Will I Ever Learn?

Will I ever learn? I mean seriously, will I?

Today I got a phone call from Julie at the courthouse switchboard telling me that a semi driver had arrived with three large things for the IT Department. Great news, so I headed out immediately.

When I got to the ground floor, sitting right outside the room where the switchboard is was a guy with some papers in his hand. Invoices or delivery papers of some kind I presumed. So I ask the guy if he had the boxes still on his truck.

He just looked at me. “The three boxes with computer equipment for the IT Department. Are you the guy who has those?” I asked. He said “No,” but he didn’t need to; the completely bewildered look on his face spoke volumes.

Next I went into the Drainage Department, where the switchboard is kept. There was Julie behind the desk with the phone. Something you need to know about Julie is that she is a ‘float.’ She is someone who works in different parts of the courthouse at all different times. Sometimes she covers an area for a day, sometimes just over a lunch break or fifteen minute break. She may be in the same office for an entire week, or she may not return there for a month. You just never know.

Any who, she’s at the switchboard when I walk in. “Where’s the delivery guy?” I asked her. She responds with “What delivery guy?”

Granted, she has a sense of humor and can pull your leg from time to time. After a minute or two, I realized with increasing horror that she wasn’t playing; she really had no clue what on Earth I was talking about. It wasn’t her that called.

Was someone playing a prank on me? Couldn’t be. We really were expecting three large boxes to arrive today, quite possibly by semi. No, this was real and I had no idea who called me or where my expensive boxes were at. Just great.

I wander outside and see a semi double-parked on Fifth Street, so I head in that direction. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe he’ll think I’m cracked too.
Good news though, this was my guy and the boxes were still on the truck. Apparently he went into the Sheriff’s Office to ask about where to deliver these things. Someone from there would have called me then.

I still don’t know who called me. It wasn’t Julie; she never works in the Sheriff’s Office but the voice on the phone sounded just like her.

You would think that after four years I would have learned to ask who I’m speaking to before I go tearing off. But maybe not.