I Told Him Not To

It’s a bit hazy but you could say it’s a nice day.  Called the DHL line this morning to request someone to come by and pick up a package. Usually you get young ladies.  Today I got a young guy.  I clarified and he confirmed that the driver would be there between ten and noon.  After that you can tell him not to come.  I also suggested that using zhifubao and Wechat pay was a pain in the ass for foreigners and that the driver should bring change as I wanted to pay in cash.  I have very little confidence that this guy will manage to get this message to the driver or that the driver will act on it, but I felt  better having stated it.  Besides, the call "may be recorded."

Five minutes after twelve and no driver.  I call back, get a woman this time, and explain that the gent was supposed to be here by now, he isn’t and what are we gonna do about it?  She apologized and said the fella would notify me.  I got an SMS a while later with the guys number.  When I called he’d said he be by at 3:00PM.  I told him not to bother.  And we arranged for him to come by tomorrow.  Tomorrow is Saturday, but because the national holiday is coming up, Chinese authorities see fit to make everyone work on the weekend.  So we’ll get it done then. 

Heading to meet someone at the Starbucks at the New World Department Store in Wang Jing.  It is probably one of my least favorite Starbucks in the world, as it is always crowded, there are very few seats and there is nowhere to plug in.  But it’s a location that my colleague knows without saying anything further.  We both know where it is.  We’ll find one another.

A nice bike ride over to the gym in the morning.  There is some old reggae version of “Hey Joe” that started things out.  It was so misty in the morning that I had to slow down to a crawl at the intersections.  But later when I returned home and shot the breeze with my father on the phone all the fog had already burned off.  He watched all eight hours of the hearing with Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh.  I had only read two-hour’s worth of commentary and I thought I over did it. 

Friday, 9/28/18