On Monday, April 19, 2021 at 7:47:43 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:20:23 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

On Monday, April 19, 2021 at 4:12:03 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
Somewhere in my engine (that is, my car's engine), I have a vacuum leak,
probably, and I can't find it and it seems a smoke machine is the most
reliable way to find it.

Machines sell for $100 to $900, and I posted a video on how to make one
for about $30.

Another video suggested using a vape pen!

Looked at 5 vape webpages and only one item on one page didn't require
buying the pen and the liquid separately**, usually totally separately,
from different sources. Fortunately, the one exception was also the
cheapest.

Just $11 plus 1.30 excise tax plus $13 shipping, about $25.

**Not counting disposable fruit-flavored, which are illegal to sell in
Maryland. Not by mail or in person.



The email said it would be USPS Priority Mail and pointed out that
delivery would have to be IN PERSON signed for by someone over 21 years
of age.

My upstairs doorbell is broken and I can't hear the downstairs doorbell.

Do you think the mailman will leave the package without a signature, or
will I have to wait to the next day or pick it up at the post office?

Since the sender bought service that requires someone over 21 to sign
for it, I doubt very much that the postman is going to leave it without
a signature, for obvious reasons.
I thought so too, and so did my savvy friend who lives in Baltimore.

But by golly, he left it on the bench outside, without seeing me. I was
still asleep; I don't know if he even rang the doorbell.

And on the tracking web page, it says it was signed for by me!

And it says on the Priorty Mail mailing label:

USPS ADULT SIG 21 OR OLDER


I'm glad he did and I'm not going to tell anyone but you guys, but... if
you were his boss and you discovered that he didn't get the signature,
would you chastise him, fire him, give him days off without pay?

I would chastise him, but if there was history of problems, then I'd
do more. But then it's questionable how much you can do, this is
a quasi-govt agency. And postal workers are known for going postal.

Imagine if it was a shotgun or alcohol. I've shipped pistols with UPS
and had them marked for signature, 21 above. Shippers rarely impose
that unless it's really necessary or required by law. It cost more too,
at least with UPS, USPS, IDK.

I have my own USPS mystery going on. I sold a small item on Ebay
that's going to an APO, Army Post Office. That's where you just ship
it like it was going to a US destination and the USPS gets it delivered
to bases around the world. I sent it as a first class package for $3,
which has tracking. Put it in a USPS mailbox at the library 6 days ago
and so far nothing shows up on tracking. It just shows that I printed
the label, makes it look like I never sent it. It's not unusual for that
to happen for a day or two. I've dropped items off at the post office
and unless you make them scan it, sometimes it takes a day or two
for tracking to show up, which occurs when it gets scanned at some
point on it's trip. But I've never had one show nothing for close to a
week.

Also I later learned that you're supposed to have a customs form
attached. I didn't look closely, but I don't think the label included one.
Normally if it's an international package when you print the label on
ebay it includes the customs form, it's part of the label. But I saw
some online discussion where people were saying that if it's a small
item in an envelope, then it goes OK without a form. Hope that's true.
I didn't really think about the customs part, I assumed that because
it's going to a US military base it probably was exempt. So I keep
learning too. I also saw someone complaining about no tracking,
then making another post that came later saying that it finally did
show tracking, much later. Others said no tracking. IDK. It just
seems weird that an item that has an APO would not trigger tracking
as part of it's travel in the system within the US, just like anything else.