You put a smile on my face, about who the delivery drivers are following.

Here in St. Louis, I have all of our packages delivered to a local hardware store. The owner insisted on helping us, since delivery to a home door is almost guaranteed to be stolen.

Packages delivered by UPS and FedEx have worked well. In fact with Amazon drivers have worked well too. The very disappointing delivery is by USPS. To the hardware store is fine, since they have a "regular" driver, and a good one. But to our home??? In our neighborhood, the mail delivery by USPS is a crap shoot. You know you won't get your mail 6 of 6 days, but 4, and our neighbors will get our mail the other two days. Some weeks, mail is miss-delivered regularly. In fact, we've changed all of our bill paying over to paperless billing. We want USPS to have nothing to do with our mail. Isn't that horrible?

I've been an Amazon Prime ever since they created "Prime", and in general, rather happy. Until now.

I purchased a product that a local dealer has confirmed as fraud. I started on a Monday morning to obtain a "Return Label". Amazon said they were having technical problems. After several hours, I called "Customer Service". I was told by someone in the Philippines that there is nothing they can do, except to tell me to call back in 4 hours. I did, and received the same message, except this time, I was told that it was -my- job to call back ever four hours. The employee, when asked, told me she was in the Philippines. Okay, every four hours, when asking to return a purchase, the screen said: "Return service not available".

On Tuesday, I saw the same "out of service", and the "Customer Service" told me ... yes, that it was my job to call every four hours. Only this time, the "Customer Service" was in the Caribbean. I'm not challenging the use of foreign countries to assist customers, but when I've asked to be returned to the USA, I only hear "we cannot do that".

After doing this for 48 hours, I needed peace, so I dropped the product into a trash dumpster. By the way, the product was a watch. It cost me only $ 161, but one must ask: Is this what we should expect in the future?

Have you seen Red, White, and Royal Blue?
Bill

I wonder how many more EX-970 Epson users there are on here. A nice 'support group' would be helpful I think.

I like Family Handyman magazine a great deal. HOWEVER, lately, I find that the post some really dumb ideas.
Bill

Jerry, Bret, I "like" to comment that: misery loves company, but I'm glad to hear that we are not the only folks that have problems with Spectrum. Where? St. Louis.

They have promised a new delivery method in which our speed would double, but .... when? And will it be more "constant" than what it currently is?

Just be careful. There was a time when I considered 'alternate' ink. Then I had a canon printer just shift to a totally "off" color, never to return, no matter what I did. I know, manufacturer's ink is always higher than alternate inks, but it might not be wise.

Hi Jerry,

I, too, bought the Epson XP-970. I saw that the XL carts contain more ink than the pro-rated price increase. I was then able to purchase all that I wanted from Amazon. Now I suspect you would be purchasing from Amazon.co.uk, and of course, I'm purchase it from Amazon.com here in the USA. But does this mean that Amazon.co.uk is not offering the same that we get from Amazon.com?

A thought here. During my Nikon days, I purchased a dedicated ring flash, complete with power supply. I was pleased with the results. Since that time, I switched over to Canon, and I took "a chance", and purchased a "ring" adapter which actually was a device that "snugged" over my regular flash, and via fiber optics, the light was redirected downward to a "ring" the circled the lens. Cost was far less than $100. I've been asked to photograph a family reunion next Monday. So, I set a friend down, and took three shots: 1.) direct from the flash, 2.) bounce off the ceiling (my usual favorite), and 3.) use my fiber optic ring light. Winner? RING was the winner. So for group shots, I'll use bounce since it will be in a home. For single shots, I'll use the RING I've just described.
Bill

Bebu, Being a math teacher here, 30 years teaching high school students, and now teaching college students, you would be shocked if I told you the number of students, +30 year old adults included, all have ""learned"" their prior math by memorizing what they have been told, but they have had almost no clue what it all means.
Bill

It is a shame that we have to be the violent, but it us unfair to others of we passively permit cheating.

For my students, phones are not allowed for any test taking, not even under the clause of "I need to use the calculator on my phone". No, they know they need to bring a cheap calculator to class, one with very little memory. If they don't have one, I loan one I've purchased from the Dollar Store. Should they miss class on a test day, I permit a make up, but it will be more difficult, and taken at the testing service on campus. AND, still, no phone or computers are allowed at the testing center. And believe it or not, one of my students "snuck" a phone in there, and tried to use it. Little to his knowledge, each test room has four cameras. When the supervisors show him look at his phone, they stopped him immediately and forwarded his "very incomplete test" to me, with the note he cheated. Well, he earned his 0% test grade, but he knew the risk he was taking.

I'm working from my desk today, in prep of classes this fall. So I'll be here, and looking forward to you shattering my life.
Bill

Let me add, with regular check ups with your doctor, you'll be in good hands ... to start off with. He thought I was a-fib, sent me to the hospital to be checked, and he was right. I was shocked, I mean surprised, for I felt perfectly normal. However my two older brothers have passed away, from heart problems. I'll bet they had heart disease, just like me (now). Neither believed in doctors.

Okay, back to a-fib. The majority of humans older than 65 are a-fib. That doesn't mean "the end of life". It means we have to adjust and ... ready for this? to slow down. I bought a Garmin watch type monitor. My cardiologist told me that I should keep my pulse average less than 110 beats per second. Reference? When I'm resting in bed with a good book, my rest rate is 78. Doing mild house project, about 95. When I think maybe I'm "doing too much", I'm not surprised to find my pulse rate to be 105, or 115, or even 124. When above 110 bps, it means to sit down and relax. Hey, we've worked hard through our life, so why feel guilty if we have to take some "time out"?

That's it guys. Many of us on UHH are a-fib, or Atrial Fibrillation. It means we must make changes, stop climbing 30 foot ladders and painting the gutters. Just slow things down, enjoy life, check your Garmin or Fit-Bit, keep below 110 bps, and go shoot with your cameras. Steve and John were right. I just wanted to add "particulars", ones I was not aware of until my doctor caught it. I plan to live at least another 20 years, and my 'birth certificate' will soon turn 80. My brain doesn't know that, and I'll leave it that way. A-fib. We can live with it, and still enjoy life.

David, We've been to Rome three times. I have a significant collection of images from there. I must say, in my humble opinion, you have captured many outstanding images. Job well done.
Bill