Yesterday morning when I blogged, I thought (notice I did not say "knew") that everything was under control.
It was a beautiful day, so worked outside a while, then decided to clean house. It would be nice for Jerry when he got home mid-afternoon to be clean. This time of year, cleaning is, at the very best, a minimum. So cleaned house.
The kids were scheduled to land in Pittsburgh at 1:00 p.m. I knew they would be tired because they flew all night.
I just sat down, at about 1:30 when the phone rang. Figured it was Jerry, letting me know they had landed safely.
Hello. "This is Alaska airlines, I need to speak with Gerald Dougherty".
He hasn't arrived at home yet, they just landed in Pittsburgh. Can I help you?
"You sure can. I am calling from O'Hare airport in Chicago. There are 4 boxes of fish sitting here, that are labeled "dry Ice" and we can't ship them on to Pittsburgh until we know how many pounds of dry ice are in each box."
Here I am, going back down the rabbit hole, again!
I told her I could call Jerry's cell, get the information and call her back. She gave me the number in Chicago to call.
Called Jerry. Told him about phone call. Asked him about the dry ice. He told me there was NO dry ice, the fish was flash frozen and packed in insulated boxes. The dry ice labels were in error. Great!!!
Told him I would get back to him. Called Chicago. Spoke with the nice, normal lady, told her about mis-labeling. She said good. The fish could be sent to Pittsburgh. I asked her when it would arrive. She told me the next flight to Pittsburgh would arrive in Pittsburgh at 6:40 p.m. As soon as she had it confirmed she would call me with the air line, flight number, and arrival time.
Back to Jerry. "What do you mean 6:40 p.m. That's over 4 hours." Like I had any control over this. "I'll see what I can arrange here."
The freezer is up and running - I checked it and it is very very cold inside. The house is clean. The guys are in Pittsburgh. The fish is in Chicago. I wonder how long it will stay frozen?
About 3:30 p.m. Mike and Jerry walk in. I asked about the fish. The airport was going to deliver it as soon as it arrived. If there were no more delays, it would still be frozen when it arrived. There was a total of 4 boxes, 50# of fish in each box, two for Jerry and two for Mike. No one knew if all 4 boxes would go to one address, or how it would be split up.
We might get all 4, Mike might get all 4, or each of them would get 2. I think they were considering joining me in the rabbit hole.
So the waiting game began. 6:40 p.m. arrived, so assumed the fish was being picked up for delivery. Should have it by 8:30 p.m. 8:30 came and went. 9:00 came and went. 9:30 came and went. No fish. No phone call. Maybe we can't get telephone reception here in the rabbit hole.
Jerry started making phone calls - we could call out - was finally informed that our "lost luggage" had been picked up at 8:30, along with a lot of other lost luggage. Total delivery time 2 - 4 hours. What happened to the 6:40 arrival?
10:30 came and went. 11:00 came and went. 11:30 came and went. We are pacing the floor. Is the fish still frozen, or will we have to bury it in the woods somewhere? At midnight - yes midnight - the delivery man came. We were his last delivery of the night.
Now if you have 4 boxes handed to you, along with 18 (he told us that) pieces of lost luggage, and the 4 boxes were labeled 'PERISHABLE' wouldn't you deliver that first? No we were the farthest from Pittsburgh, so we were last.
Now if it were me, I would do the farthest first - especially if marked perishable, and work my way back towards Pittsburgh. Then I would have a shorter drive home (he told me he lived in Pittsburgh).
We had called Mike that all 4 boxes were at our house, he said he would be over today to pick up his fish (at least some of it).
Now you have to do the math. The Monday fishing trip came in at noon. The fish had to be sent to the whatever for fileting, flash freezing and packing. The first two days of fishing were already frozen. They picked up the fish on their way to Anchorage, to catch the midnight flight to Pittsburgh. We get the fish at midnight last night - it had been AT LEAST 24 plus hours since the last fish had been frozen.
These are the containers that the fish were shipped in. They are packed in the styrofoam, then packed in boxes, labeled in red PERISHABLE
Our full freezer. Mike's fish is in the large box, ours in grocery bags. Makes it easier to get out just a few packages at a time and bring them upstairs to the refrigerator freezer.
Are we smart or what????? Probably the "what"!
So, how was your day yesterday? I hope I have seen the rabbit hole for the very last time. God Bless.
You are hysterical!!
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