Yesterday morning at 9 am I was standing outside the FedEx depot door when it opened, (it is a hundred mile round trip.) I did all that was necessary to have it shipped, including paying with an arm and a leg. I handed my precious envelope to a surly lady behind the computer. Explained that this needed to go as fast as humanly possible (She grimaced at the screen not answering me).
I tried to make conversation with the man standing in line behind me but he reared his horsey head up at the sound of a foreign accent, exchanging a glance with the surly woman over my head saying – What? What? So I fell into silence and turned my eyes to the bright pictures of smiling spruced people bending with purpose, caught by the camera swiftly handing clean packages into polished planes and waited for her computer to start spitting out bloody paper.
Now look at that screen again. All that rushing and driving was for nothing. I paid for urgent overnight (which actually means 48 hours) and it sits in the office ALL day. Not even shipped.
On my return I farmed, and cleaned and sorted and heaved. I sat with the piglets training them to drink water from a spigot.
I let the sheep into the July field and told Daisy that the rubbish paddock was really not that bad and please don’t lean over the fences. Her udder is cool to a fast knuckle touch which is good. I mowed, weeded and picked dinner, though everything has slowed down with this cool weather, we have not been out of the low seventies in days. And I checked the fedEx tracking screen again and again waiting for movement. Maybe they just don’t update it in real time I thought.
Good morning. I checked the FedEx tracking screen this morning and our package finally moved and was sent to Indianapolis at 9pm last night. If it is going to London why was it on a truck to Indianapolis? By 3. am this morning it was back in transit to parts unknown.
Ah well. They have promised that it will be in London by lunchtime on Wednesday. I guess to fulfill this promise they have to drive it all over America for a day or so! Big breaths. It will be alright. Sometimes we are pushed in a direction we do not want to go in and our suitcases need to sit packed and forlorn a little longer waiting for the destination we had hoped for. The timing still might work if I aim to fly out Friday afternoon. What is very important now is that I make this time count. So today I am taking the tractor through to the yards and I am going to give it a good clean up. Sheila will be happy, she goes into the yards to hoover up mulberries and now that Daisy does not wait there every day to be milked it would be nice if it was cleaned as it will stay clean and the mulberries will be tastier.
Then I am going to get the long nails and my big hammer with the fat head because I am hopeless at hammering – Why are the heads of nails so small? – and I am going do repairs on the fences.
But first I shall pop into the FedEx screen again and see whether my package has moved. Tracking is hell.
Have a lovely day.
your impatient friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
70 responses to “Tracking is Hell”
Yeah, watching that screen to see if something has moved from one place to another can be frustrating! Good luck..t
Don’t watch the tracking too closely. It will make you insane. They don’t update it for quite some time, and then all of a sudden it is where it is supposed to be.
It probably should be a definition for insanity.. c
Hopefully you can still track it after it leaves the country..but there is a chance you may not be able to. So it is a guaranteed Wednesday noon delivery?
yes that is what they say, but is it our noon?, or London noon? or just High Noon, hopefully their noon. c
My uneducated guess is London’s noon.
And we keep moving because sitting around waiting just doesn’t cut it! Hope you have a great day Celi.
You just have to keep doing stuff to keep your mind off it. The foreign accent thing is something I’m used to, even though I speak French well. What’s funny with your situation is that you’re both speaking English! Am I right in thinking that there’s a tiny bit of xenophobia out on the Prairies?
YES….. More than a tiny bit in many instances….. Most prairie dwellers are not world travelers and, in fact, never get farther than 30 miles from home. They are fiercely family oriented, which is a good thing, but quite leery of “foreigners”. ( anyone of a different color, with a different cadence to their speech, or a wearer of bright clothing) this is the sad part of the Prairie if you are a transplant. They are, however, strong, resilient, and very helpful to neighbors in need.
Very true. I have some lovely friends out here who will go quite above and beyond the call of duty to help me. Even though they are convinced that I am quite mad and will never be able to feed my family of this little bit of land, and shake their heads about me down at Caseys, they really are wonderfully supportive .. c
Celi: were you never told that a watched pot does not come to a boil!!! That said, why did I crawl out of bed half an hour before the TdF comes on to click on the computer and watch for ‘thekitchensgarden’, huh? Hmm, you better go and hammer and I better go and get myself to the Riviera and perchance the ruddy Fedex will also get a move on!! And please DO remember you hit the nail on the head and not your finger 😀 !
I agree – don’t watch that tracking info too closely or you’ll go mad. Just keep your thumbs out of the way of that hammer and maybe by the time you’re done there’ll be some progress.
The updates are unreliable. Well, reliably slow to happen much of the time. Fingers and toes crossed.
I felt my breath catch when I saw your email pop up. This is a serial of the most suspenseful sort – a ticking clock, obstructions, much at stake. It must be hell to be living it. Best wishes, Celi.
Ah, dear Fellowship wrangler. I wish I’d known to spare you the anxiety and explain how FedEx works. They have established pick-up times and shipping times and “centers”…thus the weird hours and the trucking to the point where your package will join others and fly over the actual ocean. ‘s like watching water boil, but that’s how they do it. I’m still optimistic this is all going to turn out fine. As for the prejudice toward the accent, I feel your pain. I get that too. Except fortunately, over here, my hideous American accent is welcomed with friendly Italian curiosity and the eternal question, “Why on earth do you live over here when you could live over there?” Fingers still crossed about your passport. Optimism reigns.
It’s best not to look at the screen…
Good luck 😉
Jesus Christ that would drive me nuts. I think a formal letter of complaint about customer service is in order. 🙂 x
As long as they gt that package there and back quick smart I will forgive all kinds of bad manners!!
Step away from that screen … it will not update while you are watching! Just curious has your eldest son thanked you properly for ‘spicing up’ the run up to his wedding? 🙂 Laura
Oh, dear…. I have horror stories to tell about shipment in general, FedEx in particular. THere’s a dark cloud over my head as far as shipping goes, even my husband, the eternal optimist, was forced to admit that the odds of having a shipment problem if the package is sent TO me or BY me are unusually high (sigh)
agree with the others, don’t track too often. It will drive you nuts. Good luck!
Prayers coming from Pennsylvania that you get your passport in time. A package I have been tracking wasn’t updated for 3 days and not all of the sudden it is out for delivery, so don’t get to worried with watching your tracking.
Don’t fret ladybug, it’ll get there! Don’t you just love friendly customer service;) Nothing like the good old days.