United Parcel Service (UPS) Deliveries...

...can be pretty iffy things, or so it seems to me if you want to receive items in good condition. I recently ordered a Ladder tree Stand from the Sportsmansguide.com. It was apparently delivered to my house yesterday by UPS, who left it on my front stoop. Funny, because my wife was home when it was delivered, yet no one knocked on our door, they just left it there.

The shipping carton was in horrendous shape; and maybe that is why no one knocked on the door to see if someone was home to accept delivery. I am willing to bet the delivery man did not want to have the delivery "not" accepted. I have told my wife and kids never to accept a package in such shape. The carton itself had several holes in it, some that could easily fit my fist through them, and also had several smaller holes. The middle of the carton was bulged or bent. Parts of the ladder stand were sticking out of the box. The ends of the ladder stand were obviously scratched (I would like the finish intact to resist rust) where the delivery person, or someone else, had probably dragged the heavy box instead of lifting it (approximate weight 78 pounds plus box and packing material). If there are any small parts, and there should be nuts and bolts and such, my bet is some may be missing as I heard some pieces freely falling as I turned the box to take several pictures of it today. What a mess.

The holes shown in the pictures here are just some of them. Every corner of the box was torn open. There also were several smaller tears in the middle of the carton. At one point the box seems bent or bulged, I can only guess at the damage to the item inside, or that parts are likely missing. Well, I contacted the vendor: Sportsmansguide today. They told me to call back on Monday when Customer Service is open. I also sent them an email about this. Then I tried to contact UPS via their web site complaint process. It seems you need to know the extent of the damage before you can report something to them, so I guess I'll wait until Sportsmansguide tells me whether or not to even bother opening it, or to just return it for another.

Sportsmansguide has been good about stuff like this in the past, so I am hopeful they will take care of this right away. I am none too sure though that UPS will deliver another one in any better shape than this one. I know it can easily be lifted by someone in so-so shape, heck I lifted it today to take pictures, and my son carried it into the garage yesterday from the front stoop - never once dropping it, never once dragging it, never once damaging it. To think, the UPS delivery people get paid a darned good salary to leave things in such condition, they ought to be ashamed of themselves!

All the best,

Glenn B

The Immaculate Conception?

The test I just took, as mentioned in the post immediately previous to this one, once again demonstrated to me that many people are unaware of just what was the Immaculate Conception in Christian dogma. In that test of conservatism, they pose a question that in essence asks: If you could go back in time, and bring one thing with you, which choice would you make of the following 6 choices. One of those choices is this:

"The Immaculate Conception—with a video camera."

My guess is that the author of that question wrongly believes that the conception of Jesus Christ was The Immaculate Conception, after all this would be some action which you could see, and of which you might be able to take a video. The fact is that the Immaculate Conception was not the conception of Jesus Christ; nor was it an action of any sort. Do you know what truly was, according to Christianity, the Immaculate Conception? Don't look it up anywhere, just answer yes or no as to whether or not you know for sure. If I get a few answers either way, I'll tell you just what was it. And, yes I know the meaning of the Immaculate Conception even though I do not practice any faith; after all I used to be a practicing Catholic. Hint: it reportedly was revealed to Bernadette at Lourdes.

All the best,
Glenn B

Flag Waving Everyman or Anti-Government Gunslinger

Well, thanks to the Anarchangel, I took the test at: http://www.fightliberals.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Conservative-Are-You.html and I got the following results. Like the Anarchangel, I had an iffy answer. Question number 4 was a toss-up for me, with answers C or E being just as correct in my mind. Changing that one answer from C to E gave a very different result as seen below.

With C as the answer:

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Flag-Waving Everyman, also known as a patriot. You believe in freedom, apple pie, rooting for America at all times, and that God gave us a two-day weekend so we could enjoy football and NASCAR.

Take the quiz at ttp://www.fightliberals.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Conservative-Are-You.html

With E as the answer:

My Conservative Identity:

You are an Anti-government Gunslinger, also known as a libertarian conservative. You believe in smaller government, states’ rights, gun rights, and that, as Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Take the quiz at http://www.fightliberals.com/Inside-the-Book/What-Breed-of-Conservative-Are-You.html

So I guess I am teetering betwixt the two. I prefer to be the patriot, and don't really believe I am anti-government, unless they mean I am against our current brand of assholes politicians in charge of the Congress, the Judiciary and the Executive branches. I hope to help change that next election.

All the best,
Glenn B