Expedition...

[fajrdrako]

I went to the pharmacy today. Yes, really. In person.

I needed more oxycocet, and there was some problem with the fax with the prescription from the doctor not getting through yesterday, and they needed my insurance cards, so I went in the car with maaseru. And for the first time, I went out with the crutches, not the walker. Greater flexibility, less stability.

And I move at the pace of a very, very slow snail.

Still, I managed. Amazing how far it is from the doors of the store to the pharmacy counter in the back. Exhausting! But I did it. I feel triumphant.

It was a beautiful evening, too. The buds on the trees are turning into leaves. My friends are starting to say things like "when you're out and about again", as if it's going to be soon. Hard to imagine.

Comments

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why pharmacies are in the very back of stores.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why pharmacies are in the very back of stores.

No. It seems to be tradition. Like having the history section in any library be on a top floor. (Or so it was when I was a student.) They put magaziness and perfumes at the front, everything else in the middle, and then the actual drugs at the very back.

It would be fun to see a drugstore that completely changed the pattern, but I'm not holding my breath. They all do it.

Nice icon.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

All of your friends are impressed at the speed of your hopping. And we're generally optimistic.

To monsieureden: only reason I can think of isto discourage thieves...

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

And it's a privacy issue as well. I prefer not to have the neighborhood peering at me as I pick up my monthly pile of crazy pills, you know?

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Those reasons make sense, though for privacy they bind them up really good so that people can't see what you're getting, and there's often a drive-through.

A separate entrance at the back for pharmacy use wouldn't be bad.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's a consideration, but I find it generally means that most of the business is conducted at the back of the store, not at the front.

Which, come to think of it, is the same patterns as the Post Office.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Which, come to think of it, is the same patterns as the Post Office.

Hmm...? Hm! you're right. But only in Canadian post offices. In the States, we have an open lobby area, sometimes with a guide-rope for a line if the place does a lot of walk-in business, but the lobby itself is relatively open and without products on display. All that stuff is, mostly, behind the counter. But I do now recall that Canada Post has a crowded lobby, lots of neat things to look at and think about buying.

I agree: I think it's the rope-them-in plan -- you need your prescription filled, you need to buy stamps; let you have to walk past a lot of other stuff to do that one errand, and you just may decide to pick some other stuff up too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I do now recall that Canada Post has a crowded lobby

The one in our neighbourhood is like a Hallmark store - lots of items for sale on the walls, and a large stand of greeting cards, with the actual Post Office counter at the back.

There is also the rope arrangement. Beside the cards.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember that post office -- I've been in it. It did remind me of a Hallmark store! And then when I got to doing my business with the clerks, they didn't know what seemed to me to be a key part of the transaction, and had to look it up... okay, given it involved international mailing, but even so. I cringed a little, feeling empathy that they were less the postal clerk and more the retail clerk.

Canada Post offices are great places to find out about philatelic stuff and commemorative coin sets, I have found. You go way over the top with such stuff... while American post offices have free mailing supplies out front, and maybe some postcards and fancy mailers on sale to look at while you're waiting.

By the way, at the state convention the other week, mention was made of a possible merger between the American Postal Workers Union and the people in Canada Post. The APWU wants to be international.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

American post offices have free mailing supplies out front

I don't think our post offices have anything for free any more. If you want to deal with the post office, you're expected to pay. Big time.

I expect that Canada Post would fold if it weren't for junk mail. Which saddens me.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Well, they certainly have the display cases full of goodies for sale.

The USPS is designed as a "service," not a business. Its goal is to break even: to bring in as much in revenue as it spends in wages and other expenses. If it were not set up this way, there is no way that we could provide universal service -- mail delivery to everyone for the same price, which is zero. The people in town get their mail at their door, and out here in the farmland I also get my mail at my door, and I don't pay for the service. It's a complicated balance.

What is known as "junk mail" is the backbone of the USPS, too. All those catalogs you get, because one catalog you want to get has shared your address with all kinds of other catalogs?... well, that helps pay for the continued efficient running of the entire postal service! (yes, that is supposed to be slightly ironic) (ok, not slightly) At work on Friday, I spent half my day distributing bundles of catalogs. My shoulder got sore from it. But it does pay the bills.

The USPS and Canada Post are different in some key ways, but I don't know enough about them; it would be interesting to find out.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The USPS is designed as a "service," not a business.

I don't know what Canada Post is, or thinks it is. I've really no idea. They have 'business centres' so I think they consider themselves a business. They certainly act like a business. A quick look at their website reveals nothing like a self-definition except their 'vision statement':

Canada Post will be a world leader in providing innovative physical and electronic delivery solutions, creating value for our customers, employees and all Canadians.

So I guess they think they are a would-be 'world leader' - a little megalomaniacal, especially when you consider how long it takes them to deliver a letter! The word 'business' seems to be used a lot on their site; 'service' not at all.

What is known as "junk mail" is the backbone of the USPS, too.

You don't like calling it junk mail? I weep for the dead trees. Junk mail is in my opinion among the worst forms of advertising. Even more offensive than ads on television. And yes, I know it makes postal service possible, but I don't think the "real cost" is worth it, either in terms of the waste and usage of planetary resouraces, or the social effect. There has to be a better way.

The only good thing - it keeps you in a decent job!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thinking of Canada Post calling themselves a world leader in the physical and electronic delivery market. O-kay!

I remember the time I mailed you a box from here on the seventh day before Christmas. I know that the USPS got it across the border within three days; you received it on January 4. Or something like that. Which was when I realized that Canada Post takes the holiday off! World leader in slowing things down with red tape, maybe.

I have recently had my consciousness raised regarding the real impact on the environment of junk mail, and now I'm in an ethical and moral chaos about it. Yes, it does pay my wages and benefits. But... at what cost? Gahhh.

I can point out to you that the USPS has a highly efficient internal recycling effort going. We use a lot of cardboard in packaging pallets of magazines, and all of it gets recycled. We get a lot of mail that isn't first class that has bad addresses -- this is all recycled now; used to be, only the stuff without adhesive could be recycled, but now all of it is. It's a small step, but it's something. And it does not ease my moral quandry.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, Canada Post takes the holidays off. Also weekends. Also, I'm convinced, Mondays and Fridays, at least when it comes to delivery to this apartment building.

The moral problem re junk mail goes much further than the USPS or Canada Post; and even though it helps pay your wages, I don't think the postal systems should be dependent on advertising. I'm not sure how the system could be reformed, but I think it should be.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, if no one is at the processing facilities working the mail on Saturday or Sunday, no Monday delivery, huh? Which I bring up to people who express surprise when I say that I work weekends: "But you work for the post office! Why do you work weekends??" Someone has to get the mail prepared for the carriers and clerks to distribute the next morning....

There used to be a fee for receipt of a piece of mail, in the long-ago days. Then came "rural free delivery," which is what RFD stands for. AKA, "universal service." And in no way can anyone make a profit at it. It's a service, simple and clear.

I have some ideas for improving the postal service, but ... well, nobody wants to hear them. The reliance on junk mail is not good, however. I agree there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

if no one is at the processing facilities working the mail on Saturday or Sunday, no Monday delivery, huh?

So it goes.

It would be nice if Canada Post saw themselves as a service.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

It may also simply be that people must go to the pharmacy to fill prescriptions. Any other purchases there are optional. So they might as well tempt you while you're going to and from the pharmacy counter, or while looking in the windows.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

All of your friends are impressed at the speed of your hopping.

Maybe soon I can evovle from snail-pace to turtle-pace!

only reason I can think of isto discourage thieves...

Or maximize the changes of stopping and foiling them.

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

I know like it seems forever away, but you will be out and about soon. The more you go on these little expeditions, the stronger you'll get.

The leaves just overnight went BOOM here. Beautiful!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

but you will be out and about soon.

I will. Yes. Counting the weeks. Well, not really, because I can't at this point be sure exactly when it will be. But ... soon.

The leaves here are booming enthusiastically too. Nice to see!

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

What an accomplishment! I was on crutches in my youth for few week and while no fun, it did allow me to get around without further injuring my ankle.

Glad to see you're feeling well enough to start getting about.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Nice icon there, too. I love lilacs - especially purple ones.

Yes, it felt very satisfying to get out on the crutches. I plan to practise walking down the hallway here with mine today. Build up more strength, so it isn't so exhausting next time.

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

YAY for freedom!!! You being out and about *will* be soon :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the words of encouragement. Soon, yes, I hope!

[chatona.livejournal.com]

Yay! Or congratulations. Whichever is more appropriate, otherwise both :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

LOL - thank you, I'll take both!

[josanpq.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oooh - nice icon.

And thank you.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

Hugs. Glad you're on making progress. :)
Enjoy the rest while you can.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Glad you're on making progress.

Yes. how I feel changes from day to day and hour to hour. Sometimes I'm discouraged. Other times - I surprise myself. Yesterday about 8 pm I thought i was so exhausted I had nothing left to me. But then enjoyed a bout of laundry & Buffy-watching in the laundry room with maaseru and maaboroshi and got a little of my oomph back. See? Buffy is healing.

You can see my comments on "Ted" here (http://fajrdrako.livejournal.com/892987.html).