SeizeTheBlog

Yesterday I had to mail a letter and I only had 37 cent stamps, and no 2's. Since the cost of postage went up I didn't want to take the chance, so I made a trip to the Barlow Street P.O. branch to get some 2's. My first clue that I had a problem was when I had to wait to even get into the parking lot. Inside, there was a huge line of people, most of whom had the same problem as I did. After waiting in line for 10 minutes or so, a friendly, older man appeared from somewhere and asked if we were waiting for 2 cent stamps. Many of us said, "Yes!" He said, "I have some out in my car if you want some." Six of us had the courage (or stupidity) to peel out after him and risk losing our place in line. So there we were, six people in single file following him around to the side of the building. It turned out that he was a rural mail carrier and when he got to his car he pulled out a small metal box. Our little group chuckled as he opened it and took orders. He didn't have many stamps, but he said he could probably take care of our needs for what we wanted to mail today. He also did not have much change. I was last in line and only had bills, so I borrowed 2 cents from the lady in front of me. When I got to him, he did have 20 stamps left so I bought them. When I went back in the P.O. to mail my letter, the lady that I borrowed the 2 cents from was just leaving, so I gave her 2 cents back. Meanwhile all of the other people in line in the P.O. just looked at our little band of six with puzzled eyes. This crazy incident gave me a smile for the rest of the day. As you can see, it does not take much to entertain me.

Besides being frozen water, ICE means In Case of Emergency. This new program could be very helpful to you if you carry a cell phone. It was created by a paramedic from the UK. Many emergency first responders in the U.S. have been trained to look for ICE on your cell phone contact list. More will be aware of it in the near future. Adding this to your cell phone is quite simple, actually. Just add ICE next to the names of the person or persons you would like contacted in case of an emergency. For example: ICE-1 Bob, ICE-2 Mom, or ICE-3 Doctor. Besides notifying your loved ones in case of an accident or other health problem, the emergency personnel can also contact someone that can help with medical decisions on your behalf. The way I did it on my cell phone was to leave my present contacts the way they were and added new ICE contacts with their cell numbers as the first visible number. There is also a web site that sells stickers for the back of your phone to alert emergency workers if you choose. By the way, ignore emails warning that adding ICE to your cell phone makes it vulnerable to viruses. This is a hoax. No such viruses exist.