Random 5 for January 19 – Porch pirates, Kindles, ads, neurosis, dumb

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Pretty cool – For the holidays Amazon sent me a picture of my package on my front porch for proof of delivery. We haven’t had theft issues with porch pirates on my street. The houses are set back and it would be a more difficult grab and run than in other areas but this is still cool.

Should I save or should I throw — I have a 5-year-old Kindle Fire. I’ve been having trouble with the battery keeping its charge. The model I have is not made to swap out batteries. It’s not an easy process and after watching the YouTube numerous times, I decided it had a good run. I tried one more thing. I did a “hard” reboot. That’s when you hold down the power button for a period of time. Good grief! It’s like new! I always forget the power of rebooting. Now I have my extra Kindle back. This is the one I prefer to take for waiting rooms.

Targeted ads? – Really? For a few days this week every time I was on the internet, I was getting a disgusting picture of someone pulling out ear wax. It was an ad for something but I never looked at the product. I have not googled ear wax or anything near that. I’m hoping it goes away before I get nightmares.

Tracker – The only time I take my fitness tracker off is when I shower or charge it. I showered prior to a “large” errand run (large = step rich). I walked out the door without the tracker back on. As a type A person I debated if I should turn around (I was halfway to my first store). I didn’t but I was unhappy. I picked it up on the way to the second stop. When I zone in on something I’m like a baby with a nipple.

Stupid people – I regularly go through an intersection of a four lane and three lane road. On one corner is a Dunkin Donut. The entrance is three car lengths from the intersection. There are many times when a driver blocks up the whole caboodle. They can’t turn into the parking area because of on-coming traffic. It’s simple to drive a half block and turn around but they prefer to let the light turn red without any cars getting through. Seriously it’s a donut! (No, this is not like my tracker obsession! That affects no one but me.)

So how was your week?

61 thoughts on “Random 5 for January 19 – Porch pirates, Kindles, ads, neurosis, dumb”

  1. Kate, Now that is a first for me. Picture of your package. I am impressed that this type of brainstorming is part of Amazon and their team. I have a Kobo and I had to do a hard reboot after the first year. I think I have now been using it for 5 to 10 years. I have lost track of time. My week has been a blur. More ups than downs. No rest for the wicked. In other words, I have already forgotten what I did this week 🙂

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  7. I have a complaint about fitness trackers. The big celebratory fireworks only come once in the day. It should come every time you reach that increment during the day. I would like to change the target to 1000 steps and get fireworks 10 or more times a day. THAT would be motivating 😉

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  9. You see mothers all the time in grocery stores and other busy stores reminding their little kids to be alert, they’re blocking the way of someone who want’s to get through. Many of those kids would figure it out for themselves, but it helps to be taught. You have to wonder about people like those who block an intersection to get a donut.

    I’ve only been to a Dunkin’ Donuts a couple of times. It’s a good thing for someone like me that the nearest one is not too close.

    I always forget about the hard reboot too. Luckily when I’m at my wit’s end, one of my daughters reminds me.

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  10. That’s great that the hard boot kicked the Kindle back to life. I nearly had a meltdown when my phone said to reinsert the SD card. Before I did anything drastic, I cut the phone off and turned it back on. No more mention was made of a missing SD card. Whew!

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  11. I got that picture from Amazon from a courier and I thought it was cool too. A few weeks ago I wanted to buy a wedge pillow to elevate my legs at night (all this sitting for work and blogging/social media is making my ankles swell). So I saw one at Amazon and the shipping was $1.00 more for same-day delivery. Since we were expecting rain over the next week, I decided to live dangerously and spend another dollar. 🙂 So, with the couriers you don’t always get tracking info and in this case, they were shipping out of their new facility near the Detroit Metro airport. It was to come by 7:00 p.m. I believe. It finally left the facility at 5:00 and at 6:00 I clicked on delivery status and there was a map – he had 8 stops ahead of me and a map of a neighboring city. I was fascinated and kept clicking on the map watching him go from street to street til he got to my city. Then a pop-up “you are next” filled the map… I was wary of opening the front door as we have so much crime, but this way, I knew his exact ETA and put on the porch light, he handed it to me, no porch pirates. I told him I thought it was great … he said “everyone where I delivered today said the same thing!” We have a lot of porch pirates here.

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    • It was cool. I had several things delivered and only once did I get a picture. Since I’m home most of the time and my office is in the front where I can see trucks stopping for delivery, they don’t sit out a long time.

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      • When I can track it, I send the tracking info to work as we have Outlook and the new e-mail will ding, so I can grab it also. They don’t always knock and the porch pirates are wily … they follow behind UPS, Fed Ex and Amazon Prime vans.

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  13. There’s a shopping center near me with a post office near one exit. All it takes is one person insisting on waiting to get the spot right in front of the post office for traffic to back up around the block and onto Pacific Coast Highway. I’d understand if it were a handicapped space, but it’s not.

    The inability to understand the impact of an action on others is maddening.

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  14. I’ve started to wear my tracker again after a long hiatus so I need to re-train myself to put it on in the morning and after my shower. Although I get the same number of steps whether I’m wearing it or not, there is something about that little celebration on my wrist after I reach 10,000 steps that makes me so happy.

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    • I know. I love the fireworks and the little encouragements. Just what I need. I have amazed myself (because I hate exercise) at the affect this thing has had. I’m walking a lot. I don’t always hit 10K steps but I walk far more than I ever did especially in the winter.

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  15. Glad to know about the rebooting. I hardly use my fire because I listen to audible so much.
    Glad to know I’m not the only one with a fitness tracker obsession! Don’t leave home without it! What kind did you finally get? H and I got ours free with our supplement Medicare insurance. A Fitbit charge 3. I like the way it tracks my sleep. Sometimes I’m awake more than asleep! I need to post about this. Ha! Have a good week, Kate. ~Elle

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  16. I am so glad they have started sending photos of the delivery packages. They always ring the doorbell here when dropping something off…the dog loves it. HAHA
    We have a similar traffic situation with A new-isa Dunkin Donuts. Unfortunately the traffic was already bad I that area by the hight school and now it’s worse. Makes you wonder if caffeine fix needd actually does interfere with the brain’s logical thinking.
    (Ewwww – I hate that ear wax thing – Whyyyyyy? Yucky)

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    • Oddly, they don’t ring the doorbell. Maybe they assume everyone is working but I’m in the office which is in the front of the house. I can see the truck stop and the guy sprint to the porch with the package and leave. Whatever. My brain isn’t so good pre-coffee although my coffee is decaf!

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  18. I get e-mails when they deliver. The photo is a nice addition to that service, one that’s more convincing than an e-mail. One thing I wish they’d do is push the door bell when they drop a package off. It’d take no effort and would be a better way to assure the package didn’t sit outside for any length of time.

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  19. Glad you’re not bothered by porch pirates, isn’t it sad things like that happen. It’s even a nice clear picture from Amazon. I don’t have any kind of step counter but I’m sure forgetting it is similar to forgetting a phone or watch which can throw my errand running off. It sounds like selfishness popping up in the drive thru line. Those people only worry about their task.

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  21. My Fitbit is great for counting steps UNLESS I am pushing a cart or carrying a load. It only registers if my left arm is swinging (the arm wearing the fitbit). I have to remember to po c ket the thing or I can lose thousands of steps in the tally. I love it for recording my sleep though.

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    • I checked that and my fitbit will register even if I’m not swinging. Not sure how it does it though. It doesn’t register anything I do at the gym on equipment. It did register the treadmill at home. For me it’s a challenge to meet it’s expectations.

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  23. I’m seeing the same awful ear wax advert, too. I don’t like it. I gave up on my old Kindle but now I wonder if I should do as you did. I have a smaller newer Kindle for doc visits, but my heart belongs to my first one… that doesn’t work anymore… or does it?

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  24. A half a block into a dog walk (on more than one occasion), I’ve turned back to grab my ‘step counter’ so I fully understand. Course, it’s also happens to be my phone and having stepped off a curb and snapped my ankle and broken it while walking the dogs without a phone, I’m a tad paranoid (#aintgettinganyyounger). I had to hobble home more than 6 blocks on a broken leg.

    As for the Dunkin Donut person, perhaps they’re going in for coffee instead of a donut. It’s pretty good coffee. 😇

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  25. So how’d you get the photo about your package? Automatically every time or did you have an issue? We don’t have a high porch pirate problem but I have lots of packages delivered to the next house up. My new phone has a tracker app and I also find myself making sure I’ve got my phone on me when I walk outside the house. Inside the house, I never carry my phone in my pocket so there are days it doesn’t think I’ve taken one step :O My best friend and I went out the other night and commented on people blocking the intersection when they clearly saw the cars stopped and nowhere to go. On the flip side, I’ve stopped because there was nowhere to go in my lane. Someone from the other lane goes by me, gets in front of me filling the gap I left in case the light turned red before the cars moved.

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    • The photo was attached to the email I got saying the package was delivered. I always get emails of delivery but this was the first time a photo was attached. The beauty about a wristwatch is that you don’t have to think about it. People in cars are often jerks.

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  26. Nice to read I’m not the only one with a tracker obsession. I have to tell myself that the activity is the desired thing, not the recording of the activity – but if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, did it even make a sound?
    Yeah, I have a problem. 😉

    Deb

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