebody that works in a service industry, that was some poor service.  If the post office wonders why they cannot make money, when they have a monopoly in a certain industry, I would suggest they take a deeper look at how their employees treat people.  I'm not saying it's everybody that works in the postal service.  I know it's not.  I have worked with many postal workers on a regular basis, shipping items that I have sold, and the majority have been friendly and helpful.  In fact I have only had a few negative experiences, but the ones I had were bad.  If I got that type of service from a restaurant, I would never return to that entire chain of restaurants. 

I can't do that with the post office.  What I can do though is limit my use of their services.  I have free online bill pay, I can have my bills and statements sent to me electronically.  I can use fedex or ups for shipping larger items.  I don't want them to go out of business.  They are the most practically priced option we will have, and they offer good paying jobs to those who get hired by them.