Eastgate Park in Autumn
Right now I wish I could throw caution to the wind and just head over to this restful spot in the neighborhood! There I would sit on the one bench, waiting for the Canada geese to arrive hoping for crumbs - which I no longer take as feeding them is outlawed - and hopefully a few of the white ducks would appear as in other years. I would soak up the fall colors reflected in the oily water, enjoy the turtles sunbathing on the broken branches along the shoreline, walk on crisp and crackly leaves, look up at the Carolina blue sky. . . . . . . and just breathe. The weather is perfect.
This week is crazy with mostly health issues taking up my precious time. Two PT appointments, a visit to my doctor in order to get scheduled for a lumbar spine MRI, and tomorrow that procedure being done late afternoon. In between I've continued my home exercises for the painful leg issue, and am moving a little easier.
Yesterday we shopped at World Market for a few British food items for Christmas before they're all gone. Shipments from Europe, like everywhere on the planet, are way behind, and much holiday stuff won't be here in time. We then proceeded to the post office to get postage stamps for mailing holiday greetings. OMG, what a palaver! Let me just say this, if you don't want to re-mortgage your house, or send your retired husband to take a part-time job as a Walmart greeter. . . . . . . don't buy square cards of any dimension! Regular postage with its increases is bad enough, but dealing with non-machinable surcharges is abominable! It's so complicated in fact that you just about give up and angrily stick a row of International, Forever, Non-machinable stamps across the envelope, not caring how much it costs, whether it will 'cross the pond' safely, or just get tossed into the Atlantic or Pacific ocean depending to which continent it's addressed! Parcel postage, both domestic and overseas, is another issue and I won't even go there, a nightmare! Just know I'm not mailing any packages this year - if Santa himself doesn't deliver yours I apologize in advance because I'm not going to either.
Hopefully your card will arrive though!
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Dearest Mary,
ReplyDeleteWhat an idyllic spot and you almost wrote poetry about that spot.
We too had a rude awakening this week as we seriously were going to mail out two parcels to The Netherlands. Not quite parcels but one would be an odd shape. The first one, weighing a bit over an ounce (!) would 'only' cost us US $ 121.00. The odd shaped one of course would have been several hundreds. Pieter sarcastically said, you about have an airline ticket for that amount.
But it is very sad. At home I looked at DHL but they also are stuck with high charges and Europe did change their customs regulations since July, so NOTHING will pass for free. All the hassle makes you RUN.
Sad for people like you and both of us, with family and friends on the other side... We are brutally being cut out of the game. And our parcel from May, never arrived, it crossed the Atlantic trice. No fun anymore and too much money and stress involved.
We too got us some German and Italian Christmas goods at TJ Maxx after the UPS horror.
There was indeed very little and it is not even Thanksgiving.
Life is not the same anymore with so many stupid rules.
Hugs,
Mariette
Yes, we always joke that that soon it may be cheaper to buy a plane ticket and carry the parcels with us these days!
DeleteI check the TJMaxx, Homegoods, Maarshall's etc. too around the holidays (better get there soon) for imported food items, but find World Market my best bet for British foods. LIDL and ALDI also have plenty of German/Italian items too - especially Stollen, Pannetone, cookies, chocolates marzipan items (my downfall!) etc.
AMEN! 📦
DeleteI have been checking the cost of just sending cards abroad, and am horrified how prices have gone up. I'm afraid I may not be sending any but local cards this year, sadly.
ReplyDeleteI'm picking out the square format I bought and only sending to the US even though they will still cost more. All my overseas cards will have to be rectangular - such a pain!
DeleteThat is a beautiful scene, and one that would calm a frazzled mind - like mine is today with all the devastation in our province. And I hope, dear Mary, that your medical appointments go well and see good results. I'm glad to read that you are moving a bit easier. Postage is dreadful here, too.
ReplyDeletetake good care,
hugs,
Lorrie
We've been saddened seeing all that has happened in that terrible storm dear - thankfully you are safe.
DeletePostage is a nightmare at best...I had no idea about the added cost of unusual sizing.
ReplyDeleteThat dreamy spot looks beautiful and sounds better. Perhaps soon you'll find yourself visiting there. It is good that your exercises are working. May the MRI go smoothly.
Have a lovely weekend.
Thanks Vee - I'm doing OK and hoping to improve!
DeleteWhat, I wonder, are the British foodstuffs available in the US. In France the supermarkets in ski resorts mainly sell baked beans, Marmite, English mustard, Heinz ketchup, Cadbury chocolate bars of various types, orange marmalade and tea!
ReplyDeleteMark, we can get Walker's mince Pies, Christmas pudding, biscuits etc. for the holidays. I like to make my own mince pies and was lucky to find jars of Robertson's mincemeat, which is good, this week, so I bought several because they have a long shelf life. During the year many British staples are available too, especially chocolate items, jams, marmalade, fruit drinks such as Elderberry, cheese crackers etc.
DeleteWhat a beautiful autumnal spot to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI hope all of the health problems soon clear dear Mary, but pleased to learn that at least your painful leg issue is improving.
I have just bought some Christmas cards and was really surprised to find that the charity shop which I like to support had hardly any left and very also very little choice. Perhaps I too am in for a shock when I visit the post office tomorrow.
Prices going up drastically for just about everything here - I refused to pay $3.00 yesterday for one skinny Romaine lettuce! Boxed cards here are hard to find this year - I was really fortunate to find mine at the usually expensive nearby independent book shop for a really good price - they are from England too!!!!!
DeleteWhat's wrong with square cards? I am so tired of keeping up with all the new rules that seem to crop up everyday that I feel like screaming like a demented being.
ReplyDeleteHope your appointments go smoothly and won't be too much of a headache.
Automated address reading machinery apparently not able to read square format - how stupid is that? I love square cards but the additional postage to mail them has become so high. With the shape, weight, additional postage for different sizes, just mailing cards has become ridiculous.
DeleteHow did we ever put man on the moon but can't mail a sweet greeting card with ease!!! I'm screaming with you dear Loree.
Thanks for the good wishes - hope to be up and running (well at least walking!) and bending again soon!
It is similar here; and ever since Brexit became effective, all my letters, cards and parcels to my family and friends in the UK cost a fortune and take much longer to arrive. I will try to get my Christmas parcels for them ready this weekend and send them off on Monday, so that hopefully they will arrive in time for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it is the same here with formats that are not to the mail service providers' standards. They do accept them, but postage is enormous.
Seems we have similar problems with post offices/delivery companies - life is getting sad when one can't even send a little handwritten card without 'breaking the bank' as we say! I don't really like e-cards either - and found when I subscribed to a really lovely service (Jackie Lawson) most people never opened
Deletethem! I've canceled membership.
Oh how lucky we are to take Marmite for granted here in the UK - I don't think I could enjoy toast without it! I hope you aren't lacking too many British goodies. We see the odd empty shelf on supermarkets here due to delivery driver issues. Food prices are certainly creeping up here so I presume British imports will be even more costly for your part of the World. I am trying to buy locally grown produce rather than fruit from South Africa and apples from Australia - it's surprisingly difficult in the UK to get our own produce!
ReplyDeleteDelivery people are desperately required here - especially long distance truck drivers! Salaries offered plus a sign up bonus are huge, people just don't want to do that often very hard and dangerous job any longer. They have always said "America moves by truck" but not anymore! Of course shipping is in a terrible mess too - nobody to unload all those mountains of containers waiting at ports!
DeleteDear Mary, Hopefully your Drs can help you feel better. Living with so much pain and for so long is so devastating. I hope that your new tests will shine some light on your injuries and provide answers.
ReplyDeleteBecause I have to mail so many heavy packages (ceramic tiles are very heavy) I have had to shell out large amounts of money for shipping. I was told that it is because of the upcoming holidays. Not only has shipping become too expensive but also packages and their content never make it to the recipient without at least some damage to the content.
Dear Gina - I'm really sad knowing your beautiful tiles are not getting shipped with care, and damage is occurring despite paying so much to send them on their way to those lucky customers. I really don't see shipping of anything improving - it's really become a nightmare.
DeleteThanks for the get well thoughts - I'm doing a bit better day by day.
Beautiful blog
ReplyDeleteThanks so much.
DeleteWe need a new Postmaster. I think he wants to eliminate the USPS and go private. Hope your medical issues improve with a good MRI result.
ReplyDeleteWe need a lot of new 'people' in many government positions - but I won't go there on my blog, haha!!!
DeleteThanks for the good wishes, nice you stopped by.
Dear Mary, I thought we were the only mad country with post/mail going crazy! But when I read your blog, I see: same as here!
ReplyDeleteI sent a red envelope - forbidden.
I sent an English envelope: 1 cm different to the allowed. - forbidden.
And, and, and.
I remember about more than 100 letters my friend Beate and I exchanged as young girls when her parents moved to another town - and each one was so decorated that it was very unusual. The most exciting: an envelope completely framed with the huge fragile seeds of a plant from which I cannot find the translation, but you might know it: almost opaque Thaler - the plant itself (lunaria annual) has plain purple tiny flowers. Ah - it might be called "honesty" in Britain.
And that fragile decorated letter arrived! In whole! Without postage due - on the contrary, with all the admiration the postman could offer!
(I have all those letters still - might make something of that.)
.....can't send a red envelope!!!! WOW, that's a new one. How about green, blue etc?
DeleteLife is going crazy - life was once much easier and less stressful than it is these days.
Britta, those letters and decorated envelopes must be beautiful - great that you kept them - your postman must have been a romantic, hahaha!
Hello Mary, I am a first time visitor to your blog and came here after reading Vee's blog and seeing the photo of the lovely cowl you sent her. I agree that the high cost of mailing anything is distressing and even more so at holiday time. Even though the cost of postage has gone up, I will still send cards, but no packages will be sent.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by. I see you're in Nashua - my hubby is from Manchester and I lived there for several years (and in MA for a few more) before coming south. Know your area well.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm still sending cards this Christmas even though many have to go overseas to family and friends. Fortunately we're all too old now to require parcels of things we really no longer need. At this time of life just a card with nice greeting is welcomed!
My cards are ready to send, but waiting until next week to put them in the mail. Thanks for the reminder on overseas though. I think I will send those today since I need to go to the USPS.
ReplyDelete