North America

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Amazon Prime Shipping To General Delivery

I get free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime. They ship with UPS and it’s always been my understanding that a courrier company won’t deliver to a post office. So I did a little research and found a post on an RV forum by a guy who seemed to have all the answers. He claimed to have often addressed packages along the lines of “1 Big Bus Parked At the Hot Springs” and never had a lost delivery! His tip for Amazon Prime shipping to general delivery made sense and I decided to try it.

This is the format:

Your name
GENERAL DELIVERY
The street address of the post office
City State Zip Code

I placed my order late Monday and got my delivery confirmation this morning. I let the storm pass and then headed into town (hauling both computers to charge them at McDonalds, an expense that will be categorized under electricity and not food! But I digress.)

I told the lady at the post office counter that I had a general delivery package from Amazon (the boxes are distinctive) from UPS. She said that UPS had passed, but the packages were not yet sorted. She was willing to go have a superficial glance at the pile (was it really that big?!), otherwise I would have to come back tomorrow. She was gone about two minutes and returned triumphantly holding my box. Yay!

Part of my order was thermometres for the refrigerator and freezer, recommended by Andy Baird. My near disaster made me realise I should be monitor such things. I also grabbed a cheap keyboard for my iPad. I want to see if such a thing really will make me use my iPad even more before I splurge on a good one.

Now that I know that I can get Amazon Prime orders shipped general delivery, I will be making use of this service more often. I did feel safer sending an order to reader Pam’s mom in Houston, however!

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Does Voltage Matter?

Well, my battery happiness was short lived. 🙁 I hope that some of you are being entertained by the ups and downs of the electrical saga…

Last night, after dark, I shut down everything and watched a movie for a few hours. All I had on was the fridge, which draws about half an amp. No light, no computer. My battery monitor claimed that I was at 98% capacity in terms of amps available to me, but after two hours of resting, my batteries registered 12.3V, or 70% capacity.

I emailed Andy Baird to ask him what he thinks and he says that he hasn’t looked at voltage in years, relying only on his monitor, which has proven its worth. He reminded me that voltage fluctuates wildly depending on what you’re using and that it’s practically impossible to know the state of charge of batteries using voltage. So I should stop driving myself crazy looking at voltage readings. I thought I’d feel better, but I didn’t.

I awoke this morning to a battery monitor that says I should be at 96%, but voltage was just 12.0V or 45%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m charging the laptop right now while using it and my voltage has dipped down to about 10.5V and the laptop is going to take FOREVER to charge. I can’t even put a light on or the fridge cuts out.

These numbers have so shocked me that I went outside both last night and this morning with a flashlight to recheck all my connections. Everything is fine on that end.

My best guess is that I have already ruined my brand new batteries causing them to not hold a charge, which is likely combined with them probably not being truly charged after all yesterday.

I’m done. That’s it, the towel’s on the floor. Everything is hooked up properly so I’m done troubleshooting and tweaking and whatever else and I declare the batteries the winners. Congratulations, guys, you put up a good fight.

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Six Years Ago Today

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My father passed away on this day in 2007. It was bitter cold, more so than average.

It’s surreal to be sitting on this beautiful beach in 22C weather with full sun remembering his final days. Dad would be so pleased with where my journey of the last six years has taken me. He was so worried that I would never be fulfilled and happy.

It hasn’t been easy dad, but I’ve found my place in the world.