The Odyssey (2015 Style)

They arrived!  They finally arrived!  They arrived on Monday. But what an odyssey they had been through.

“They” are a pair of cartridge needles for my record turntable.  I still have one of those and a stereo system to project their sound, plus a fairly good selection of vinyl records to play on it.  But inevitably with such devices, the needle wears out and ruins the sound.  So I had to set out on the quest for a new needle with its supporting cartridge.  Since there was no place in town that seemed to have such things, I took to the internet.  There I found a world of sites for record-type things.  There are, for example, all kinds of sites that sell needles and parts for antique record players such as your great-grandpa’s Victrola (there’s something for the younger people to investigate).  But since my turntable isn’t that old, I had to keep trying.  Try typing words like “turntable” or “vinyl records” or “turntable needles” into your browser and see what you get.  I finally came upon a site that looked promising called, of all things, turntableneedles.com which can be found at http://out.easycounter.com/external/turntableneedles.com.  Then it was a matter of finding the right needle for my set.  The site gives you various ways of searching for things, and chose to search by the make and model number of my turntable.  Do you have any idea how many models of turntable that Technics made?  But there, right near the bottom of the list was my model.  At last, I found the right cartridge type, only to find a note that that type was not in stock and no known in-stock date was known.  But there was a note that a substitute was available.  So I ordered two of them, just to be safe.  The order was placed in December 1^st and the reply that came back indicated that the order was shipped that day.  According to the shipping information it was shipped “Priority Mail Intl Small Item Padded Envelope w/E-Delivery Confirmation, Tracking Number LZ844234195US.  Note the Priority Mail notation.  And remember the date of December 1^st.  That’s when the odyssey began. 

 

The odyssey begins in Corvallis, Oregon at 5:58 pm, December 1^st. Who knew that anything originated in Corvallis, Oregon?  It arrived at the United States Postal Service (USPS) (has a nice ring, doesn’t it “Postal Service”) facility in Portland, Oregon ay 3:55 am, December 2^nd.  It left that facility at 4:28 am the same day.  Sixteen hours later (16 hours!  Traffic must have been bad that day) it arrived at another USPS facility also in Portland.  You can tell it’s a different facility because the ZIP code is different.  The next day, December 3^rd, the parcel departed that facility at 6:22 am.  There the tale takes a hiatus for several days.

We next hear about our parcel is when it arrives at a USPS facility in Los Angeles, California at 4:57 am on December 9^th!  And I thought the Pony Express had been extinct for over a century.  By 3:40 that afternoon, it reappeared at a different facility which seems to deal with international mail.  From there it apparently departed at 3:56 am on December 10^th, departed Louisville (presumably Kentucky) at 6:01 am the same day, and departed yet again on December 11^th at 10:12 am at or for Montreal.  There is no indication of it actually arriving at any of these intermediate stopovers.  But at last, we have proof that it is actually in Canada . . . are you ready for this . . . 7:43 pm on December 19^th!  There it clears customs at the same time.  

Here is where I made an amazing discovery.  You can track international mail on the Canada Post tracking system using the same tracking number as the original.  From Montreal, the story becomes pretty mundane.  The parcel was processed in Montreal at 1:29 pm on December 20^th and again in Ottawa at 8:02 am December 21^st.  It went out for delivery at 9:18 am that day and was delivered to my community mail box at 2:05 that afternoon.  I picked it up a little time later.  I had it! 

As I write this blog, I am listening to a brand new James Taylor record I got a couple of weeks ago . . . in anticipation of those &*$% needles arriving.

Do you know where your parcel has been?