Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

I Voted

Tuesday 7 August 2012 was Primary Day in Michigan. I was issued ballot number 264 and on the machine I fed it into, was counted as voter 105, though there are five precincts in Allendale and there were more than five machines.

But wait, I hear you ask, didn't you guys have your primary back on 28 February? No, that was a Presidential Primary (DW). Tuesday was the primary for all the Michigan offices. And also for any local issues.

It was hard to tell if there were any local ballot issues. The GRPress listed several Ottawa County issues in some townships, but not Allendale. The Secretary of State's website showed what was on the Allendale ballot, but said it didn't include all the local ballot issues. I suppose I could've called the township office, but what fun is that? And in truth, it turned out there were no local ballot issues.

Also, not much to vote for. See, this is a very conservative part of Michigan. As such, everyone is from the same party. The other party's primary consisted only of the incumbent Senator up for reelection, though I did think for a moment of writing in Candy Kraker's name for Clerk, because she's been doing a great job for years.

Anyway, someone has to vote for the opposition. (grin)

The Late Man Can Only Run Later

I didn't get out of the house as early as I'd planned. And then I voted. And I had to get gas, but I also had a bill to mail. Naturally, just before I put the bill in the mailbox, I realized in my rush I'd forgotten to put a stamp on it. So... park and go inside the Post Office. Huh -- I've been going through a stash of Forever stamps and haven't had to buy a single first-class stamp in some time. It's up to 45¢ now. It went up back in January and I'm sure I knew that, but buying sheets and booklets of Forever stamps just didn't register.

As for the gas, prices around here jumped up 25¢/gallon at least a week ago, as there were multiple refinery issues in Chicago/Indiana and then a pipeline shutdown in Wisconsin. Tuesday regular was down to $3.90.9/gal. Once again, the uncertainty of gas prices wiped out my discount slips from the grocery store -- 15¢/gal this time -- though I avoided paying just over four dollars a gallon for midgrade.

The Last Straw

Arriving on campus, I was surprised to see yellow CAUTION tape stretched across the width of Lot 61. All the K-rail barriers nearest to Rood and Everett were gone. Last week I'd noted that some of the benches and umbrella tables by the bus stop were gone, but I thought they were going to resurface the bare dirt where people were sitting. The bus stop is now on the northeast side of Rood Hall, instead of just west of it. Fortunately, on Tuesday there wasn't much going on beyond just the yellow tape and no one was going around as far as walking in.


Big empty space. (Click on photo for larger.)


Compare the previous to this view from the test shots with the Nikon D1H back on a sunny November day. (Click on photo for larger.)

Guess I'll find out in a few hours whether or not they're going to give us all of Lot 61 back... and whether they're going to mill out the asphalt torn up and diesel fuel stained by the buses and repave it all.

Dr. Phil

Grand Unification

No, I'm not talking about Grand Unified Theory and trying to bring together the Fundamental Forces of Nature. Or of the successful startup of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. I'm talking about ZIP codes.

Specifically, we live in Allendale Township. But we're one of about 500 addresses which are scattered across about 6 other ZIP codes and not Allendale MI 49401. We're West Olive MI 49460. West Olive is a good 12 miles from here, at least, and the "town" is a wide spot in the road just east of US-31 on the way to Holland. We've never actually found the West Olive Post Office -- though we've looked for it once or twice. Living in the country, we decided to get a P.O. Box in Allendale anyway, and can get things forwarded there.

The township has long wanted to have everyone "live" in Allendale. I always have to tell repair and delivery people that our address says West Olive, but we're really in Allendale Township. Otherwise they go wandering off the wrong way and never find us. The USPS, however, said the Allendale Post Office was too small to accommodate all the extra mail.

Progress

But last summer we got a new Allendale Post Office. And a while ago we got a letter asking whether we wanted to switch our address to Allendale.

And now in Monday's The Grand Rapids Press there was a notice that after 30 years of trying, the USPS has just informed the Allendale Post Office that the 500 wayward addresses will be incorporated into Allendale MI 49401. We don't have the official notice yet, nor the date of the changeover.

SO DON'T CHANGE OUR ADDRESS YET!

There will be a period of time where West Olive will forward mail to Allendale, and I'm not sure how long that'll be. It'll mean a little bit of work to change addresses on everything, but long term it'll be worth it. It will be funny, though, to give people an address change without actually moving. (grin)

Yay.

Dr. Phil

The New Post Office

Following the post on the coming new Allendale post office, I received the following letter in our Allendale P.O. Box:

ATTENTION PO BOX CUSTOMER:

Subject: NEW FACILITY INFORMATION

Boxholder:

On Monday, June 29, 2009, the Allendale Post Office will be relocated to 6370 Lake Michigan Drive, Ste. 800. The new facility is located at the West end of the new Family Fare complex. Your mail will be transferred to the new facility into the new PO Boxes. Your PO Box number should remain the same. However, some of the PO Box sizes may change due to the renovation of the older style combination PO Boxes. Also, all of the new PO boxes will be lock type boxes and will require new keys. There will be a key deposit of $1.00 per key for up to two keys for each box. If you would like extra keys the fee is $6.00 per key for each additional key. If you currently have a lock type box at this facility, you will be allowed to exchange up to two keys for your new PO Box.

If information on your original PS form 1093 (Application for Post Office Box) is outdated, you will be required to update the card. If your physical address or telephone number has changed you are required to notify us with the new information. If additional people are receiving mail in your PO Box, they are required to provide valid identification to receive their mail. After the relocation, please come to the service counter with valid identification to verify your current physical address and phone number and to obtain your new keys.

Sincerely, Jane Stewart, Postmaster

Bottom line, it'll cost us two bucks to get our new P.O. Box for the key deposits. And Yet Another Key To Carry. Plus we don't yet know whether the new box with our number is the right size box. Uh, can't they figure that out ahead of time? Or do they not know what boxes they have in the two locations? (grin)

I really don't want to have to do an address change on my P.O. Box -- the one I use for all those writing submissions which take months or years to come back. Either I worry too much or I've gotten through my first half century by anticipating problems.

Memorial Day Gas Pains

My previous comments on Memorial Day gas prices need some updating. Going into the holiday weekend, all the local gas stations were $2.49.9/gal. On Sunday the price dropped to $2.41.9/gal, just in time for Memorial Day (Observed). Cynical much? Oh, read on. Then there was yesterday -- Tuesday 26 May 2009. By the time I was coming home, the five local gas stations were either $2.69.9/gal or $2.59.9/gal. Excuse me? 28 cents in twenty-four hours? What happened to the world oil market overnight?

Or are they just slipping in the price hikes before we get to the next eight cent drop just before the Fourth of July? (sly grin)

Dr. Phil

The Post Office Loves Your Mother

Kind of nice for the USPS to raise the First Class postal rates from 42cents for the first ounce to 44cents on Monday 11 May 2009. This means you could've mailed your Mother's Day card to your mother without having it come back for Insufficient Postage or sent on Postage Due.

Aw-www. Sweet of them.

The Post Office Hates Your Mother

Leave it to the USPS to be mean to your Mother and stick her with the postal rate increase for sending out Thank You missives on Monday 11 May 2009. Whatta cheap shot. Why couldn't they have waited until the day after Father's Day? NO way would a guy, even a sentimental old codger getting cute cards with Golf and Dad's Tools jokes, bother to send a Thank You.

Actually, I am a big fan of the United States Postal Service. We have a pretty decent little Post Office in Allendale and mostly pretty excellent service. Can't even say that rates are outrageous, considering what the private companies charge.

I do object to the one USPS press release a while back that talked about "their annual" "once-a-year" price hike. It doesn't have to be annual, though costs have risen and advertising mailings have dropped, and frankly they did come in with a stealth price hike for Priority Mail in January.

Heading Towards Memorial Day

In other pricing news... After a couple of months of calm in the local price of gasoline, mainly around and below $2/gallon for regular, gas has suddenly spiked up a bit. Last week gas started at $2.07.9/gal, jumped to $2.27.9/gal and today was $2.33.9/gal. Sigh. Jump the prices up for Memorial Day weekend driving. Or... in a more conspiratorial way we've seen in the last year or so, jack the prices up high and peaking the week before Memorial Day and then "lowering" prices for the holiday weekend, albeit at a rate still much higher than just a few weeks earlier.

Oh yeah, Exxon/Mobil, we're on to your sneaky little price hiking, mongo profiting ways. My prediction? Gas will be around $3/gal in ten days.

For no good reason.

Dr. Phil

Finally one of my local post offices, Drake Street in Kalamazoo -- open til 7pm, has the new $4.05 Priority Mail stamps. And it's shiny and beautiful: Black background, with computer generated false-color temperature simulation of an X-15.

Ah-hhh...



The new rates have been in effect for months -- and I'd been putting them on return envelopes even longer -- but I had to use the old $3.85 stamp plus two 10-centers. First time out, the Allendale Post Office was finishing up 10-cent lick 'em stamps. Good lord, what are those? (grin) Then the $3.85 stamps began to disappear.

Just In Time Delivery

Now I'll be able to send this quarter's Writers of the Future entry on Friday. (double-grin)

Dr. Phil

(updated with pic 3-29-2006)