Paul's Comments

I went outside to check and there are no marks anywhere near where I'm going to put in the mailbox. I also used the trip as an excuse to go out and get today's newspaper. I'm more-or-less ready to install my mailbox now that I have everything I need. Except for one thing. On the package, and I am expensively sorry I didn't notice, it mentions that, in addition to the mallet, you should have safety goggles.

I have no idea why I didn't think of that; I've had experience with not having eye protection. I one time made a mistake with some household cleaner that got splashed in my eye; it did not cause any permanent damage because I immediately got to the sink and flushed it with water, but I suffered like a bastard for about four or five days. What was interesting was I had my mother call the optometrist, we caught a cab and went to see him, and he saw me immediately, and it only cost me $25. He informed me that my quick timing had spared me from permanent damage, and he was right.

But not everyone was that nice. My health insurance apparently felt that getting cleaning solvent splashed in your eye was not a good reason to go see an eye professional, but they would cover a visit to someone who was in my network after a $35 deductible. From that point on I told people to avoid any insurance with New York Life. I think they ended up with such a bad reputation from their tendency to deny or refuse claims that they eventually had to either sell or change the name of their medical insurance, I'm not sure.

The weird thing is, about eight years ago when I got this really nice car as a result of an insurance settlement, the trunk had a badly faded paint job, and I decided to buy some spray paint to touch it up. At that time, I did remember to buy some safety goggles, and a filter mask. As much of a cheapskate as I am, safety is one thing that I do not skimp upon.

The only "worst" thing about this was that I'm sorry I didn't think of it when I first spent the money to go get the mallet and other things at the hardware store. And I forgot an item or two I was thinking of getting. I mean, I should have made a list, but even if I had, I probably would have forgotten the safety goggles anyway.

I have discount taxicab coupons so I used those, and basically it cost me something over $10 (would have been $20 because you buy the coupons for 50% off) to make the trip, as I did it on Thursday because, well, I wanted to get out of the house and do something (call it a minor outbreak of cabin fever), and the taxicab coupons allow me to take a cab for 1/2 price, and taking a cab I can do immediately; Metro Access ($2.50 each way) requires a one-day advance notice, and Call-a-Bus (50c each way because I'm in a wheelchair, otherwise it would be $1) requires basically three days notice plus you have to confirm it the day before. And their offices are only open on weekdays (as much as only being able to book trips for weekdays too; this is basically the same restriction the on-demand shuttle in Loudoun County had.)

I don't get Cabin Fever all that often, I've sometimes been in my room for a couple days, straight, and sometimes I've been in the house for as much as a week without going outside. When I was living in Loudoun County, I actually travelled off-site much less than I do now. I would say that I am typically using Metro Access on average at least three times a month. Back in Loudoun, I probably had periods of a month or longer where I never left the immediate area of the house. To at least get some exercise, if it was possible I would take the recycling out to the curb once a week. It was a bit of work but I'd do it just to say that I could. When it snowed too much or if it had been heavily raining I didn't, but otherwise I dragged all the recycling in the box, and any additional bags such as bags of old newspapers out to the curb. I'd also pick up the mail that day.

So for being able to go to Home Depot immediately I paid more than double the Metro Access fare, and I still didn't get everything I needed. I used to be unhappy to some extent with how much a trip on Metro Access cost, and yet I paid - actually it's more than triple as much - to use a cab. (The whole round trip including tips ran about $26, of which $20 was from the 50% discount coupon book, so I ended up paying $6 in cash.) The cab cost me $16 total, Metro Access would have cost $5.

It's 2:45 in the afternoon. I can book trips on Metro Access until 4:30. I have two options; book a trip on Sunday (or Monday) and go back to the store, or wait and do something else, like be an even bigger cheapskate, wait until call-a-bus reopens on Monday and book a trip from them for Wednesday or Thursday depending on how they count their three-day rule.

I think maybe I'll use Call-a-bus to book a trip to the laundromat. I will call my sister to see if she has safety goggles, then if she doesn't (she didn't for the mallet) then I'll go get them, along with the other things. But this time, I'll make a list, and if I think of some other items while I'm there I'll get them too. (For example, I picked up trash bags while I was there, because I happened to notice them. I wasn't really "out" of trash bags yet, but having "too many" trash bags, if that's possible, is eventually a self-correcting problem.)

This is an important point someone once said that doing things right the first time is usually more effective and less expensive than doing it over. Actually if I wanted to be somewhat more efficient, I could have called Metro Access and scheduled the trip for today (I didn't want to go anywhere Friday as Deer Park was coming to deliver my water cooler and bottled water), and possibly read the instructions all the way through, and maybe noticed I should have goggles, as well as the other two or three things I also wanted to pick up from Home Depot. I mean, under the rules for Miss Utility I still have to wait until Monday before I can install the post anyway, so it wouldn't have made one bit of difference if I got the equipment Thursday or waited until today.

Except, of course, I would have spent less money. Oh well, not a big deal.

I got an e-mail either Thurdsday night (1/22) or Friday morning informing me that there was a 48-hour hold on my ticket number 9029743 to allow me to dig a hole to put in the new mailbox. I wasn't sure whether this was a confirmation of the 48-hour hold which you're supposed to give them or a notice that an additional 48 hours were required.

I got a second e-mail in which, of the five companies participating in Miss Utility, 4 issued a release with no problem, and the fifth - which was the water company, surprisingly enough - has come out and marked where its pipes are. Now, presuming no marks in blue, purple or green are present on the ground where my mailbox is to be, I should be able to put the post in Monday, or wait until I get someone to help and put it in.

The color coding system used for Miss Utility reminds me of the Homeland Security terror threat level index. White is what I would supposedly use to mark where I'm putting stuff down; Pink for temporary survey; Red for electric; Yellow for gas, oil and steam; [Update 2/25/2009] Orange for communications, alarm or signal lines and conduit; [End Update]. Blue for drinking ("potable") water; Purple for reclaimed and irrigation water; and Green for sewers.

It's now 12:25 in the morning, so I think that later today, probably after it's light, I'll go out and look around a little, and see if I notice where the marks are. Presumably - at least I hope it to be the case - they won't be where I want to put the mailbox. Well, if it becomes a problem I'll put it someplace else. I don't have any choice: I soon will be the only person here and if I want my mail I will have to go get it, and that means making the mailbox accessible to where I can get to it, as the current mailbox, in addition to looking like someone used it at least once for the target of Mailbox Baseball (and I will be damned if someone hadn't already created an article on the subject at Wikipedia!), is inaccessible to me.

[Update] I went out about 1:00 this afternoon and found nothing, so either the marks are on the far inside of the driveway or there's something else. But, in any event, it looks like I'm okay. [End Update].

I have a desk-mounted lamp I use both for working and for taking video in order to make sure it has enough light. I've been using a 95 watt standard incandescent bulb. I had to go over to Home Depot to pick up a sledge hammer anyway (for the mailbox post I will be able to install starting Monday), and I saw a 24-watt (equivalent to 100 watts) Compact Fluorescent bulb on sale in a two pack for about $3.50, which is about 1/2 price. Well, at that price I can take a chance and try it. If it is adequate the package claims you can get 9 years out of it. (Based on 3 hours a day.) That would be nice, Outside of the two that I broke, I've tended to get about six months out of the cheap incandescent bulbs I've been buying. Sure, they cost about 25c but figure that for the small difference I don't have to worry about them blowing out anytime soon.

[Update 2/04/2009]. The purpose wasn't really to save money on electricity. The purpose was for me to - in a low risk test - get some experience in how a CF bulb is used and whether there's things I need to be aware of. For example, it's my understanding because of the much higher levels of mercury that a CF bulb has, if one breaks you're supposed to treat it as if it was a hazardous spill, and be careful. Also, you should not simply dispose of them in the trash. So I try this method, in effect to "dip my toe in the water" and get some experience in their use. With the reduced electricity cost and equivalent lumens, I expect CF bulbs to become much more common. If they get the cost down to where you can save enough from one year's use to justify the difference they're going to really outsell incandescents. If they figure a way to be able to dim them, they'll almost completely replace them. And if they figure a way to get rid of the mercury problem, incandescents will go the way of VHS tape.[End Update].

So when I get home I unscrewed the 95 and put in the 24. Turn on the lamp and it's kind of dim. I notice that only about 1/2 of the bulb is lit, so I get it: these probably either don't have a "ballast" like the fluorescent tubes in offices have, or it's a slow ballast. (I have no idea what a ballast is, I presume it's something like a spark plug and it's used to start a fluorescent.) It takes about a minute or two before it's "heated up" and sure enough, it's either as much light as the 100 watt (well 95 watt to be precise) incandescent or so close I can't tell the difference. [Update 1/24/2009] Apparently the slow start is only the first time it's used. I turned the lamp on today and it completely came on in full brightness. [End Update].

What I will probably do is try doing some video and see how it looks; you might fool my eye, but you can't fool the camera. It needs lots of light. And we'll see if the level of light is similar or the same. One thing I'll advise people, which is not a problem for me, but it says that they are not dimmable. So if you're going to use a CF you can't run them using a dimmer. Since I'm running it to get full lumens and generally do not want to dim it, it is not a problem for me. The lamps in the ceiling of my room are dimmable, so if I want partial light, that's what I can use.

About a couple of months ago, the town of Capitol Heights came out and put in proper curbs on the street. They also put a real driveway in. Before this was installed, basically there was about a 9 inch drop between the street and the driveway. Outside of a small corner I could "squeak" through it was difficult and potentially dangerous to go out; I basically had to wheedle the Metro Access drivers to come on the property in order to allow me to get me and my wheelchair on the van to take me where I was going, or else have me and them migrate me over a very difficult, steep incline. Consider a cliff face of black asphalt 9 inches thick and you've got a good idea of what I had to go through.

Coming back in was so dangerous I refused to use that method, instead, I'd have the driver take me over to the stairs, I would do a "controlled fall" in which I would lower myself out of the wheelchair at a point as close to the stairs as I could get, have him bring the wheelchair to the bottom of the steps, then I would "bum" my way by more-or-less crawling over to the top of the steps, lower myself down each step until I was even with the wheelchair seat, then slide off the steps back onto the wheelchair.

Now, it's a nice, smooth driveway, to come in I just roll right back over to the porch, use my ramp and go back into the house, and the only minor problem is that the angle is very steep to exit the driveway out to the street for an occupant self-pushing a manual wheelchair, and I can do it, it just takes time and maybe some effort. If I am being helped out to the pickup van, it's almost trivial as me and the driver simply have to push me up a slight incline to the street. Far, far better.

Only problem is, with the installation of the new curb, while it has made a significant improvement, it also means that now, I can't reach the mailbox at all. With basically everyone else leaving, I'm going to have to go get my own mail. And that's a problem because - and I think I mentioned this in a prior article - I have to completely cross that driveway, go out in the street, go about twenty feet to the mailbox, then probably use my grab stick to pull the mail out as the mailbox is now behind the curb and too far to reach from someone in a wheelchair on the street. Before, it was simply a dirt edge, I could roll right up to the mailbox for the one or two times I went out to either collect mail or put an outgoing letter in the mailbox.

So I bought a new mailbox and a new post. I figure I'll install it right at the driveway, if I get it right, I can reach it without having to do a lot of work, and the mail carrier might even be able to still load it without getting out of his truck as I think he can with the current mailbox. And guess what, it said something on the post I hadn't thought of. It reminded me to call the utility people before digging the post hole.

This is only the second time I've put in a mailbox and hadn't thought that even something as minor as a 1/4" steel rod might be a problem. But yeah, I might discover there's a gas line, electric line or something else in the exact spot I was going to use. Or rather, it might be the last thing I ever discover!

So I went on line last night - it is amazing how many things you used to either need to call in or visit in person can now be done on line - went up to Miss Utility's website, filled out the web form, and I got an e-mail back this morning with my permit number. No fee, and basically it gives the 5 utilities - Comcast (Cable), Pepco (Electric), Verizon (Telephone), Washington Gas, and WSSC (Water) - two business days to come out and mark any lines they have in the general vicinity of where the post is going to be (facing the street, either on the right or left side of the driveway, I'm being flexible in case I do find there's something underground where I was going to put it). I have a favored spot, a square of ground right next to and just clear of the fence, and facing the street, but it might not be usable.

So, if I read the permit correctly, I can start any time after 7am Monday morning. I am just so glad the maker of the post put that little warning on the package. The chances are probably very high that if I hadn't called, nothing would have happened, but this way, I can be sure.

I would have needed the time anyway, the one thing the box says I need to put the post in, a mallet, I don't have. I'll either borrow one from my sister if she has it or buy one. Probably basically what I need is a 6 pound steel sledge hammer. If I have to go to a store I'll ask, because, due to finish issues to prevent damage it may want to use a rubber mallet.

I have a resume posted on some job sites, and occasionally someone claiming to be a recruiter sends me an e-mail asking me for an updated resume. I do have to worry about whether it is legitimate or if it's some scammer collecting personal information.

If it looks like it's legitimate, I send a standard resume and maybe some writing samples. Which usually gets rid of them, literally; I never hear from them again. Don't know if they are scammers, didn't get the response they wanted and moved on, or just found I didn't fit what their customer wanted and simply never responded again. [Update 1/24/2009] I note I used the word "spammer" in the title, so perhaps at the time I wrote the title I was thinking of someone who is spamming people who might have posted resumes on job websites to collect personal information. Or maybe they just made up the claim that they saw a resume on a site, and presumed a lot of people have posted their resume on various job sites and used it to scam people, I don't know. Oh, what are my criteria for determining if it looks legitimate? Person includes return contact information including a company name, address, USA telephone number, typically in the local area. One thing that's a red flag: anyone who sends me e-mail with an international telephone number for making a response is considered the same as a Nigerian over-invoiced oil contract scammer and their message does get marked as spam, and is file 13'd.) [End Update].

I don't give out personal information beyond name, address and telephone. (Basically, if you did a whois lookup on this domain you could get the same thing.) They don't get salary history or what I'd be looking for, nor do they get personal references. I'll save that for a personal interview, if it goes that far.