iPhone Day (Premium)

You can't make this stuff up. All you can do is tell the tale.

Weeks ago, my wife and I looked at the spare time we had between then and a September 30 flight--to Dallas for a work event on the way to Mexico City for six weeks--so we could schedule a few things before that trip. We picked this weekend to drive up to Rochester, New York to visit our son. Since then, Apple held its "Glowtime" event, and announced the iPhone 16 series handsets and some other new hardware. I preordered a iPhone 16 Pro Max. Which was set to arrive today, Friday, September 20. The same day we'd already scheduled for our drive to Rochester. Of course.

I told her about the mishap, silently hoping she hadn't planned anything important for that night. She reacted better than expected. Hopefully, the iPhone would arrive earlier, ideally the previous day, I suggested, hopefully. But even if it arrived late in the day, I promised her we'd still drive up then, and that the most we'd miss would be a potential dinner on Friday night. As the day got closer, I checked with UPS My Choice for a clue about the delivery time. And when it came, the news was as expected: The iPhone would arrive on Friday, of course, no chance of that miracle happening, and it would arrive late in the day, between 1:15 and 4:15 pm.

Here's the problem: At our current home, we're at the tail end of whatever UPS route delivers here. So where I used to get UPS deliveries early in the morning at our two previous homes in Pennsylvania--the house we lived in for six years and the apartment we lived in for most of 2023--they arrive late in the day here. Sometimes really late. This has screwed up more than one evening out in the past. So I wasn't at all hopeful.

This morning, D-Day, er, iPhone day arrived. I woke up and got to work. I wrote Ask Paul as usual, but I also checked the news from time-to-time because Laurent has the day off. I kept an eye on UPS My Choice just in case, seeing that the iPhone had arrived in nearby Bethlehem, PA at 6:51 am and was on the truck for delivery before 9:30 am. My wife packed. I did Duolingo so I wouldn't need to worry about it later in the day. And when lunch arrived, I headed out to pick something up, as I do on Friday's, asking my wife to look out for UPS. You never know. Maybe it was a big enough day that they deployed extra trucks and the delivery would be at an usual time. I suggested, hopefully.

I drove to the place, grabbed the food, drove back home, and pulled into the garage. And then, getting out of the car, it happened.

I heard the loud BEEP BEEP BEEP-BEEP signaling that UPS had arrived, like Santa riding in his sleigh on Christmas morning. I told this story on this past week's Windows Weekly, but the UPS driver has me trained in a Pavlovian way (a Paulovian way, if you will) to come running outside when he beeps, saving him from having to get off the truck, and I'm happy to oblige given how many packages we get. But this was unusually good...