Comments (13)

By Fireman Chris, January 7, 2010 5:52 PM

Wow, a real blog post from me. Shocking, I know, but today’s events just screamed “BLOG ABOUT THIS” far too loudly for me to ignore.

We get a fair amount of packages at the fire station: medical supplies, parts for the engines, computer stuff, books. UPS comes by most every day, and FedEx a couple times a week. Today, they were both there at the same time and delivered several boxes. A couple of them were for me, but one was addressed to our admin person, who was off today. Many times, packages are addressed to her since she does the ordering but are really intended for one of the firefighters. Many times, these are somewhat urgent, and since she wasn’t in, I wanted to make sure it didn’t sit unnoticed if someone was waiting for it. I looked at the label, and didn’t recognize the sending company’s name. There was however this odd little tickle in my brain that it somehow looked and sounded familiar.

“Chief, did we order anything from XR LLC?” I asked.

His response was that he didn’t know, and suggested that I open it.

Not quite sure why I didn’t; maybe it was that tickle in my brain. It did have the department name on it, so I could have, but I decided to Google “XR LLC” instead.

First hit was their website, which was very vague and said they are a manufacturer of “medical supplies, clothing, accessories, and novelty items.” Curious. We get lots of medical supplies, but I couldn’t remember us getting any packages from them before. And what’s that “novelty items” thing? I decided to check another one of the search results: one of those company profile pages that industry groups and chambers of commerce put up.

That page listed the company as “a private company categorized under Safety Equipment and Clothing-Manufacturers and located in Huntington Beach, CA.” Curiouser. We use lots of safety equipment too. Then I noticed contact info at the top of the page, including a website link. Without looking too closely, I clicked on it.

And then immediately closed my browser when I recognized the page that came up.

Turns out the tickle in my brain was my subconscious remembering two years ago when I got a package (at home) from XR LLC. This package contained a lovely red and black deerskin flogger, a Wartenberg pinwheel, and a couple other fun things. For you see, XR LLC is the discreet name that Extreme Restraints puts on their packages.

Oh dear.

There are some things you really don’t need to know about your co-workers.

Not wanting someone else to open the package, I put it on her desk chair and pushed it under her desk. I considered dropping it off at her house on my way home, but that would have practically screamed “I know what this is.” And, I really don’t want to go there.

I am going to enjoy watching her reaction when she comes in to work on Monday though.