June 25, 2009

A follow-up from Uncle Milton

You'll recall that earlier this week I thought I had taken all the necessary steps for our family to have a going ant farm in the next month. However, I received the following communication from Uncle Milton this afternoon:

From: onlineorders@unclemilton.com
To: Susan
Subject: Concerning your Uncle Milton Online Order
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:14:37

Thank you for your order! We have run your credit card and your order is all set to ship. Unfortunately, the weather in your area is too warm to safely ship at this time. We will keep your order on file until the weather cools enough to ensure your creatures will arrive safely. We will keep you posted on developments, and as soon as your order ships we will send you a shipment notification email. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Thank you,
Uncle Milton's, Inc.

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Well, Uncle Milton, I do have a couple of questions:

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From: Susan
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009
To: onlineorders@unclemilton.com
Subject: RE: Concerning your Uncle Milton Online Order

I appreciate your cautious shipping policy. However, you just shipped me ants earlier this week that roasted to death in my mailbox. Can you tell me what high temperatures you look for as a guideline and is it possible for you to hold-off on charging my credit card until the ants ship?

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Uncle Milton and his peeps are fast on the response. Minutes later I had this...

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From: onlineorders@unclemilton.com
To: Susan
Subject: RE: re: Concerning your Uncle Milton Online Order
Date: Thu, 25 June 2009

We apologize for the ants arriving in bad shape. We do our best to predict what the weather will be in your area prior to mailing it out, but sometimes they don't make it. We will wait to ship until the 10 day average for your area is below 85F.

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So, by my math this means that my kids will have a working Ant Farm in mid-September. And, Uncle Milton will have my $14 until then as well. Until then we're pinning all our hopes on the lone living ant that Andrew and Mark have nicknamed Super Ant. Let's hope he really is!

5 comments:

SStites said...

Just wondering. . .do you not have ants in Lawrence??? Or is there some reason they must be Uncle Milton's ants ONLY? We might try sending you some Arizona ants, because they can withstand temps of 120 degrees without even having to run fast! Good luck on this project! A. Sharon

Kate and Dennis said...

Bummer!! Surely we can drum up some ants elsewhere....although that pesky Uncle Milton is already holding your $14 ransom. Keep on truckin' Super Ant!!

Susan said...

Here's the deal on drumming up ants somewhere else. According to the lit. that comes with the farm, you need at least approximately 10 ants to have a going enterprise and they all need to come from the same colony. They also need to be large enough to see with the naked eye. We've got ants galore, but they're the tiny, annoying ants, not like this kind. So, if either of you have ants that could bite my finger off lurking in your yard, send 'em over!

Claire said...

In some countries, fried ants are a delicacy.
I am sure Thomas and Andrew would oblige :)

Amber said...

These posts make me laugh because we too have an ant farm sitting up in Connor's closet. One of his wonderful Christmas presents...until now I had forgotten about it. I guess we will wait awhile before sending off for the ants...or just wait until Connor notices it sitting in his closet ;-)