Kid and Caboodle

My new laptop finally arrived!  Yay!  I’m sure the folks at DHL are as happy as I am to be done with this madness.  Now I need to start configuring it ….

I’m still waiting to receive my DHL package. Despite talking to DHL headquarters late Thursday night, they made another attempt to deliver in the early afternoon yesterday, when I wouldn’t be home.  Finally got hold of the number for the local DHL office and spoke to the manager yesterday.  The latest word is that it’s supposed to arrive between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. today. Heh.

On a more positive note, A.J. has learned how to ride his bike! I had him put his bike facing downward on a hill and told him to start pedaling as quickly as he could once the bike started to move. Once he mastered that, I gradually had him start off on surfaces that were more and more level. Now he can start off at will; I no longer have to balance his bike for him so he can start riding! Yay! Next task: to teach him to stop his bike by using his brakes rather than dragging his shoes on the ground.

A.J. also served himself breakfast for the first time this morning! He dragged a chair over to the refrigerator and got down a box of his favorite cereal then opened a small carton of shelf-stable milk and poured both into a bowl. Yay! Maybe tomorrow morning he’ll let my husband and me sleep in now that he knows he can feed himself ….

I’ve been playing around on Facebook lately. It’s a useful tool to maintain social ties, especially with people who live far away, but it is a real time sink!

We’re supposed to go boating with some friends today. I want to socialize, but I’m not sure I want to go out in the 90-plus degree weather we’re supposed to have today. I’d better start making a lot of ice ….

Still no package from DHL.

Just called DHL to find out why the new computer that was supposed to be delivered today still hasn’t arrived.  At first the customer service person claimed they had tried to deliver it, but no one was home.  When I told them that I had been at home all day, she claimed they had left a voice mail message. When I told them that I had been working from home all day, sitting next to the phone, she then said she would call the local delivery office.  Theoretically I’m supposed to get my new computer between 7 and 8 p.m. tonight; some manager is supposed to make a special trip to my house.  I hope so.  I never want to deal with DHL again if I can help it.  I’ve called DHL every night this week trying to get through to them that they should not try to deliver the computer until Thursday, today, when I am home.  But they tried to deliver my computer Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and claimed they never got the messages that I wouldn’t be home.  If they want to ignore my messages and waste staff time and gas, that’s their business.  But it’s not a very efficient way of running a business.

A few weeks ago, A.J. insisted that the training wheels on his bike come off.  My husband complied, and spent a somewhat frustrating evening trying to teach A.J. to balance and ride.  He wanted A.J. to practice on the grass so he wouldn’t be hurt if he fell.  I think riding on the grass might have contributed to the difficulty, though, because the surface wasn’t very smooth.  The next day my neighbor Kevin and I took turns pushing A.J. around in the street.  Soon he was zooming around the cul-de-sac.  My husband was astonished when he came home.  He commented that he didn’t learn to ride a bike without training wheels until he was 7; A.J. is 5.  A.J. now has learned to stop his bike without having to run into a curb first or simply falling over, and he can almost start riding if he first positions his bike on a downward slope.  He’s still trying to figure out how to start from a standstill.  I look forward to the day he can really ride properly; perhaps I’ll get out my own bike, then, and we can have a family activity.  I need more exercise anyway ….

Today I’m hoping to finally receive my new laptop.  I ordered one from Dell, which produces a few under the (PRODUCT) RED line.  DHL left an attempted delivery notice on my front door Monday night.  I called them as soon as I saw it, and asked them to deliver the machine today, Thursday, when I would be home.  The customer service representative said she would make a note in my file.  The very next evening, though, I came home to find another attempted delivery note.  I called DHL again, and once again explained the situation.  Again, the customer service representative said he would tell the courier.  Yesterday at work, I received a call from the DHL courier department complaining that they had been trying to deliver my package all week.  I told them that I had been calling them all week to tell them to deliver on Thursday.  She said she had not received any such notice.

I’m sorry the DHL courier has made three wasted trips because her company has bad internal communications.  I don’t see what else I could have done, though.  Since the package is a computer, I absolutely refuse to allow DHL to just leave it on my porch.  I really hope it gets here today!