05/23/2026
With me being at work in a building over 12 hours a day, going home to supper on the table and then watching a couple of hours of TV. I kind of forgot what the clouds looked like, being out in fresh air, enjoying nature and spending time with my "patient and understanding" husband.
My goal is to do this more often, not just once a year.
I had time to write down a few of funny things that has happened in the store over the years...or maybe just last week. I had AI help me make it sound funnier ;-)
Running a small business in a rural town hits a little different.
Some days I’m shipping packages.
Some days I’m running Safe Gifts or Safe Crafts because I’m selling more vendor items than shipping packages. We may be one macramé plant hanger away from a rebrand?
We’ve bought scanners, printers, and programs and we’re STILL waiting on Amazon QR codes.
“March 2026,” they said. Sure. I waited 7 years for a UPS account. I can wait, I have patience.
We reuse clean boxes…yet people bring in boxes that look like they survived a dumpster fire.
“Is this clean enough?” Ma’am… it has spaghetti sauce on it.
“But maybe it could be wiped off?” If it needs a pressure washer, the answer is no.
Someone’s insisting their box “isn’t that thin, ripped or dirty.” (It is. It always is.)
Half shipping store. Half tech support. Half therapist. Half recycling educator.
(Yes, that’s four halves. Safe Ship Math™.)
The tape gun is screaming. The printer is blinking hieroglyphics. Someone is yelling,
“Who brought in the cart full of bad boxes?!” Our recycling duties are never done.
By midday:
• A tornado‑survivor box
• Amazon returns taller than a toddler
• Someone asking if we “sell stamps”
• Someone shaking their “not fragile” package like a maraca
And then… 5:58 PM. Two minutes before closing.
“I need this to go out tonight and be in California by morning.”
Oh sweetheart… The truck left at 4 PM. Not even NASA could help us now.
Then comes the MDS next‑day early‑morning run —the 4Runner is packed like a cardboard clown car.
If you can’t laugh while hauling half the county’s recycling, twice sometimes three times a week,
we wonder, what are we even doing, how can this craziness stop?
Safe Ship Tomah isn’t special because of what we do. It’s special because of the people who walk through the door.
And yes, even when I took a few extra “days off”, my laptop is open like it’s clocked in for a double shift.
My husband is watching my bobber like he’s filming Deadliest Catch: Midwest Edition…
and I’m over here running Safe Ship Tomah from the front seat of a fishing boat.
He’s whispering, “You got a bite” Sir, the fish are not the ones emailing me about a missing Amazon return.
I’m answering domain issues with one hand, holding a fishing pole with the other, and somehow still manage to catch more keepers than him (I think he let me, on purpose.)
I politely released them all, because I’m too busy solving shipping emergencies between bobber dips.
Every time a bobber twitches, he thinks it’s a bite. Every time my phone buzzes, I know it’s another crisis.
Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t boot me off the boat and let me float away with the bobbers.
So yes… technically I’m “off.” Just doing what I have done for 45 years…it’s business.
Old habits are hard to break, but I am trying.
But if you zoom out, it’s just me doing customer service in a life jacket.
I am going to take the next couple days off social media to spend with my children and grandchildren. Work will wait!
