The '78 approach

 I was just a kid in 1978, but I do believe life wasn't quite as hectic as it is today. No smartphones. No internet. Instant access to information was science fiction. Life just came at you and you dealt with stuff on a day-by-day basis. You learned about the world on the evening news with John Chancellor (NBC) or Walter Cronkite (CBS). You got local news from the newspaper (Bertha Herald) and radio (KWAD). 

Whatever was going to happen tomorrow was saved for tomorrow. 

That's not the case today with all the conveniences of modern technology and instant information. In fact, instant access and up-to-the-second information can cause a great deal of unwarranted anxiety.

What do I mean? I'm glad you asked!

I bought a new iPhone 14 for my wife early last week. She has a very old iPhone 8 with a battery ready for the graveyard and it is way past due for an upgrade. I ordered the new phone from Verizon and it was shipped via UPS; I've done this at least five times in the past and things have always gone smoothly. 

Not this time. But if it wasn't for instant information, I wouldn't be nearly as stressed.

The main cause for my consternation is this new phone is not, shall we say, cheap. And 99% of my fretting is based off that fact alone. 

Anyway, according to UPS's tracking system, my package (the new phone) arrived at the UPS facility in my city on Monday, October 17. Shortly after that, it was out for delivery. Fantastic!

Except it never arrived. 

Later that evening, the tracking system updated my package as "processing at UPS facility," still in my city, just six miles (give or take) from where I live.

I thought this was odd, but rationalized that it must have been sorted to the wrong truck for delivery (I don't know how UPS is organized); surely the phone will come Tuesday. 

Well, that didn't happen. It went unscanned for 48 hours.

This caused more than a little concern for me. Unfortunately, as I've become older, I've developed into a terrible worry-wart. I cannot just let things play out. I have to brood, agonize and lose sleep over ridiculous things (I do remember my dear grandma Walker was the same way, so maybe it is genetic). Yes, I am working very hard on that gastric ulcer. 

Always one to act prematurely, I started investigating the claims process through UPS and Verizon's policy for a lost package. I tend to take the doomsday approach to almost everything. Worst possible scenario: that's me. 

Meanwhile, I could not understand how the most technologically advanced shipping service in the world could lose a package just miles from its destination?

Somehow we go from Minnesota to Florida without a single scan. I can't even....

Now this morning, October 18, my package is "on the way" and has suddenly departed from a facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

Wait... what?

How on earth did this package go from Minnesota to Florida without being scanned even once? It was never listed as "departed" from a facility in Minnesota or "arrived" to a facility in Florida. It just POOF! appeared (and departed) in Jacksonville overnight. 

Was it even in Minnesota? But if it wasn't, why was it "out for delivery" on Monday? It hurts my brain to even think about this anymore.

In 1978, I wouldn't even be fretting about this. No, I wouldn't know where my package was RIGHT NOW and I wouldn't feel that I'd even need to know. I'd simply know that my package would eventually arrive.

No worries.

I think I need to take a more '78 approach to everything. It is much healthier.