Dot`sThoughts

Today, March 8, 2007, was a weird day.

It started out with the phone ringing while I was on the computer. I have Call Wave on my comp. so I won`t miss any important calls.
Today, I was really glad I was on the comp for Call Wave to answer my telephone for me.

The first call gave a strange phone number that started with "+52". Since we have no numbers with that strange beginning, I didn`t answer it. It left no message and after they hung up, call wave said the call came from Mexico. I know no one in mexico.
Next came an 800 number that I also didn`t recognize. It also left no message. The 800 is usually someone selling something.
About an hour after the first two, was a call from our local neewspaper. Since I know my account with them is paid ahead, I wasn`t interested in what they were trying to sell.
So, today, I was thankful I had call wave answering the phone for me.

But this was just what happened this morning. Afternoon wasn`t much better.

About an hour ago I finally went out to the mailbox to get my mail and todays newspaper. One envelope was for Walt. It came from the US District Court Jury Administrator. When I opened it, I found it was a questionaire for Walt to fill our for jury Duty. In July it will be 5 years since he passed away. Shows how little they keep their records up to date.
But the best part was where it gave information what to do if the person is deceased. It said to write Deceased on the questionaire and mail it back in the provided envelope. Since it was from the US District court addressed to Walter, can others legally open it? I know I could have just written Deceased on the envelope and have it returned to sender, but without opening it I had no idea what was in the envelope.
If no one is supposed to open other peoples mail, is the deceased supposed to write deceased on it and mail it back? Why don`t they just have a place on the outer envelope where you can check if the person no longer lives at that address telling you to return it to the sender if undeliverable or not living? Would be much politer than upsetting a loved one as it sometimes can do. You see I went thru this before a few months after Walt passed away. I could understand them still having him on their mailing list back then, but almost 5 years later?

Oh! I forgot to tell you that it had to have been left in the wrong mailbox first, as It was partly opened and I could see someone had already opened it and tried to reseal it. They tore the flap and tried to glue it back closed. This doesn`t bother me as most people have opened someone else`s mail by mistake at one time or another. I remember one time when I was opening my mail and noticed one was for someone else from the Welfare part that handles baby formula. Since that time, I usually make a point to check the name and address on each envelope before opening it to be sure it belonged in my mailbox.
Well, I did as they asked and wrote deceased on the questionaire and tomorrow I will mail it back to them. Hope they are smart enough to remove his name from their mailing list so I don`t need to go thru it again in a couple years.

I used to get other peoples mail a lot , a few years ago. It was happening so often that I finally called the post office. When the girl answered, I told her I was getting tired of delivering their mail up and down our road for them.
She asked me if I was one of their regular delivery people. I told her "if you are asking if I am one of your paid mail people, no I am not. But I get everyones mail left in my mailbox and I am tired of delivering them into their correct boxes." She checked to see who our real mail person was for our street and told me she would leave a note in his box. She also apologized for the mistakes. I told her she didn`t owe me an apology as it wasn`t her fault. Guess her note helped as I didn`t get wrong mail for a long time after that phone call. Plus that mailman didn`t last long. So, I figure others must also have complained about his service. Long before i made the phone call, I had even added a message to the postman saying " Please don`t delivery mail to this box for anyone except.. and I wrote Walt1s and my names. But it didn`t do any good.

A long time ago when we were younger and raising 5 kids, the Internal revenue sent us a paper asking us how we claimed 5 kids on our Federal Income Tax return. I wrote all their names and ages again, telling them they were our children. But the day before I mailed the paper back I saw in the newspaper that another Walter had died in a town miles from us and he was 92 years old. So, I reopened the envelope and asked if they might be confusing us with the one who was 92 and lived in Indian Lake. It must have solved the problem as we never again heard from them about it.

Then a few months ago I received a call asking for Walt from The NY City police Dept asking for donation . It was the same voice that had called me at least three times in the past 4 years. Each time I told him again that Walt had passed away. Each time this fellow told me to put Walt on the phone. He told me that Walt would give him a Donation . I had hung up on his rudeness in the past. This time I was still going to Therapy for my shoulder and I was in a lot of pain when he called and I told him again that Walt had passed away, and still he insisted that i put him on the phone. Again he said if I let him talk to Walt , Walt would give him the Donation. I finally had enough. I told him if he wanted to talk to Walt, then he better go to the Moss Street Cementary in Hudson Falls and if he thinks he can get money from him there, be my guest and then I told him to never call here again or I would turn him in for harassment and I hung up. Same voice, same rude man each time. I give to our local Police Benevaliant dept. to help give a better Christmas to poor needy kids in our area. I also donate to the Marines for the same purpose and to the Ones who help our disabled service people. But, after all I have gone thru with the rudeness of that fellow, I do not give to the NY City police dept..