Having ordered a Christmas gift online, my ISP put the confirmation in my junk mail. Lacking it. I ordered another (from a different company, unknowingly, but for the same price) I assumed I must have been mistaken in thinking I had made the order previously. Shocked when the first order arrived I realized a second would later arrive. Polling the family, no one else has a use for the item so , grudgingly, I decide to return it when it arrived. Sadly (since I never return things) I learned I would have to call the company to have the return approved. Not realizing I had done business with two separate online stores, though the product originated from the same source, I called the phone number on the first packing slip received. It had the order number (after being asked me how I got the cell phone number, which I was reading from the packing slip) my order was found but told I had not bought 2 from him. He said he would like the sale, so could I please call the company which had sent the second which arrived today, the reason for my call.
This time the confirmation was still on my computer. 'Katie' answered and was very polite, though I had to wait interminably while she consulted with someone. I explained I was returning the second one as I had opened the first. Patience not being my greatest virtue, a very long time later I was advised I could not just mark it 'return to sender', which would have simplified my life. So far, Murphy's Law was much alive and well. I was to email the company, state the reason for the return, and,in turn, I would be emailed the address and directions for the return.
I live in a house with a second floor and a basement. Here for 42 years, I have never minded that things I want or need are always on a different floor. Stairs have not been a problem and, if anything, I have enjoyed that I get exercise up and down between floors. Euphoric that I didn't have a cold or the flu this holiday season, I injured injured an already compromised knee. Now it is agony to climb stairs. If I allow three times the usual time, I can get some jobs done. I just carry baby elephants any more as i do it.
It seems that phone calls ring only after I am seated and the phone is several feet away in its cradle. This is another time my disabled knee causes grief and lost time. The rage only turns on when I go through the motions only to find that it is a 'legal' telemarketer (a non-profit, the police beggars, or a charity.)
These are only a minute quantity of the many things we are all facing as the world becomes more complicated and as we are left to talk to more machines who haven't been programmed to handle our questions. The road workers will never know we are in a hurry when they tear up a street and force us into the wilderness of a detour in an area which is not familiar to us. The postal line will always be the longest just as we enter the queue. The days we count on to run errands are the days it is not safe to drive and one major disaster will befall every holiday season making the long list of tasks seem longer or outright impossible.
I am under no illusion that it is worse for me than for others...I just am in a position to pity myself more. If you think about all the obstructions in your own life, we could pool notes and figure out how to save time despite them.
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