09:54 – Barbara is down in Winston today, running errands and meeting a friend for lunch.
We planted our test garden yesterday with all open-pollinated seeds. We put in short rows of broccoli, carrots, green beans, onions, peas, and zucchini. We’ll also be putting out a bunch of herbs and peppers in pots in the next few days. This year, we’re not looking for production quantities. I just want to see how they do, what works and what doesn’t.
Soon after we finished out in the garden, I got a phone call from a Sparta number I didn’t recognize. The caller asked if this was Bob Thompson. I replied that this was a Bob Thompson, and he said he was also Bob Thompson. One of the purchase orders I’d issued last Thursday had shipped to his house. Neither of us understood how that had happened, but fortunately my phone number was on the address label.
Barbara and I drove over to his house to pick up the mis-delivered case of goggles. Just one case rather than the three I’d ordered. When I saw the shipping label, all became clear. It was a five line label, with my name on line 1, then the business name, then my name again, then the business name again, then “Sparta, NC 28675”. Obviously, FedEx had done its best to deliver a box with no street address. They must have searched for a Bob Thompson in the Sparta area and just delivered it there.
When we got home, I called the vendor, who was horrified at the error. The service rep said she had no idea how it had happened. I told her that all would have been okay if they’d just provided the 9-digit zipcode to FedEx. She said they did have the full zipcode in their database record, but the FedEx label-printing software only printed 5-digit zips. How odd. At any rate, she was able to track down the two missing boxes, and said they would be delivered here today.
She commented that it was fortunate that the person had called me. I told her I wasn’t surprised. Up here in Sparta, population less than 2,000, pretty much everyone is friendly and honest. I told her if this had happened when we lived down in Winston, I wouldn’t have been surprised if whoever received the box just kept them and sold them on eBay.