Fedex back and forth

Pro: Fedex delivered parcel.
Con: Fedex delivered it nearly an hour later than promised.

Pro: Boss was understanding about me being late in for work.
Con: Wish I hadn't had to come in late for work.

Pro: Missed QA meeting, which was unusually short.
Con: Actually, can't see any con there.

Everyone was most amused by me coming in late and panting and apologetic. I think everyone's had bad past experiences with Fedex themselves, so they could sympathise.

(And in the end, the parcel turned out to be just my 2 comp copies of Exalted: Compass of Celestial Directions Vol III, Yu-Shan. Not that I object to receiving such things, but I had already gone and bought a copy anyhow.)

Oh well; sorted, in any case.

---

The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

-- Wallace Stevens