Romey's Ramblings

I understand that the word "hate" is a very strong word, and I try very hard not to use it lightly – but right now this is the best word that can describe the level of anger and contempt that I have for this company. I’ve never had good luck with them, with the most recent event being my Christmas Eve fiasco that ended with me having to meet a UPS truck in a random parking lot just so I could get it before I left for NCSC. Since that occurrence I have loathed UPS – I didn’t hate them, but now I hate them.

About two weeks ago, while borrowing my car, my family ran over this metal plate that ended up slashing my tire and actually tearing up the rim. Since then I’ve been confined to driving on the spare (luckily it’s the full-sized spare), but mainly sticking around in town. My mom has been great in trying to resolve the situation by getting a replacement, but because the car had these specialty rims that have a built-in pressure gage. She ended up having to order a replacement through this parts dealer from Denver (when the part was actually in California). It took all of last week for it to get out here from California, but the guy in Denver finally got it and shipped it on Friday (it’s about time).

For those who aren’t in Colorado, Denver to Loveland is only about 40 miles north of Denver, so one would figure that it wouldn’t take more than one business day for the package to get here. Well because it wasn’t Saturday delivery we had to expect the rim on Monday. So Monday comes and go – and we have no rim. We held out hope that we would maybe get it in the evening, but no luck. Surely we would have it by Tuesday morning, but now that’s turning out to be wishful thinking.

At this point, we called the UPS help line to find that the package was not shipped on Monday because it required an address correction. We were irate to find out the level of correction that was needed – (as an example) the address listed was 2390 Maple, when the correct address should have been 2390 E. Maple. You’ve got to be kidding me! I could understand this issue if we lived in New York or Los Angeles, but not in rinky-dink Loveland, CO. When someone local called back they fed another story – that the driver mis-keyed the label and was looking for 2300 Maple.

This is ridiculous! Your primary function is to deliver packages, and issues like these should never happen. We’re paying you $15 to get transport this a mere 40 miles for a reason, and the gross level of incompetence is intolerable. Supposedly the reason you go through these Parcel-Shipping services is because what you’re delivering is too important to be trusted with the Postal Service, especially if you’re a business. Yet they can’t even do that right.

I understand that sometimes people screw up and these things happen, but they happen all too often in my dealings with UPS. It literally seems like half the time they screw up a delivery for me. There is a element of human error that could be forgiven, but when your business processes are flawed then the onus does go back to the company. "What can brown do for you?". Well for starters, let’s stop making FUBAR from easy shipments.

Today I begin my boycott of UPS. I will now avoid UPS at all costs for any of my shipping needs. I don’t care if I need to pay more, "Brown" isn’t going to steal any more of my money. Every time I see one of those stupid yellow tags on my door – I will see red.

I remember watching Super Bowl XXXIII when the Broncos gave a beat-down to the Atlanta Falcons, winning their second super bowl in as many years.  It was a great achievement, a great moment of celebration.  I remember the trophy-raising ceremony where John Elway was crowned the game’s MVP.  As he raised the trophy in the air I remember someone from Fox (I want to say Terry Bradshaw, but I honestly don’t remember) shove a microphone right up to John’s face and ask "So John, does this mean you’re going to retire, or will you be back next year?"

"Geez," I thought, "Can’t they just let him enjoy this moment right now and think about the future tomorrow?"  Talk about pushy! While this was the biggest question of the ’99 off-season (a question that wasn’t answered until May 2nd officially), we all knew the answer.  I wasn’t mad Bradshaw (or the Fox) guy so much for asking the question, but reminding me of the inevitable – Elway, one of the greatest Quarterbacks of all time, the epitome of the Denver Broncos – was going to retire.  The rest was just a formality.
The same can’t be said for Brett Favre.  While he is also arguably one of the greatest Quarterbacks of all time (Elway kicked his ass though), still leaves us wondering that question on April 10th!  Ever since the last Packers game of ’05, one of only 4 wins they had all season, the big question for the Packers: "Is Brett coming back?"  He’s 36, his best days are behind him, he’s had many family tragedies over last few years, the Packers suck and probably won’t be better any time soon.  From the outside looking in, it should be an easy decision.
So why is Brett taking this long?  He claims that he’s sitting back and waiting to see what off-season moves the Packers make.  He wants to make sure they’re serious about improving the team. 

I realize that he doesn’t want to tarnish his legacy any more than to have back-to-back losing seasons, but if the TO situation taught us anything, it’s that no one player is bigger than the team.  I know that Favre is larger than life in Green Bay, and while I’m not a Packer fan, I can understand what a player of that caliber means to your team.  But what Favre is doing right now is hurting the Packers, and Favre is quickly spending the good will he’s stashed in the bank over the years.

Last weekend Favre called a press conference, and while many were anticipating his decision, Favre left us with more questions than answers.  The news: He still hasn’t decided whether he’s going to play next season.  Thank you for coming.  Thanks for nothing Brett.  It’s bad enough that the Packers slept through the free agency period by not bringing in a veteran back-up.  Now the Packers may have to deal with going into the NFL Draft with no idea of what to do with the QB position.

Favre, you’ve had a great career.  If it’s time to ride off in the sunset – do it!  We know you have something left in the tank, so if you want to play – play.  Just make up your mind!  As it stands, if Favre retires the presumptive successor is going to be Aaron Rodgers, who has thrown a grand total of 16 passes…  It looks more and more that Packer fans are going to be in for another season of standing in the cold, completely pissed off.   The more time that passes, the more likely they will use the name "Favre" with explatives before and behind it. 

Since the Super Bowl ended on February 5th, I’ve shifted my attention over to the 2006 NFL season and watching the events leading up to a new season.  First is the Free-Agency period, the scouting combine, draft preparations and on last Thursday one of the biggest developments of the off-season – NFL Schedule Release Day.  The new schedules are out, and I couldn’t open it fast enough to see what’s to come for my beloved Broncos.

After looking at their 2006 schedule my immediate reaction was "We’re screwed".  While the Broncos don’t rank very high on the official "Strength of Schedule" statistics, they still must have one of the toughest schedules in the league.  When you play both Super Bowl teams from the previous years, as well as the Patriots, the Colts, and the Bengals – all play-off teams from last year.  On top of that we’re in arguably one of the toughest division teams – you know that San Diego and Kansas City are going to contend this year and give us a run for the money.  We also have a lot of teams we’ve historically struggled against with the Ravens, and the Rams.  Right now outside of possibly San Francisco and Arizona there really isn’t any teams we can pencil a "W" next to their name. 

Also, we’ve stuck with the Bye in September, on the 4th week of the season (the 2nd week of bye’s).  The last few years we’ve enjoyed having our bye week in the middle of the season, giving our players enough time to rest, recover and get ready for the remainder of the season.

As a season ticket holder, it’s a pretty strange assortment of home games.  We have one in September (W2 vs Kansas City), then we have 3 home games in October (2 of those being prime-time games), one home game in November (week before Thanksgiving), then 3 in December.  December’s a bit disappointing because we have another Christmas Eve game (but so does the rest of the NFL), then a home game on New Year’s that I’ll miss because I’ll be in New Orleans (hey but I could see the Saints play the Panthers – hmmmm…  ).  So in the end, a pretty strange season home game-wise.

One really cool thing is that we have 4 prime-time games (Sunday Night Football vs the Patriots & Raiders, Monday Night Football vs the Ravens, Thanksgiving Night Game vs the Chiefs).  I’m also glad that we’re playing both San Fran and Arizona in December, when wins seem most crucial for play-off berths.

Super Bowl XLI here we come!