Back to the Recent Future
Category: Just Plain Silly...
Posted Monday, July 02, 2007 at 06:01 PM [GMT-6]

Immediately after placing an order for the Nephew's MacBook (which, by the way, he's thrilled with, especially the built-in camera that lets him do video chat, not that he knows anyone else with a similar capability, but, still...), I popped over to Fed Ex's website and, using the shipping tracking number provided by Apple, signed up for the delivery company's new service that sends you emails to let you know when the package hits various checkpoints. I sat back with fingers clasped behind my head and feet on my desk (figuratively, of course; that can get you fired, as the poor doofus in the Nextel commercial learned) and waited for the electronic status checks to roll in, confident that my days of having to go through the ordeal of clicking on a link to check the tracking number had mercifully come to an end.

The package was in transit for about five days, from Shanghai to Midland. During the six intervening stops, nary an email arrived.

However, fifteen minutes after signing for the delivery, Fed Ex notified me by email that, um, the package had been delivered. Perhaps they weren't sure that I fully understood exactly what I'd taken possession of. Perhaps they knew of my advancing age, and wanted to make sure I remembered what I'd done fifteen minutes earlier.

Perhaps they need to work a bit more on their system.