Somehow this turned into a rant...sorry....

I finished the second cushion for my son. Originally I had planned to paint a ship on white cotton and I spent a few hours searching for inspiration, then sketching a schooner and making a second copy using black marker. I kept hesitating over the project, decided I didn’t want to wait for paint to dry and did a quick search for copyright free clip art again. This time I printed the design on Jacquard inkjet fabric sheets, gave it a firm press on the back with a hot iron and sewed it up. Technically you could say it was quilted because I did some stitch in the ditch on the machine with a layer of batting to add some puff. 

Gabe was needing those shirts I had altered so I mailed the whole kit and kaboodle off this morning. Being a list maker of the pro/con variety, I often suffer unnecessarily over decision making, and deciding what service to use this time caused me a great deal of inner debate. I have sent Gabe parcels via Purolator and they have taken much longer than the two day delivery I have paid for, ending up with him having to go to their terminal to pick the parcels up. Excuse me? How much did I pay for this lack of service? I have sent him parcels via Canada Post before, only to have them “go missing” (their words, not mine), but eventually they have been delivered. The only thing I have learned with CP is that if you pay for that extra insurance, you have that tracking number and your cost of shipping will be refunded when they don’t deliver on time. 

So, I went with Canada Post and bought the extra insurance - which galls me each and every time I do because I feel like the crazy amount I have paid them in the first place should guarantee they will actually make sure it gets delivered to the right address in the designated amount of time. And like the cost of everything else this winter, the cost of insurance seems to have increased at a rather high rate. Can you tell this is a touchy subject for me? This comes from much experience mailing/shipping care packages and parcels to my kids, family and friends. 

Over the years my absolute favorite way to send parcels has been the bus. The cost was reasonable, buses keep to a schedule, and you got a tracking number without having to pay extra. And the folk who worked at the bus terminal here were always really friendly, handled your parcel with care, and made sure it got on that bus even if the bus was already loaded and starting to pull out of the parking lot! Unfortunately that bus service has closed its doors. Hmmmm. Maybe they were too nice, and too reasonably priced. But, there is a new service that has just started up in its' place. The next time I have to ship something in our region, I will be sure to give them a try. For now, I will track my parcel’s progress online and hope it arrives where it should when it should.....