By VERNA BROCK
Often, I feel as though the world order I used to take for granted has disappeared. This is true on so many levels, but increasingly, it seems to challenge my expectations for simple day to day life.
For instance (and I know I’m not alone in this), the normal, everyday act of mailing and receiving mail has become increasingly unpredictable. I have lost count of how many times I have sent a card to family or friends in Crawfordville only to have it go missing. So often, our missives traipse across North Florida and Georgia before reaching their final destinations. Letters go missing for weeks, or even months, at a time. It has gotten so bad that I now simply hand-deliver birthday cards to my children and grandchildren. Since they live less than 10 miles from me, this seems to be a more timely solution.
Two months ago, Ed ordered a euphonium (horn) from a seller in Canada, through eBay, shipped via UPS. Oh, my goodness! I have named this instrument Odesseus, based on its circuitous journey. It has been labeled lost three times, held in two different Customs centers (Canada and the US), pronounced gone for good, routed to Tallahassee, and labeled as out for delivery on the UPS truck this past week. You guessed it. The delivery driver couldn’t find this (hard to miss) tuba-type instrument anywhere on the truck as promised, and it has yet to be delivered.
Even better, when Ed called to find out where his horn might be this time, he was told it was cited for fraud and marked for destruction! As this saga has wound its way across two countries and multiple time zones, Ed and the seller of the euphonium have formed a friendly communication.
Since only the seller can request further information from UPS, he and Ed have written regularly via email, documenting every weird occurrence and excuse, as well as their astonishment at each new turn of events. I mean, how hard can it be to deliver a package from point A to point B? Apparently, impossible.
And that’s just the mail. There are so many areas where straight forward tasks seem jinxed by some mischievous troll. Dealing with everyday medical appointments, referrals, and prescriptions can eat up days of calling and research. Every home-improvement project requires a war room for strategizing. Organizations once renowned for their logical structure now seem consumed by chaos.
It is exhausting to constantly confront what seem like unnecessary problems and complications. I find myself wondering if getting older has made me less resilient, or if life has genuinely become more difficult to manage?
I honestly don’t feel like I’ve changed all that much; I know mail deliveries have become a crap shoot! I’m just afraid this is going to be the state of affairs from now on, and we’re all just having to learn to live with it.
Oh, well. I suppose it could be worse!