Mother's Day is just around the corner

This Friday and Saturday, i'll be delivering flowers again. 

So, once again, from the point of view of the person who just might be delivering your flowers, a few hints for how to make my job easier and assure that you will get those flowers there.

1.  Order early.  Earlier than that.  Yes, that early.  Like, today early.

     Here's the thing.  The florists order lots and lots of flowers, and some are going to be in better shape than others.  The nicest ones get used first.  By 3pm on the Saturday before Mother's Day, they are using the ones they would have passed over earlier.  Ordering ahead, and ordering for early delivery, gets you the nicest selection.

     Get them delivered the day before, to get extra points with your mom/wife/mother figure in your life.. It means you didn't dawdle, you have flowers for her to enjoy the whole weekend, dinner out and a gift Sunday, you made a big thing of it.  It also means you get the nicest flowers, as noted above.  And, if we can't find your location or have trouble, we have time for a redelivery.

     Think about it. You have flowers or candy or cupcakes or whatever is being delivered early, and you have just let this person know you are not simply waiting for someone to slap you upside the head and tell you to get with it, the big day is here. You are plotting and planning and putting thought into a buildup. It goes a long way, baby.

2.  Mark your home well!  This is for your benefit as well as ours.  After all, if we can't find you, what makes you think the EMTs can find you in the middle of the night?  And if you are having us deliver to a place of business, don't think that lets you off the hook -- businesses need to have large numbers on the buildings where people can easily find them.  Please.

3.   Delivery drivers know the town in general, but not every single side street, business, nook and cranny.  Give us your whole, complete address.  This means include:

     Avenue, Street, Boulevard, Drive, Circle, Lane, or whatever is in the actual title of your street.

     Your apartment complex name and apartment number
     or the nursing home name and room number
     or the business name and office number/division of the business where your recipient works.

     You know where it is, but we don't, and it's no fun having to guess.

4.  If you live in a gated community, please tell us, and give us a way to get in.  It's frustrating not to be able to get to your home because we need a gate code.  Give us a phone number, and i'll talk more about that later.

5.  The same goes for if you are having flowers delivered to a limited access work place.  Make sure we can get in there to it.  More than once i've had to wait until someone was leaving the building to beg to be brought in, and had to register, and all of that. Again, a phone number helps.

6.  If you and the recipient are both at work all day, give us permission, when you place the order, to leave the flowers in a safe place by the back door, under a patio, or with a neighbor.

7.  Tell us what time the recipient gets off work, if you really want us to go to the workplace.  It's frustrating to get there a half hour after she got off for the day.

8.  About phone numbers:  tell your recipient to answer the phone!  Yes, you usually don't answer if you don't recognize the number.  Tell her to answer anyway, on this day, because there is a surprise coming.  Give us your number as well, and answer it.  If we can get in touch with you, or you or the recipient, we can work out most delivery complications easily.

Yes, i know, you meant it for a surprise.  Guess what?  The recipient can be surprised when we call and say we have flowers for them and it can be a happy surprise because the flowers will get there, or you can get a nasty surprise of no flowers because i couldn't find the place, or get permission to leave it on your back porch, or reach you to get into the gated community.

9.  Please do not ask us to deliver to a school (if you are having them delivered on Friday).  The people in the carpool lane get very upset with us, as they think we are cutting in line, your recipient doesn't need the aggravation of having a class interrupted, and the office staff aren't always happy that we have to register, get a visitor tag, and etc.  It takes an extra long time sometimes to deliver to a school, so please don't try, let us bring it to the house.

10.  Remember your driver is paid only for completed deliveries.  Time is of the essence for us, we want to successfully deliver as many items as we can, for the joy it brings you and the money it brings us.  There's no shame in earning some extra cash by doing this service, so help us serve you better by following the tips above!

Today is

Adhesive Postage Stamp Day -- the first adhesive postage stamps went on sale on this date in 1840 in Great Britain

Army Day/St. George's Day -- Bulgaria

Badminton Horse Trials -- Badminton, Gloucestershire, England (international horse trials of show jumping, cross-country, and dressage; through Sunday)

Beverage Day -- an internet holiday that encourages you to try a beverage you've never had before

Bonnie Blue Horse Show -- Virginia Horse Center, Lexington, VA, US (a major, A-rated, all-breed event of the American Horse Show Association; through Saturday)

Festival of Min -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (a four day festival celebrating male fertility)

Great American Grump Out Day -- encouraging everyone to avoid grumpiness and rudeness for 24 hours; who knows, you might enjoy it so much it will stick!

International No Diet Day -- for reasons not to diet, but focus on health instead, click here

Joseph Brackett Day -- birth anniversary of Shaker author of the song "Simple Gifts"

Lag B'Omer -- Judaism (begins at sunset)

Martyrs' Day -- Syria

Mounikhia / Munichia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Artemis, date approximate)

National Bike to School Day -- US (encouraging kids to have fun, get their exercise, and get to school under their own steam)

 
National Crepe Suzette Day

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy -- US

National Nurses Day -- US, start of National Nurses Week

National School Nurse Day -- US (the school nurse is there to help!)

National Tourist Appreciation Day -- during US National Travel and Tourism Week

No Homework Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays (celebrated on Monday if it falls on a weekend)

Occupational Safety and Health Professionals Day -- US (info here)

Pithi Chrat Preah Neanng Korl -- Cambodia (Royal Ploughing Ceremony, to mark the beginning of the rice growing season)

Remembrance for Eyvind Kelve -- Asatru/Norse Pagan Calendar (pagan martyr)

St. George's Day -- Eastern Orthodox Churches (the day to visit graves and decorate, leave special food, and provide entertainment for the dearly departed) related observance:
     Shepherd's and Herdsman's Day -- Bulgaria

St. Gerard of Lunel's Day (Patron of epileptics and Montesanto, Italy; against epilepsy and headaches)

Upper Canada Village -- Morrisburg, ON, Canada (through early October, various programs that let visitors and students enter the world of the 1860s)

Yale Lock Day -- the Yale lock was patented this day in 1861


Anniversaries Today:

David Duchovny marries Tia Leone, 1997
Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey (the first televised royal wedding), 1960


Birthdays Today:

Gabourey Sidibe, 1983
Leslie Hope, 1965
Roma Downey, 1964
George Clooney, 1961
Tom Bergeron, 1955
Tony Blair, 1953
Lynn Whitfield, 1953
Alan Dale, 1947
Ben Masters, 1947
Bob Seger, 1945
Willie Mays, 1931
Orson Welles, 1915
Stewart Granger, 1913
Rudolph Valentino, 1895
Gaston Leroux, 1868
Rabindranath Tagore, 1861
Sigmund Freud, 1856
Robert E. Peary, 1856
Maximilian Robespierre, 1758


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Entertaining Mr. Sloan"(Play), 1964 


Today in History:

Spanish and German Imperial troops sack Rome, which many consider the end of the Renaissance, 1527
Mongol emperor Babur defeats the Afghans and Bengals, 1529
Henry VIII orders that English Bibles be placed in every church, 1536
Louis XIV of France moves his court to Versailles, 1682
The first African-American Masonic Lodge (African # 459) forms Prince Hall, Boston, 1787
John Deere produces the first steel plow, 1833
James Gordon Bennett, Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald, 1835
The Glaciarium, the world's first mechanically frozen ice rink, opens, 1844
Dr John Gorrie patents a "refrigeration machine", 1851
Linus Yale patents the Yale lock, 1851
Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska, 1877
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris, 1889
George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father, Edward VII, 1910
George Herman "Babe" Ruth, of the Boston Red Sox, slams his first home run, against the New York Yankees, 1915
The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed, 1937
John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
Bob Hope performs his first USO show, 1941
Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes, 1954
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel, 1994
Chaiten Volcano erupts in Chile, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,500 people, 2008