My original plan was to mail the letter last week, even though my school had vacation days on Thursday and Friday. I had planned to go to work on Thursday or Friday to take care of a couple of things. This, of course, did not happen. Instead, I ran errands all day on Thursday, and I graded at home all day on Friday. Had I come in to work, this would have been the first thing I did. I could have walked to the local post office, mailed the envelope, and be done with it.
Instead, I did not go into the office. I had a beautiful four-day weekend, and forgot about the letter until yesterday morning. Fine---I can simply go to the local post office to mail it. The problem is that yesterday was Columbus Day, causing the Post Office to be closed.
This letter needed to be mailed yesterday, and the Post Office was not an option. Rather, I had to use UPS or FedEx. I used Google Maps to locate the nearest drop for UPS, which is about six miles from my work.
I had the time, since I only taught one course yesterday. The problem is that I drive an electric car, and I cannot afford to drive around town without some planning. Since I had already driven 5.5 miles, this would give me a total of 23 miles for the day. This should not be a problem under optimal conditions, since my car can go roughly 30 miles. However, the temperature was close to freezing and it was snowing---these conditions decrease economy in every car, and my EV was no exception.
So I drove to the UPS drop, and got the letter in the mail. I was concerned about the EV on the drive home---it was much more sluggish than usual. Instead of driving straight back to work, I decided to stop midway at my house for an hour's worth of charging.
I charged, ate lunch, and returned to work in time for my class. Instead of parking in my usual spot, I parked farther away so that I could finish charging while at work. I went to teach, finished up some paperwork, and then prepared to leave for the day.
On the walk to my car's unusual parking place, I noticed a FedEx drop that probably 200 yards from my office.
posted by Dirk Awesome @ 12:42 PM
2 Comments:
200 yards away! That's so tragic it's funny! I really liked this entry.
Thanks. It turns out that it was worth the experience, since someone enjoyed my story. I didn't have a lot that needed to be done that day, so I could afford to trade time for a story.
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