No Fooling

Today is April Fools’ Day, but felt more like Friday the 13^th ... a comedy of errors.

I was holding my breath that the belt buckle I’d ordered would make it to my mailbox. It arrived yesterday. Whew!

Even though the mail carrier got it right this time, I still have plans to open a post office box for deliveries because I went shopping for a belt today, exhausted myself driving in heavy traffic and arrived home with a headache.

This is why I prefer online shopping.

The belt I previously had was western style, so I did my due diligence last night, looking up the nearest Boot Barn. What came up was an address only 6 miles away, a 20 minute drive.

That 20 minute drive turned into a couple hours of chaos and confusion. First with the heavy traffic in that direction, only to finally arrive at the destination to find no such establishment at that location.

Businesses really need to keep their locations current on the internet, because this happens more times than not with in-store shopping. I’ll look up an address, arrive and find whatever was there before to be long gone.

Next was to set the GPS to ignore the address -- just take me to the nearest Boot Barn, which turned into more heavy traffic for another 6 miles and no establishment where the GPS announced “You have reached your destination.”

However, I knew the business was somewhere in the area, because I’d seen the sign from the freeway. So for a time, Mr. GPS played me the April Fool -- continuing to give me instructions to turn around and go in the direction where there was no such place, effectively sending me in circles. After a bit, I ignored the prompts, chose to drive in the opposite direction, look for the sign and finally located the building.

I don’t shop well when I’m tired and frustrated and, by then, I was tired, frustrated and hungry.

Once inside, I found they had the belt I was looking for but, of course, not in my size, so I settled -- which is never a good thing.

As soon as I drove away, I felt buyer's remorse, and knew I’d probably bring the belt back tomorrow.

Sure enough. After arriving back at the complex, pulling myself together, I went online, found and ordered an exact replica of the belt I had before. Tomorrow, I’ll be returning today's purchase; but at least now I know where the place is.

So here I am once again holding my breath the mail carrier gets it right.

To top it off, I saw a notation during checkout that the place I ordered the belt from does not ship to post office boxes. Assuming other businesses also protect themselves by shipping to addresses only, a box isn't going to be worth the expense.