My Flash Point
Posted on April 13, 2009 - Filed Under About me
After Artfest I went into Seattle with my brother Andrew and his girlfriend Susan. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the sea in Port Townsend, then crossed on the Bainbridge Ferry towards a stunning, sparkling Seattle. What a vision that was! Andrew and I had a couple of wonderful days, including a jaunt to Pike Street, where he was invited to sing with some gospelling buskars in front of Starbucks. He has a beautiful voice; I am not sure how they knew that.
We had a great time. Ate good food, saw beautiful days unfold like magic. Each day was filled with synchronicity. Andrew did Monkey Yoga, which he invented. I come from creative stock.
On Tuesday it was time to go. I packed a box of art supplies in a Priority Mail box to mail home, so I wouldn’t incur big bucks with extra weight or luggage at the airport. I wanted this trip to end without fuss. Andrew took me to the Post Office on Vashon. My clerk had gray hair down to her derriere. She looked jumpy.
“What’s inside the box, any liquids, or flammable items?”
No, just art supplies, some acrylic paint.
Oh, we better check that out. She pulls out a HazMat notebook, two inches thick. “Looks like Latex is allowed, but not acrylic”
Latex is Acrylic. It is water soluble. Everything in the box is. No petroleum products, only polymer based.
“Polymer blows up” she says. No, I say, it is acrylic.
“We can’t send any oil products through the U.S. Mail. Any alcohol in there? Never mind, I don’t want to go there. Any magnets? Do you know magnets can give someone with a Pacemaker a heart attack?”
I am picturing my postal worker hugging the box to his chest, and falling over dead. “there are no magnets, no oils. It is not a HazMat situation. I do this all the time. I have read HazMat lists, these products are not on them.”
The people in line pipe in. Latex is acrylic they tell her. She does not believe them. They come by, and pat my shoulder. Good luck they whisper. They know her, this looney lady.
She goes off to get advice. A few people come by with more HazMat materials, thumbing through mountains of paper. I have been there now for at least fifteen minutes, everyone else in line is done. I hear her in an adjacent room talking to someone. Finally, she comes back and says “what is the Flash point of the paint?”
The what? “How would I know that?” I ask.
“You are the one wanting to send this through the US mail, you must know the flash point.”
“Are you kidding me? I have never had to concern myself with this, the paint is the same as Latex.”
She leaves again, unwilling to go for the Latex line. Comes back, holding a box.
“I got it figured. We will just go through your box and write down all the flash points of the things inside it, and repackage it in this box to send by ground, so it won’t be dangerous.”
I pick up my box, and tell her I have officially reached my flash point, and am about to blow. I will not be sending this box by the US mail, I will take it on the plane, thank you. I wanted to yell “LUNATIC!!” as loud as possible, but resisted the urge.
She grabbed at my box, unsuccessfully. “You don’t even care if you blow up the plane??” she screeches. Not one person in that place fell upon her with a white coat and sedation.
I took my box to the airport, repacked my bags and did not blow up the plane. I did however, for an interlude, edge very close to my FLASH point.
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6 Responses to “My Flash Point”
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09/04-09/06 Valley Ridge Wisconsin
Art Journaling Magazine
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Drawing Lab
Interactive Art Workshop
Letter Arts Review
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GEEZ! Some people’s children.
Jill,
I am so sorry for your incident. Government workers who have been at their jobs for a very long time get stale…that is why we are artists.
As for the flash point of acrylic paints…it has NONE,,,, because it is not flammable…it is water based!
Below is a link to all golden products…It is interesting to note for each MSDS the list of products (colors) it covers is usually longer that the safely data for that product!
http://www.goldenpaints.com/healthsafety/msds/index.php\
Happy Traveling.
Lotsa love,
Gail
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and artwork from ArtFest on your blog and linking it from the Art and Soul group. I am so excited to attend my first Fest and calendar-watch even more when I read the enthusiastic and fantastic posts such as yours. Thanks for sharing!
Johanna
What a lovely blog, Jill. The pics from ArtFest were fabulous and great story at the PO. Loved your journal pages as well!
You can ship from a UPS store with less hassle.
I try to avoid the USPS as much as possible.
This is something that would totally happen to me. My patience would’ve run out at “hello” w/looney lady. I think I will now refer to my “flashpoint” and where my limits are during my standard business day….that will sure keep people guessing, don’t you think?
xoxox
That was really funny! You have to laugh or you’d cry that there are people like that on this earth.
Catherine