Thursday, 8/28/2003, Day 14. Work on the farm. Went to Daytona to get a monitor for the computer I ordered yesterday. I bought a 15" Sony flat panel display.
Friday, 8/29/2003, Day 15. Work on the farm. The computer did not come today. I got a tracking number and tracked it to nowhere. It was supposed to be coming Airborne Second Day. I called Airborne and all they could tell me was it was "in-transit" but couldn't tell me from where to where. The "customer service" (anymore this is a title only, not an indication of function) person said she would request that the package be delivered to me on Saturday. I suspect they don't have a clue where it is and that this was a pacification method. I'm now told by Jan that horse breeders refuse to use Airborne when shipping semen for breeding because Airborne is so unreliable. My brother-in-law, a principle in a seafood import business, says the same thing - most recently, Airborne has been unable to move original documentation on a couple containers of frozen fish from Ecuador to Miami in under a week. Yet, Airborne makes the flight every day. The containers are here, delivered by boat but are impounded until the documentation arrives.
Saturday, 8/30/2003, Day 16. Lesson Three. A repeat of Lesson Two except this time we ride a little faster than a walk - a trot. I get a little better at controlling the direction of the horse. Did you know that if you aim a well trained horse at a fence, it'll trot right through it? Again, Airborne fails to deliver the computer. I call again and all "customer service" can do is apologize - they are no better at telling me where the thing is and can only say it should be delivered on Tuesday. I wanted it here yesterday so I could coach my niece on assembly and installation of all the software. I'm leaving here on Monday so won't be able to do that. The local DHL agent (DHL recently bought Airborne ground service) calls to apologize and indicates we should have the package on Tuesday. Right now, it's on a plane coming in from Ohio -- which is where it started from Wednesday afternoon. I'm still not comfortable they really now where it is. I'll just have to deal with it on Tuesday - by which time I'll be at Bethpage Resort on the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
Miranda is showing a couple horses in a local horse show today. Most of the show is halter classes. In one kind of class, the horses are graded by their physical conformation and grooming. In another, the horses and handlers are graded by their ability to negotiate a course in proper form - walk, trot, turn and trot - with the handler on the ground. In another, the horses are graded according to the quality of their color and grooming. I didn't stay for the whole thing so may have missed some exciting competition. Here's Miranda with Magic, one of the horses she showed. Magic was born last summer.
