Complaint Department: Parcel Delivery

Yes, I do have a more substantial post coming (I hope) later today. Meanwhile, I’m amusing myself by tracking a parcel containing a gift I ordered for oldest son’s birthday last Wednesday.

Can you read that? According to this, my parcel has been right here in town since last Thursday (That’s eight days ago!) and on the truck for delivery every single working day since then, yet on three of those days, my parcel was not due for delivery. What’s up with that? Do they lug it around town just for the fun of it?

On Tuesday, it says I was not available, yet I was right here at home all day.

I’m taking bets on whether it will be delivered today or whether I’ll have to wait until next week. What’s your best guess?

Update on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 12:42PM by rebecca

Grrrrrr!

The very nice Purolator delivery man delivering another parcel suggested that I call the delivery company with the local contract for Fed Ex deliveries. He even gave me the number. Unfortunately, I must have remembered the number wrong. And I don’t remember who it is who does the local deliveries, either, so I can’t look the number up for myself.

I tried calling Fed Ex’s 1-800 number three times. Each time, it cut me off while I was holding for the first available customer representative. I’ve wasted 40 minutes and achieved nothing but a tension headache, so I’m leaving it alone for a while.

Oh and get this: When calling that toll free Fed Ex number, it asks that I punch in my tracking number. When I punch in the tracking number given right there on the Fed Ex tracking form shown above, it says the parcel is not in its system. Yet there it is, updated daily on their own tracking form.

Grrrrrr again! 

Update on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 3:11PM by rebecca

Tension headache is gone; the parcel has arrived.

Before I could say anything, the delivery guy said, “I’ve been trying to deliver this to your neighbour for 4 days. Sorry about that!” When she was finally home to recieve the parcel she pointed out to him that the address was for us, not her.

I told him I’d been tracking the parcel in Whitehorse for 8 days. He laughed nervously, so I laughed, too, and left it at that. 

Book Review: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by D. A. Carson.

I’ve listened to quite a few of D. A. Carson’s sermons and lectures (Okay, I’ll be honest. I’ve heard every single one I can download for free.), so I already knew some of his stories about his family and upbringing. I already knew that there were at least a few parallels between my own upbringing and his. My dad, for instance, was a small church pastor and missionary like Carson’s father, Tom Carson, and some of what I’d heard Don Carson say about his father made me think that he might have been a bit like my dad. My own mother used old adult-sized clothing to create cute clothing pieces for my sister and me, while Margaret Carson, Tom Carson’s wife, remade hand-me-down suits for her husband. And like D. A. Carson, I grew up poor, but unaware how much less we had than most people around us until later.

This is the reason I was hoping I’d be able to read and review Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, Carson’s new book on the life of his father, who was a missionary pastor in Quebec. I can’t pass up a good biography, anyway, and if there are similarities between the people portrayed and the people I know and love, so much the better.  And this was a good biography. I received my review copy in the mail on Thursday and finished it a couple of nights later because I stayed up reading until 2:30AM on Easter morning.

As it turns out, Tom Carson was different than my own father in many ways. Still, the parallels are notable, making the book all the more engrossing for me. Like my dad, Tom Carson was a faithful, ordinary pastor. His congregations were small; he wrote no books. His circumstances were often difficult, but he kept on serving and loving God, serving and loving his family, and serving and loving God’s people. He was disciplined in his use of time, one thing I’ve decided I need to work at more consistently.

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A Gaggle of Geese Goodies

The  Problem with Geese

A man driving his geese to market was met by another who said, “Good morrow, with your hundred geese.” He replied, “I have not a hundred, but if I had half as many more as I now have, and two geese and a half, I should have a hundred.” How many had he?

 

[From the Farmer’s Almanac Newsletter]

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