I got a notice on my phone yesterday that my Amazon package – a DVD and a new case for my phone – had been delivered.  I was home, hadn’t heard anyone out front, and when I looked on my porch there was no package.  I had dismissed the notice and figured it was instead “your package will be delivered before 8 pm”.

But, 8pm came and went with no package.

Today, I hopped on the Amazon website and did a little checking.  Sure enough, they showed that it had been delivered and Amazon said it was to my address.

Hmmm….

I dug a little deeper and the USPS tracking also confirmed that it was delivered.

To Sarasota, Florida.

And that would be a long drive to pick up a phone case.

I looked around on the amazon site for a while and finally triggered enough of a help menu to get me to a chat.  I dumped in all the order, tracking, and date details I could, started the chat, and hoped for the best.

In a few minutes, the Amazon customer service person had confirmed the problem, contacted the carrier, and said it should arrive at my house on Tuesday.

I was impressed and thanked them.  Can’t imagine how it would have gone if I’d had to contact the USPS myself.

And I’m curious how it went so completely wrong. The wrong house I could see- but the wrong region of the US?   Maybe a partially obscured barcode?  Anyway, I’ll see what happens on Tuesday.

—————–

Jim and I were out to eat the other night at a restaurant we’d only been to once before.  It was noisy and crowded, but they served sandwiches and I can usually find something that fits my admittedly bland palate.  A quick scan of the menu and I found a ground turkey burger.  I ordered that – lettuce only – and figured I’d be good to go.  

When the sandwich arrived it was little charred on one side, but I started in anyway.  

And it tasted funny.  Just…off.

I took a look at the bit edge and saw that it had chunks of red and green pepper in the meat.  Sigh.

Curious, I asked our server if this was a veggie burger or something – but she confirmed it was a turkey burger.  That was just how they made them.

I ate about half of it before biting into a particularly large chunk of pepper and then decided I’d had enough.

I finished my fries and waited while Jim finished his sandwich.

The server asked a couple times if I was okay and I was.  Vaguely disappointed that someone made the decision to put peppers in their ground turkey, but okay.  

She also asked if she could bring me anything else and I declined.  I didn’t need anything and didn’t want to take the extra time tp get something else.  The sandwich wasn’t technically “wrong”  it just wasn’t what I expected.  I mean, I thought adding peppers to ground turkey – and then not saying so on the menu – is a questionable decision to make, but some people must like it and that’s… well, whatever.

In my head I was already halfway to our next destination and trying to remember if I had left clothes in the dryer when the server came back over and said she was taking care of the check.

Jim and I looked at each other in puzzlement.  I replied with some combination of “why” and “you don’t need to do that,” but she just said that she could tell that I didn’t enjoy my dinner and that made her sad.

I said that it was nice of her, but I was really okay.  She wouldn’t hear of it, complimented me on my origami, and was on her way.

Jim and I kind of looked at each other for a moment.   And I felt terrible.    I mean, I’m adult – I’m allowed to decide what I do and do not eat – and if I stop eating, for whatever reason, that’s on me.  I might be hungry later or I might not, but still, that’s just me.

Now, though, it had impacted the server.  She was trying to do a nice thing, but I still felt bad that I…hadn’t..cleaned my plate.

Shit.  I really am a toddler.

We really weren’t sure what to do.  Kinda felt like a dine-and-dash – which I would never do – but we got up and left.  Though not before Jim had left a nice tip on the table compared to what I guess would have been our bill.

It was nice of her, but really odd.  If we go back, I’m clearly going to have to finish everything on my plate – even it means choking down a hidden onion.  Shudder.

———————–

We had a nice day yesterday here in Akron and I decided to get a little sunshine in my backyard.  I had been able to get out last weekend and thought this one might be my last chance.  I grabbed some sunscreen, a chair, and a towel and headed back  – and realized that the ground was covered in pine branches and twigs.

Upon inspection, I saw that the giant pine tree in the back corner had been trimmed away from the powerlines.  I remembered then the notice I had gotten over a month ago saying that the power company would be in the neighborhood to trim trees – but the notice had made it sound like it was imminent.

I grabbed a rake and cleaned up the area, then spent an hour or so in the sun.  The neighborhood can be noisy so I had ear-plugs in and wore dark glasses to block out the light.  It was peaceful in the warm sun, but I had to look around every so often.  

My backyard isn’t a fortress and I assume that occasionally people  – and critters – will come and go through there.  And I was just a little uneasy to know that a crew of people had been there – sometime last week while I was at work – and I was none the wiser.

Odd.  Random and odd.