My Recent Online Purchases - What Were Yours?

I recall the independent clothes store in the town I grew up in. 80% of it was jeans of all styles & sizes, and the rest was likely watch plaid and London Fog stuff. As a young adult, I used to buy my suits & casual clothes at Penneys. I knew the store, I knew the people, and I knew the brand.

 

It came with a reasonably sharp edge but, as for holding one, I don't know. It just came today. At twenty bucks, I'm good with whatever. I have much smaller knives that I paid more than five times as much for.

 

I bought some stuff from Rite Aid and received an email telling me it shipped, along with the tracking number hot-linked to the USPS site. I checked a couple of times and it was in the "Label Printed/Awaiting Package" status. Since it's not been received yet, I could not create a "Notify Me" alert for it. I went to check just now and the USPS link and the Tracking Number both disappeared from the email!!! I've never had this happen.



I even clicked the View Email Online link and the data's gone.

It kinda stinks because I've never ordered from them before and didn't anticipate ordering from them again, so I didn't create an account...I can't log in to get the info. It's no big deal...I'll just have to wait for the package to arrive.

Who the heck knew that email content can disappear once it's in your Inbox???

 

I pay for a standard telephone line mainly to have that phone number to put on their forms rather than my cell. When there are Security Questions (Where did you go to high school, What is your mother's maiden name, What is your birthday) I make up different answers for each website and keep a record of them for when they're needed.

Just last night I went to Unsubscribe from emails a site has been sending, and there were required (*) fields to make it stop. Then snuck in among them was Cell Number--not marked as required--with tiny print underneath stating that providing the number meant signing up for text messages!!! So I try to put an end to emails only to sign up for texts instead?????

It can be infuriating. It's actually rather invasive.

 

I decided to contact Rite Aid Customer Service to get the Tracking ID, and under the FAQ section are instructions on how to get that data by entering the Order# and your Email. So I gotta give them props for allowing customers to buy & to track orders without creating an account.

 

All this daggone camera talk...

Rather than consider a new camera, I decided that a less expensive--yet valuable--upgrade would be to get a monopod/walking stick combo:

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I need the support to keep the camera steady, but the tripod really makes it immobile. When things move you can't follow them when the camera's anchored to a tripod...camera mobility is not what tripods are for. Fast moving, nearby subjects are a particular challenge.

The tripod has its place, but I think I'll get a lot of use out of a monopod.

 

I received my monopod this morning. It's one of those things I wish I had purchased sooner. I've played around with it, and it really helps steady my hand when taking a shot, and gives me plenty of mobility when the subject moves.

I recently bought a Smartphone mount for my tripod that also screws onto this, so I can use it for my camera and for my iPhone.

 

This one that's advertised as a combo camera monopod/walking stick seems to be the same as the ones advertised solely as monopods. I'm not sure what makes this one different, of if the other guys are missing a market by not pointing out that you can lean on theirs, too.

Here is the tip fully retracted to exposed the point​

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Here is the tip fully extended to provide a broader base for flat ground, concrete, etc.

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The top has a threaded post to screw into the base of a camera or a camera mount:

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You may find that just resting your camera on top of your walking stick is sufficient. The only downside to these mounting sticks is if you want to take a picture holding the camera in your hand (like a bird overhead), you've got the camera screwed to a stick. The monopod is more mobile than a tripod, but less mobile that an unmounted camera.

Had I thought about it, I might had looked for a tripod/monopod set with a quick-disconnect mount to rapidly swap the camera back & forth. That would have given me a way to rapidly detach the camera from either of them. But it's no big deal...I'll just take pics of slower women

Here's the link to the Amazon product page...$29.95

There are a ton of "monopod-only" choices at a lesser price that would likely suffice as walking sticks, even though they are not advertised as such. But $29.95 satisfies Amazon's $25 Free Shipping threshold.