Do It Yourself: Don't Be Lazy

 

I couldn't sleep last night.  It's not because it was too hot (although it was) or that I had too much caffeine to drink (I didn't). It was because of my husband.  Not that he was snoring because he was awake.  And it's not because his reading light was too bright or his headphone music too loud.  It was because he was mad...and he was (rightfully) venting.  But I just wanted to sleep.  (I really like sleep.)

Why was he so mad?  Because he got a notification that his package had been delivered and was in the mailbox.  Guess what?  It wasn't!  Because it had been delivered to a mailbox in the next town over.  

This is not the first time it has happened.  The SAME thing happened to me less than 7 months ago:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/serious-problemspetty-problems.html.  Which is why I TRIED to get him to calm down.  (Spoiler alert, I didn't really succeed.)

In my part of the country (and maybe this is true elsewhere), I cannot trust the postal service.  I've written about it (most recently https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-customer-service-stories.html) I’ve complained about it to the local and national postal service.  Nothing changes; and that's incredibly frustrating.  (I actually had a package sent to my parents' house because their mail delivery is better than ours; not it's that good.)

I'm 99% certain that at some point today, my husband's package will arrive here, where it is SUPPOSED to be based on the experience I had (and blogged about) in January.  I hope that I am correct because this isn't just a package; it's a prescription.

So why is the title of this post about not being lazy?  This prescription is NOT a 90 day supply from a big pharmacy warehouse (which does come to our house every 3 months or so.)  This is a delivery from a local (as in less than 3 miles from the house) pharmacy.

At the beginning of the week, my husband got a notification that his prescription was ready for pick up.  The pharmacy (which is one of the big chains out there) is not far away, but it has been hot (it is summer).  He noticed that they offered free delivery, but not same day delivery.  That was ok.  He decided to request delivery.  

Of note here, was that when he put in his request, the delivery was supposed to be today (July 8th) and it was noted that someone had to be home to accept the delivery.  (Makes sense.)  He (and I too) thought that someone would be driving it up from the physical store to our house.  It's a logical assumption.  Pharmacies have been doing that for year.  (Or at least they used to.)  "Back in the day" our local pharmacy (which was independent; and is GREATLY missed:  https://www.myveronanj.com/2019/06/28/terrys-exits-pharmacy-business/) had a truck that could be seen around town all the time as deliveries were made.  (Ok, I'm so old that I remember when you could have an open account there!)

That's not what the pharmacy did.  Instead, they must have packed it up and had the postal service take care of it.  Which clearly they didn't.  I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that the package went from the town of Cedar Grove to either Newark or Montclair where it was processed on Tuesday and then went out for "delivery" on Wednesday, but didn't make it past the Montclair location to our home in Verona.  I have no proof of that (yet), it's just a gut feeling.  

The morale of the story (as we still sit here waiting for the prescription) is if you CAN do something yourself, DO it.  Don't rely on chain pharmacies or the postal service.  I know there are times when you have to, but if you can avoid it; do it yourself.  Sure it may have been an inconvenience to go to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription (not that much of an inconvenience), but that is nothing when compared to the stress and frustration of a missing package. (Or as my husband says:  it's not so much about the package not being here, but the tracking which is a blatant lie.)

When you can; do it yourself.