taping stamps to an envelope

Several times a year, there's a charity that sends me a self-addressed stamped envelope - I guess they think that they can prompt me to send them money because of the free postage? I do sometimes give them money (not because of that!), but generally I do not. It may be silly, but I hate the idea of throwing away those unused stamps. So I cut the stamps off the envelope using a pair of scissors, and keep the stamps for reuse later on. I don't send out a lot of mail, so I don't see why I should bother with buying stamps when I can usually get away with reusing these free ones.

When I have a letter to send, I take a couple of strips of clear tape, and attach the stamps at the bottom and the top to my new envelope. I am careful to leave most of the stamp uncovered by tape, so that it's easy for the postal service to postmark the stamps (thereby invalidating them).

I've been doing this for many, many years without any problem. I've never had an envelope returned when doing this - until today!

Above you can see the envelope that was returned to me (FYI - before taking this photo, I had started peeling off the tape from the stamps, but then stopped because I thought this would make an interesting blog post. There was tape over the top of the stamps, and the stamps had not been abraded, when I originally mailed the letter). It is marked "RETURN FOR POSTAGE" and "Re-used Stamps". I figured someone at the post office was unfamiliar with the idea that it's okay to reuse a stamp as long as it has not been postmarked. So I went to the post office to clear things up. I thought that perhaps I had overdone it with the tape this time (a bit too much tape covering the stamps), and I was hoping someone would just cancel the postage for me at the counter.

Well, I was told that taping over stamps is "destroying government property," and it is absolutely not allowed. I explained that the stamps were not "reused" - they had not been used to send anything through the mail and were free of postmarks. Nope! Not allowed!

Yet for many, many years I've been getting away with this. I asked if it would be okay to glue the stamps on. They would neither confirm nor deny whether this was permitted; but at least they didn't say that this was "destroying government property."

I've been searching the internet to determine where the ruling is that you cannot tape stamps to an envelope. Rumors abound, but I have found no definitive answer. I still suspect that the real problem, in this case, was that the stamps were covered with too much tape. If I'd been more careful and exposed more of the stamp surface, this problem would never have occurred. The USPS apparently uses machines which scan the surface of the stamp to check whether it has been cancelled: http://pe.usps.com/text/csr/PS-281.htm:

Most stamps are coated with a substance that may be detected by cancellation machines which verify that postage is affixed. These machines reject letters on which a stamp cannot be detected.

So yeah, I suspect that you can just get away with taping over stamps, provided you leave most of the stamp surface uncovered. But from now on, I'll use glue.

my pm3 is dead, slain by a bad battery

I haven't used my indoor rower since June, at which point the monitor was working fine. Yesterday, I decided it was time to start preparing for the Concept2 Holiday Challenge. When I started to row, the monitor didn't turn on automatically, like it usually does. I figured, "dead batteries" and opened the monitor to pop them out. Much to my chagrin, I found one of the batteries had "exploded" and leaked all over the circuit board.

I was tempted to pour some Dr Pepper over the thing, but I didn't have any in the house. Instead I tried scrubbing on some baking soda with a toothbrush. That removed some of the corrosion but not all (the photo above shows the end result, still with plenty of gunk). I had to flush a little water over the area to remove the baking soda and detritus... I let it dry overnight, and tried it out this morning. It still doesn't work, no surprise.

I could continue to row without the monitor, of course, but then I wouldn't be able to record my meters, and couldn't participate in challenges, which is something I really enjoy.

So I've ordered a PM3 retrofit kit from Concept2 for the horrifying price of $160 (I guess I'm lucky that they still sell the things). Reminder to all: remove the batteries from expensive items when you aren't going to be using them for a while.

30K miles

I've got about 30K miles on my car now, so I took it to the dealer for a 30K mile service. The base price was a jaw-dropping $425 (with coupon). According to an undated article at Edmunds, the price is more likely to be $300, or something like that. I live in one of the costlier areas of the country, so the higher price is unsurprising. In any case, I had no idea what to expect and hadn't bothered to do the research, so I just took it on the chin.

The bill is remarkably difficult to deciper. Here's what they did:

• oil change plus new drain plug gasket and air filter
• "replace non-platinum and non-iridium spark plugs" - not sure if they actually did anything there
• test: battery, hoses and belts
• drain and refill cooling system
• "clean throttle body" - what is that?
• drain transmission assembly (hopefully they refilled it too)
• service differential assembly (hm)
• inspect: exhaust system, suspension, steering, brakes
• lube as needed (so did they do anything)?
• top off fluids as needed (did they...?)
• rotate and balance tires
• clean and adjust brake system
• new wiper blades

I notice I was charged $18 for "BK-44 cleaner" and $25 for something called "super long life c" (apparently the printout only allows 17 characters, to help keep you in the dark).

The parts cost about $150, with $275 going to labor. I wonder how much of that goes to the guy doing the actual work.

Despite the cost I'm happy. The dealer gave me a loaner car for the day, making the experience pretty painless. In addition, I had a slow leak in one tire, which was patched for about $20, nice to get that done at the same time.

My loaner car was a Camry. It was actually a rental, and it had a kind of stinky smell like someone had smoked in it, but other than that it was fine. After driving around in a Prius for a couple of years, I found the Camry engine annoyingly noisy. I notice it humming all the time, and I kept thinking about how much gas it was wasting when at stop lights. It made me appreciate the Prius more. I was also very happy when I got back into my own car and could immediately make use of the backup camera. I love that backup camera!

attack of the monster whitefly

I recently picked up a new houseplant. It's a jasmine or false jasmine - I can't recall what the lady told me at the store anymore. I picked it up from a greenhouse, somewhere I'd expect to get a very healthy plant. However, I noticed that it began to do poorly about two weeks after I brought it home.

At first I thought it just couldn't stand the heat in the apartment, or that it was getting too much sun. I didn't realize it was diseased! A few days ago, I noticed some small white fuzzy areas at the leaf nodes, and recoiled in horror. It's infected with greenhouse whitefly!

If anyone wants to make a really scary movie monster, they should think about basing it on the whitefly nymph. Those things give me the shivers.

I spent part of this evening attempting to eradicate the critters. It kind of looks like they've invaded my other plants, too.

3/30

This week I walked to work, for the first time this year in fact. The weather has been unseasonably warm.

My socks were a bit thin, and I got a small blister. Oops!

See more progress on: walk to work more often

white noise

My work environment is far too noisy for my liking. iSerenity has a potential solution - online white noise. Only problem is, it seems like a pointless waste of bandwidth. Another minor problem is that my pc at work doesn't have a working audio system (always seems to be a problem with me and Linux). I think for now, I'll stick to headphones and my ambient noise mp3s. But I kind of like it!

more snow

more snow
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

nice.

buttermilk blueberry pancakes

buttermilk blueberry pancakes
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

These are the best pancakes ever, made totally from scratch. Pancakes are not worth eating unless they are made with buttermilk.

Unfortunately, they are making me drowsy.

Dollhouse

So, I saw there's a new show out called Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku, who played "Faith" on Buffy. I thought to myself, gotta catch that. And tonight I did (because who needs a broadcast signal when you've got an internet connection?).

After watching for a few minutes, I was thinking "Is it my imagination? This show really has the flavor of a Buffy episode. Something about the way the scenes are shot, the dialogue... Am I just kidding myself?" And then the opening credits roll.

Dollhouse was created by Joss Whedon! Mentally, I am clapping my hands with glee! How did I not hear about this?! And look at all the Buffsters: aside from Eliza Dushku, there's Amy Acker amongst the cast. Tim Minear who wrote for Angel and Firefly, is producing and writing. David Solomon who co-produced and directed on Buffy, is producing and directing. I also see Kelly A. Manners, who produced Angel and Buffy, in the credits. Whee! All's right with the world!

[Check out this interview with mega-genius Joss Whedon. He is so cool!!!]

Fringe

I've been watching Fringe during my workouts lately. When the show premiered, I gave it a try, because I've enjoyed some other stuff from J.J. Abrams. However, I couldn't even make it through the first episode.

When I ran out of anything remotely interesting to watch during the Holiday Challenge, I tried Fringe a few more times. It has improved. I found the acting and the characters kind of stiff in the first few episodes. I'm getting kind of hooked, although it's still not the same quality as later episodes of the X-Files.

rinse at the car wash

at the car wash
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I went to get my car washed today... I was unprepared (and delighted) to actually go through it in my car. I haven't been to one of those types of car washes in a long time. If I'd known, I would have brought my camera. Luckily, I had my cell phone with me.

By the time I got the phone turned on, I was already at the rinse cycle, so that was what was going on here, outside the windshield. Next time I will try to be better prepared. I really wanted a shot of the mitter curtains flying around.

oh... too many cookies

My sister made Christmas cookies. They were good, but I went overboard.

switched to digital television

I delayed as long as possible getting a converter box for my 10-year-old television set. But a few months ago, I finally applied for the coupon.

Getting the coupon itself was an adventure. When I applied, I was refused; they claimed I had gotten a coupon already. Not so! I had moved into my current apartment in May. I figured the previous resident must have applied for the coupons, and a simple appeal explaining the situation would do the trick. My appeal was refused without explanation.

So I asked one of my friends to apply for me and finally I got a coupon. I wandered over to RadioShack and picked up a $60 converter box. With the coupon, it came to $20, and I'm still ticked off that I had to pay anything at all for the continued privilege of getting broadcast television.

I found that when using a coupon, they record your contact information, and felt vaguely criminal since my info won't match that on the coupon... it should be interesting if the FBI comes knocking at my door.

The converter box has been lying around my apartment for the last two weeks, since I've been too busy to try it out. But a few days ago, I noticed that my tv had stopped picking up the local FOX station. I thought it must be a temporary glitch, and anyway they were doing reruns, so I just waited a few days. Then I noticed that this evening there was a new episode of House scheduled at 8 pm. So I tried picking up FOX again, and the signal was still out. After a quick search, I found that FOX has switched to digital early (reportedly by accident).

I didn't want to miss House, so at 7:45 pm, I fiddled around with some wires and got my converter box set up. Voila... but no FOX. I got a couple of new channels, which look like nothing very interesting, but FOX was missing. So I tilted my rabbit ear antenna in the direction usually required to get FOX, and tried the "EZ Add" feature on the converter box. And it worked! House is coming in clear as a bell, and I'm recording it on my video recorder as I type this. However, I've noticed that my video recorder has to be tuned to channel 3 to pick up the box's signal, which means I can't use the recorder's timer. If I can't find a solution to that, I'm screwed and I'll have to go buy a new VHS recorder. This is one new technology I could have done without.

people... put your rss out there

It's been a major while since I checked out Moby's blog. In the usual internet manner (i.e. surfing from one link to the next), I found myself visiting over there today. It is mildly entertaining and his posts made me unrealistically nostalgic for my tenure in NYC. I thought it might be fun to obsessively track his postings, at least for a while, so I decided to add his rss to my feed.

Except, I couldn't find his rss link. I did a text search on his blog page, and the word rss does not appear there. Oddly, that was the second time today that I found an ostensibly commercial blog that I wanted to keep tabs on which did not supply me with an obvious rss link! I'm finding it hard to believe Moby doesn't want people obsessively tracking his postings. So Moby, please make it easy on everyone, and add an rss link to your list of bookmarks. I did eventually find it by looking for it in the html source, but I don't think most people are going to bother doing that.

let it snow

All that snow outside makes me wish I were on a ski vacation. I like snow, but mostly when it's in the French alps.

Around 7 pm the snow finally seemed to be tapering off. I read in the Globe that the temperature was going to take a dive tonight, hardening up the snow and making it more difficult to shovel in the morning. So I went out to clean off my vehicle, and shovel it out, which was fun, because I like shoveling.

Once I had my car unblocked, I looked at the wide clean space behind it, and, in contrast, the thick layer of snow blocking in the neighboring car. So I shoveled them out too. I figure this way, I'm less likely to come out in the morning to find my car blocked in by their snow removal efforts... At the moment I feel supremely accomplished and virtuous.

My left shoulder is clearly still a bit hinky due to my daily rowing regimen. I probably overdid it with the shoveling. Hopefully, after a good night's sleep, I'll be back in good form.

2/30

I walked to and from work today. That's two days down and twenty-eight to go. It was a bit chilly, in the forties, but bearable.

See more progress on: walk to work more often

voted!

Whoo! I got to the polls twenty minutes after they opened. There was a wait of about 30 minutes, not so bad. Very exciting!

Now I really feel like I have to go find a Starbucks to get my free cup of coffee...

Walk to work for 30 days over the next year

I live about two miles from work, so the walk is not difficult, but it is time consuming. When walking, my daily commute time goes from 20 minutes to one hour. However, walking is a good stress reliever. In contrast, driving increases stress levels.

It has been difficult convincing myself to add an additional 40 minutes of commute time to my day, when I have little enough time already. However, I can afford to do this once in a while – 30 days over the next year certainly seems possible.

Today was Day 1. I did the route faster than expected, at a pace of about 4 mph.

See more progress on: walk to work more often

sharks

sharks
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

My absolute favorite piece at the DeCordova is Pine Sharks, by Kitty Wales. They're like weird science fiction sharks, able to fly, circling in the air above you.

DeCordova sculpture park

tube thing
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

A friend is in town, so I'm doing the tourist thing. Yesterday, we went to the DeCordova sculpture park and spent almost the entire day there. I love visiting sculpture gardens.

This sculpture is one of my favorites, Reflex, by Michael Hansel. From this angle, it looks like an abstract horse creature rearing up on its hind legs.