Posts Tagged ‘about town’
aon golfing
aon golfing, originally uploaded by iorkable
a bag for sale at downtown’s south park flea market
the friday before xmas temperature check
1 p.m. Friday Dec. 21. The world’s about to round the corner into Monday Dec. 24. Christmas Eve. The last day for punctual long-distance presents to make their appearance.
That makes today the dreaded last day to get thee to the P.O. Flinch. Everybody knows that anything sent at this late hour has no better than a 12.25% chance of making it on time, but there’s always hope.
A drive by Goin’ Postal (1166 Glendale Blvd.) in Echo Park found the storefront of the self-proclaimed Friendly Neighborhood Shipping Center to be the mirror image of calm. Candy striped holiday stickers and a cheerful “Open” sign adorned the storefront’s monastic window panes. No patrons were in sight. Cars lumbered by noisily overhead on the Sunset overpass. A faint wave of panic washed over me. Wait, why am I panicking? There’s a lesson here: last-minute shippers wisely skip the local middleman and go straight to the stables of the Pony Express, so to speak.
Of the main shippers — FedEx, UPS, DHL (the USPS being too trying, especially in moments of postal distress) — FedEx seems to have the cheapest rates, and slackers have been known to be poor. At a downtown branch (333 S. Hope St.), a steady trickle of patrons solemnly filed through. A gray-haired gentleman unsheathed a professionally wrapped Macy’s gift box from a plastic Macy’s shopping bag and asked if it could be shipped “as is.” The next man in line didn’t even look up when the cashier announced that Priority Overnight would be $32.80. Absolute sangfroid in the face of prices so lofty requires nerves of steel and he’s obviously got them. My bill came to little over $35 for 4 boxes shipped via FedEx Ground, slated to arrive some time in early 2008.
