What Gets Sent to Vegas Tries to Stay in Vegas

We are back in Vegas now, enjoying a few shows and buffets and slots with friends. Plenty of things to do for sure.

While we were doing the doctor thing, I managed to squeeze in cataract surgery for my left eye - did the right one back in '03. It's really amazing (to me at least) how simple this procedure is today. Half a day as an out patient followed by a couple of easy days healing and it's all done. Our Medicare Advantage coverage includes a new pair of specs, but we were leaving California and heading here before the eyeglasses would be ready. No problem. Just give the vision specialist our mailing address here in Vegas and they would be shipped to us. Welllll. When your expecting general delivery mail, you better be durn sure you get the zip right (oops.)

So we go to the post office to get my new peepers (and not for the first time,) but they're not there yet. I mean, USPS has gotten a bad rep over the past half-century, but six days from SoCal to Vegas???? Where is it? The eyecare folks mailed it to our address, they claimed. Wait...that's the right city (Henderson) but the wrong zipcode. So let's drive over to the Las Vegas downtown post office (the zip I had supplied) and see if it's there. All the way across town only to find that it isn't in their "bad zip" bucket. "Where to now?" we ask. Well, when general delivery mail come in, it first lands at the main post office for distribution. If there's a address conflict, they may keep it. Where's the main post office? Over by the airport.

Back in the car and across town again. Bad news - they have no place to store mis-addressed items. It should be at the downtown post office. "Now Honey, let's stay cool..."

Back in the car one more time. This time, let's just pretend it's supposed to be there and see what happens. VOILA!!! It had been there all along -  for four days.

One more confession - something that has been part of my psyche since the mid-90's. When we were cruisers (on the boat) the electronic charting revolution was happening. Shoot, as the specialist in that department at Bluewater Books and Charts for years, I was the expert. But as a sailor, I resisted the movement forever - until I finally tried it, and found out what an excellent tool the latest generation had become. For many of the same reasons (but mostly because I must be an old codger - you know, set in my ways....) I've resisted the move to in-car GPS's like Garmin. But a few weeks ago, we made the move here too. And I'm here to tell you that criss-crossing Clark Couty, Nevada three or four times was almost a no-brainer with the help of "the lady" - "turn left on Las Vegas Blvd, then turn right..."

Who knows what technology we'll be adopting next - iPad, anyone?