Tracking...

 

I used to think that was the way Tonto helped the Long Ranger find the bad guys.  If you ever used a printing press ("Wow, how old are you, Jim?"  My buddy Guttenberg and I went to grade school together.), you may know that tracking is the standard spacing between adjacent letters when setting type.  In my flying days, it meant following the routing with Loran C (prior to GPS).  ("I suppose Orville and Wilbur were classmates, too?"  Kinda snarky there.)

These days, tracking means following your package delivery.  I have another one coming from Hong Kong.  It arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, late Friday.  FedEx said, "Expected delivery by 10:30 am Monday, May 24."  I couldn't imagine it would get from Alaska to south Texas in two days... Joan said, "It'll be here."  I could doubt FedEx, but I don't doubt Joan.

My package apparently enjoyed the cool Alaskan climate until 1:15 pm Sunday.  Then, it arrived in Ft Worth at 10:16 pm.  Making good time after that rest.  FedEx still proudly stated: "Expected delivery by 10:30 am Monday, May 24."  No departure info since that time.  The tracking page went from "delivery by 10:30 am" to "May 24, by the end of day."  So, they missed the original "expected delivery" time, but they are still holding out hope that it will get here in the same calendar day.  We'll see.

All that said, I am impressed that a small package is better traveled than I am.  And that someone thinks they know where it is all the time.  Key word in that last sentence is "thinks."

If you ask people what is the major time waster in their life, it would be: waiting for the cable guy; Netflix (lots of content, most of which you wouldn't want to watch); video games; sitting in the waiting room for a doctor; YouTube (even more content than Netflix, even less that you want to watch); looking for your keys (I keep mine in the same pocket all the time); waiting for an open check-out aisle at Walmart (we use self check-out); waiting for your cat to sniff every blade of grass when out for a walk; waiting at the bridge to get off the island when a barge is going through (that pretty much only applies to people living on this island)... and the number one time waster: checking tracking on a package.  Apparently, checking it every two minutes does not, in fact, get the package here any sooner.

Admit it - you do it, too, don't you?  ;-)

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Update: the package didn't get here, but FedEx was hopeful, keeping that "May 24 before end of day" up well into the night.  Checking this morning (May 25th), the package is now in Memphis, TN.  Great Circle routing.