Fun with shipping
 

I ordered a Tibetan singing bowl on Ebay. The order was shipped promptly and arrived today...with one small hitch.

The person who shipped it to me shipped it in a box he must have gotten from work. The box was marked "SYRINGES". On the side of the box were standard CDC instructions about HIV and needle sticks. He shipped it through the US Postal Service.

The poor mailman who handed the box to my wife had it isolated in a postal bin covered with a protective lid, apparently in accordance with regulations on handling hazardous shipments. She didn't know what it was until she called me.

I sent a message to the guy telling him not to use those boxes again. I couldn't give him bad feedback since he did ship it on time. :confused:

You could have given neutral feedback...he really should have known better.

Your mailman is being paranoid, the USPS delivers syringes to diabetics everyday, in boxes that are clearly marked. Tell him you've got aids and you made cookies for him. :headshake

That all sounds real interesting but I have to ask: what is a Tibetan singing bowl. I'm certain that its one of those things that... "if you have to ask..." but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I remember that you are into or at least like Bongos so I figure its some kind of percussion instrument. How about a link to the auction?

There are things from the region of Tibet that I wouldn't mind a box full of but, as of yet, singing bowls are not yet among them.

And I don't see the problem with a box of hypos. Diabetics and those with allergies and others, I bet, get boxes of syringes all the time. Tell the knucklehead postman that they aren't "used" syringes - they are new!

A Tibetan Singing Bowl is a bowl made of a mixture of metals. When struck or when a stick is rubbed around the outside edge, the bowl hums.

Rich, I think it is awesome you are getting into percussion and such. I do hope we get a chance to drum together sometime...

It actually takes a fair degree of control and wrist strength to keep moving the stick around the bowl without having it chatter. It's an awesome feeling when you get it right though. If at all possible, have someone "play" it with you lying down and moving it from your feet to your head.

Realigns your chakras and breaks up blocks too.

Looks like the same or a similar alloy to cymbals. :)

The one I got is more modern and is a silver color. It's more than 5 inches in diameter and about 3 inches deep. The walls are at least 1/8" thick. The bowl weighs over 2 pounds. When struck with the padded end of the mallet the tone is a deep gong. When rubbed with the wooden end of the stick I have gotten different tones, from deep to an almost shrill high pitch.

The only concern I have is for lead in the alloy. Although noone rubs these directly with their hands, I remember the rumors about Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica causing lead poisoning. This is ironic since Franklin was one of the first individuals to warn about lead poisoning.

I don't intend to use it every day and I will be using a stick, so if there is lead in the alloy, it shouldn't be a problem.

BTW, I also bought a Kalachakra Car Hanging

I've got one of those. What I've noticed is that if I give it to a friend and they get it to sing, then it doesn't sing for me again straight away, as though we have to get realigned to each other ... :confused:

The singing bowls are fun but I thought they were used primarily for meditation? Maybe just a false presumption, but in Tibet stores they are usually sitting close in proximity to incense.

Singing Bowls
 

I buy my bowls wholesale from www.silverskyimports.com. They also have sound files for each Tibetan Singing Bowl at http://www.silverskyimports.com/category/Singing_Bowls.html.

I use my bowls for meditation, yoga, and healing.]

Mary

Hello Mary, been digging in the archives, I see.:D
How many bowls do you have? Some of them get pretty pricey.
Different sizes/tones for different problems to cure?

I have a few, one that does the water column.

Well I wanted to get Mrs. Dallas the Andrews Sisters Christmas album on CD. She loves the tape, which is all but worn out. It doesn't seem to be available anywhere around here, so I ordered it from half.com on 12/5.

On 12/11 the seller wrote to tell me that it was backordered and they'd let me know when it shipped. Now, this is already aggravating, because people are not supposed to sell stuff on half.com unless they have it in their hands ready to ship (and for that matter they're supposed to send it within 3 business days).

So I sent the seller a message and said, forget it, just cancel my order. They then wrote back and said, oops, I tried to cancel it, but it was just shipped.

Is this striking anybody else as fishy???

Well, the email included a "tracking number" that was a bunch of digits a mile long. I've seen UPS tracking numbers and this is not one. I dutifully plugged it into the UPS web site and it said the number wasn't valid. Hmmph. I wrote back and asked them to check the tracking #. They never wrote me back. I did check the email though, and then clicked the link instead of putting the number directly into UPS.

It was shipped through something called UPS Mail Intelligence. From what I can gather from their web site this involves the package being taken by UPS to a convenient US Post Office near the receiver, and the Post Office actually delivers the item to the recipient's door. (For non-US readers, UPS--United Parcel Service--is a private package delivery company that's completely separate from the postal service.) What they don't explain (at least not in a way that I can understand) is why this is a good arrangement for either the seller or the buyer. At any rate, the package has made its way from Orlando, FL to Paulsboro, NJ, so we'll see when it actually gets here. But the whole business seems very screwy.