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I received a Hobbit birthday present tonight!
It's quite the story!
I had lunch or dinner with three of my best friends today/tonight. All of us were born in 1961. My lunch friend in January, I've known him for about 45 years, dinner with two friends born in July and October. I've known July Girl for 33 years-ish, she was best man at my wedding. I've known October Boy since the mid 90's. I was best man at his first wedding, his wife died unexpectedly during the night a few years ago. My birthday is December.
Dinner was a party, there were nine of us. Good Italian restaurant out in Mesa, July Girl was there, along with Birthday Boy's sister, his wife's son and his wife, and Birthday Boy and wife's foreign student. Can't call it a foreign exchange student as they didn't have a kid to send to China for this girl to come over. A nice little crowd. Food was great!
Birthday Boy's wife had made a cheesecake for dessert, she's an excellent cook and baker! Russet comments that it's a good thing that he's not a Hobbit or he'd be giving presents to everybody at the table. At which point he jumps up and asks his son in law for a box that was hidden behind the cooler that held the cheesecake, and hands it to me.
He had just presented me with a Yaesu dual band hand-held ham radio transceiver!
I was more than a big agog. While these things aren't hugely expensive, at around $150 or so, you don't expect them to be handed out as party favors. And it was the only present given out.
It has an interesting story.
He had recently lost his truck to a fire. Driving down the road, out of the blue, the truck caught on fire. I don't know if he ever found out what happened. Among the things lost in the fire was a hand-held Yaesu radio, I think the same model. Time passes, he orders a replacement from Ham Radio Outlet. His work has him telecommuting and living between Mesa and Omaha, traveling a lot. At this time he was in Omaha, and he receives notification that the radio was delivered. Goes out the front door, no radio. Checks the side door, no radio. He lives on X Avenue, sometimes they deliver to X Street, so he goes to an apartment building there of comparable number: no package. He notifies Ham Radio Outlet and FedEx. The former ship him another radio, the latter swear up and down it was delivered.
He receives the replacement radio, no charge. Ham Radio Outlet puts in a claim for the lost radio.
A bit over a month later there's a knock on the door, some rando guy with a package asks, Are you Birthday Boy? He confirms that he is indeed Birthday Boy, the guy has a FedEx-labeled package addressed to Birthday Boy at the location where they are standing. From Ham Radio Outlet. Birthday Boy lives on the corner of X Avenue and Y Lane, but the street address is 12345 X Avenue. The box had been mis-delivered to 456 Y Lane. And sat on the table for over a month as the various roomies couldn't be arsed to call FedEx to pick it up or walk a block to drop it off at Birthday Boy's.
He didn't need two radios, and since over a month had elapsed, didn't think there was any point in contacting FedEx for being idiots and so thoroughly botching a delivery.
So I got a free radio!
I had lunch or dinner with three of my best friends today/tonight. All of us were born in 1961. My lunch friend in January, I've known him for about 45 years, dinner with two friends born in July and October. I've known July Girl for 33 years-ish, she was best man at my wedding. I've known October Boy since the mid 90's. I was best man at his first wedding, his wife died unexpectedly during the night a few years ago. My birthday is December.
Dinner was a party, there were nine of us. Good Italian restaurant out in Mesa, July Girl was there, along with Birthday Boy's sister, his wife's son and his wife, and Birthday Boy and wife's foreign student. Can't call it a foreign exchange student as they didn't have a kid to send to China for this girl to come over. A nice little crowd. Food was great!
Birthday Boy's wife had made a cheesecake for dessert, she's an excellent cook and baker! Russet comments that it's a good thing that he's not a Hobbit or he'd be giving presents to everybody at the table. At which point he jumps up and asks his son in law for a box that was hidden behind the cooler that held the cheesecake, and hands it to me.
He had just presented me with a Yaesu dual band hand-held ham radio transceiver!
I was more than a big agog. While these things aren't hugely expensive, at around $150 or so, you don't expect them to be handed out as party favors. And it was the only present given out.
It has an interesting story.
He had recently lost his truck to a fire. Driving down the road, out of the blue, the truck caught on fire. I don't know if he ever found out what happened. Among the things lost in the fire was a hand-held Yaesu radio, I think the same model. Time passes, he orders a replacement from Ham Radio Outlet. His work has him telecommuting and living between Mesa and Omaha, traveling a lot. At this time he was in Omaha, and he receives notification that the radio was delivered. Goes out the front door, no radio. Checks the side door, no radio. He lives on X Avenue, sometimes they deliver to X Street, so he goes to an apartment building there of comparable number: no package. He notifies Ham Radio Outlet and FedEx. The former ship him another radio, the latter swear up and down it was delivered.
He receives the replacement radio, no charge. Ham Radio Outlet puts in a claim for the lost radio.
A bit over a month later there's a knock on the door, some rando guy with a package asks, Are you Birthday Boy? He confirms that he is indeed Birthday Boy, the guy has a FedEx-labeled package addressed to Birthday Boy at the location where they are standing. From Ham Radio Outlet. Birthday Boy lives on the corner of X Avenue and Y Lane, but the street address is 12345 X Avenue. The box had been mis-delivered to 456 Y Lane. And sat on the table for over a month as the various roomies couldn't be arsed to call FedEx to pick it up or walk a block to drop it off at Birthday Boy's.
He didn't need two radios, and since over a month had elapsed, didn't think there was any point in contacting FedEx for being idiots and so thoroughly botching a delivery.
So I got a free radio!