Variables In The TR517 Game
1/9/2
Yesterday in the morning, I requested the user information from ebay for the guy I bought the camera from. It was mailed to him and me.
I had emailed him on Friday but hadn�t gotten a response back. I wanted to know the tracking number.
Yesterday, when I got home, I left a message on his answering machine that went something like this:
�Hi, this message is for Kenny. This is [Postwood], the guy who bought the TR517 from you. I don�t know if the delay is from the snow or what, but I still haven�t gotten the camera. If you could call or email me with the tracking number, if there is one, that would be great. Oh, but don�t call tonight since I�m having guests over. You know my email, anyway. Thanks.�
I didn�t get an email from him last night.
Today, every email that made my yahoo toolbar display the little yellow bell icon made me think �Ooh, this is it.� But I never got an email.
I got home. Aisai had come home early since she is sick. There was no package again today. There was no message on the answering machine.
I narrated my intentions to Aisai. I was going to give Kenny the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was the snow getting everything stuck in Atlanta. I would wait untill after church tonight and then call him again. If I got nothing but an answering machine again, I�d call again Thursday, and then at 5:30 in the morning on Friday.
I couldn�t stand it. I�d just hang up on the answering machine if I got it again. I called.
What appeared to be his little brother answered. �Which Kenny?� I gave middle initial and last name and he told me that he wasn�t there. �Oh, wait. He just drove up.�
I talked to Kenny and he told me the tracking number. He shipped it UPS. I typed it in as he said it.
1z6001410310148815
If you track that, as I did once he finished. It was delivered on January 4 at 3:30 pm. �Left on porch.�
Yikes.
I let Kenny go. I called UPS. The menu wasn�t perfect for my needs so I picked 1 which would give me tracking again. �Delivered to [first digit right] [second digit same as third] [third digit right]Postwood��
AARRRRRHGGGGGG!
Oddly, however, USPS had delivered something for that address to us the other day. Mrs. Ogle had been waiting on us to deliver her package from Eden Foods [The Spirit of Live Giving Food] since Monday. We hadn�t done it yesterday since we cleaned cleaned cleaned for the college kids coming over.
I hopped in the car with the package and drove down to her corner lot house. Her house really isn�t suited for a corner lot. The side, like the side of our house, isn�t as pretty as the front or back.
I rang the bell. The porch was full of knickknacks and baubles and furniture and statuey things, but no UPS package. Heck, it would have been rained on if it were there. No answer.
I drove home. Aisai asked if I got it. I answered �no� and popped upstairs to the computer.
I used infoseek to get her phone number and called her:
�Hello, this is a message for Mrs. Ogle. My name is [Postwood] and you have a UPS package that was supposed to be delivered to me at [my address]. And, oddly enough, I have a package for you from Eden Foods. Please give me a call when you get in [and I give my phone number]. I might be at church later, but my wife who is sick will be home. Even if not, we have an answering machine. I look forward to seeing you and my camera. Thanks.�
Then I called UPS again. Did the tracking, listened to the whole thing, then got a person. She said all that the prevous stuff had said and then I got to talk. �The only problem is that I live at [my address].�
Using Mrs. Ogle�s phone number, she was able to tell me that Mrs. Ogle had not reported the erroneous package to UPS. She also said that it appeared that Somename Hardware seems to have filled it out with Mrs. Ogle�s address.
I called Kenny back. I told him that UPS had delivered it and could he tell me what address he put on the package. Kenny said the one that I gave him. I have that email and I put my correct address, but I didn�t say this. At that time I said, Paypal should have given you an address that was correct. I let him know that I just called to let him know where things stood. Long silence. �Well, I�ll talk to you later.� I said.
�Thanks� he said.
So, let�s look at these lovely variables.
Kenny gets the correct address from paypal and me in two different emails.
UPS records seem to indicate that Mrs. Ogle�s address rather than mine was entered in the form.
UPS records indicate that Mrs. Ogle�s porch got the packages at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
After Aisai and I ate at Guadalajara that night, we were home all evening.
Mrs. Ogle didn�t contact UPS about the erroneous shipment of a camera worth over $330 new. She also didn't contact us. We are listed in the phone book, and though there are two people with my name in town, I'm the one that lives on her street.
My life�it�s not like a roller coaster. It�s like a light switch in an obsessive compulsive�s house.