Tag: NORTH HAVEN

At The Irish Festival

There were Irish bands and step dancers and more pale people with Irish accents than I’ve ever seen. More than once I commented it was probably a good thing there wasn’t as much sunshine as forecast.

I was at the Irish Festival in North Haven yesterday. I had a nice time and met lots of people… lots. At some events I’ll stay in one place, not at this festival. I went from booth-to-booth venue-to-venue like I was a politician trolling for votes.

There were Irish bands and step dancers and more pale people with Irish accents than I’ve ever seen. More than once I commented it was probably a good thing there wasn’t as much sunshine as forecast.

I saw something new (to me) in “fair food.” There was a truck where grilled cheese sandwiches were being made. I didn’t sample any, but they looked really good. Really good!

Rosa DeLauro was there yesterday too. She is my congressman (congresswoman… congressperson?) here in the Third District. Like me she understands you can win friends and influence people one at-a-time. In that regard she and I are both in retail!

She was at the ceremony last year where I was honored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I thanked her again for being so nice to my parents that night and she asked how they were doing. Then I got a little political.

Maybe in retrospect I should have kept my mouth shut, but I asked her to ask the president to “grow a set” in his dealings with Congress. I have been disappointed he has not governed as the progressive he seemed to be while running. It was that promise of a strong progressive that got my support in the primaries.

Of course I don’t expect Rosa to rush into the Oval Office and say, “Geoff Fox said…” but she was receptive because she and I are aligned here.

She said she would tell the president to stand up for these principles (my interpretation of her words) as she has in the past. “And don’t think I won’t,” she added flashing a sly smile and showing the lack of fear that comes with being in the safest of safe districts.

I hope my conversation with her meant something. I hope her conversation with the president means something.

Why Do They Do It This Way?

Last weekend, shooting stills at the UCONN/Army game was a lot of fun. I would have shot more, but I ran out of memory.

As cameras have ramped up the pixel count, the memory storage requirements have gone up too. I have three compact flash cards that together hold about 1 gigabyte.

Today, that’s not an incredibly large amount of memory, but I remember when it was – and not that long ago.

I didn’t want to get caught short again, so I looked into buying another, larger card. Within the last month, compact flash prices have dropped through the floor. Prices are half what they had been recently and a quarter of where they were last year!

To me, that was a buy signal (though at this rate, I could have waited a little longer until they paid me to take them).

I searched around and found what I wanted on eCost.com. This is an interesting site because there is free shipping – but you pay a handling charge. Exactly what is the difference? And, how can a business, built on handling your order, charge for handling?

The card cost me $84 plus $4.95 for handling. Subtract a $30 rebate&#185 for a net of $58.95. That’s an excellent price – today. Next week it might look like I was ripped off.

Of course I wanted the card yesterday, but that was not to be. Somehow, UPS put this thing on the scenic tour of Eastern America. It’s not that it took so long – it’s just the package made more stops than a presidential campaign!

Oct 1, 2004

12:04 P.M.

NORTH HAVEN, CT, US

DELIVERY

6:27 A.M.

NORTH HAVEN, CT, US

OUT FOR DELIVERY

3:45 A.M.

NORTH HAVEN, CT, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

1:28 A.M.

SHREWSBURY, MA, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

Sep 30, 2004

12:06 P.M.

SHREWSBURY, MA, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

7:32 A.M.

SECAUCUS, NJ, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

6:07 A.M.

SECAUCUS, NJ, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

1:37 A.M.

LAUREL, MD, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

Sep 29, 2004

11:50 P.M.

LAUREL, MD, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

6:30 P.M.

FISHERSVILLE, VA, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

6:16 P.M.

FISHERSVILLE, VA, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

3:45 P.M.

ROANOKE, VA, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

3:12 P.M.

ROANOKE, VA, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

10:46 A.M.

KNOXVILLE, TN, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

10:20 A.M.

KNOXVILLE, TN, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

5:39 A.M.

NASHVILLE, TN, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

1:51 A.M.

NASHVILLE, TN, US

ARRIVAL SCAN

Sep 28, 2004

10:18 P.M.

MEMPHIS, TN, US

DEPARTURE SCAN

8:57 P.M.

US

BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

8:12 P.M.

MEMPHIS, TN, US

ORIGIN SCAN

Only UPS understands why it saw three Tennessee cities and drove past my house on the way to Massachusetts… where it turned around and headed back.

The UPS driver walked the package from the curb to my front door. The box was light but substantial at 12″x10″x4.5″. Why? The hard plastic wrapped packaging was only 5″x6″ and without the wrap, the card is only 1.5″x1.625″ .

Not only could this have been packed in a smaller box, it could have been packed in an envelope! It’s difficult to believe the box is protecting the flash card much more than its impenetrable plastic packaging.

Bottom line is, it’s here. Tomorrow Steffie plays field hockey and I’ll attempt to fill it up.

&#185 – Rebates are seriously the work of the devil. I am very careful in how I fill them out, reading every word of the instructions. I still feel I get a very low return. These companies have every possible incentive to not pay me.