From the Editor’s Desk: The Best Laid Plans (Premium)

Before returning to Pennsylvania after almost four months abroad, I made to-do and to-buy lists along with schedules for each. And then I made sure to schedule the purchases and some other items for delivery, like review laptops, so that they would arrive after we got home.

Everything arrived before we flew home. All of it.

And that can be a nightmare. Some of the items required a signature. Some were valuable enough that I didn't want them sitting out on our front porch, unattended. Some were, well, both.

One of our neighbors has a key and was collecting mail and the occasional package for us during our time away. She seemed happy to do this, and we didn't have many packages delivered during that time, at least. But this neighbor is also gone every weekend. She handled the couple of packages that arrived on Friday. But by the time Saturday rolled around--we were up at 5:00 am in Mexico City, with our flight leaving at 8:30 am--she was long gone.

And then the notifications started coming in.

"Today's the day!" a notification on my phone read as it appeared just after 8:00 am. "Items in [your] order should be delivered today."

Today? I looked up the order, which was from Apple. I had waited to make it until Friday because each day I'd looked at it before, it would have arrived too soon. But by the time I had finally ordered it, I was told it wouldn't arrive until May 5, which was the following Monday. And perfect timing.

I checked with my wife. Were we sure that our neighbor was away. Yep.

"Your shipment is out for delivery today," another notification read, popping up just minutes later. This one was from FedEx, and the shipment was from something called CEVA. "Estimated between 10:45 am and 12:45 pm."

CEVA? I Googled it and found it's a logistics company associated with FedEx, so that wouldn't tell me which company had shipped the package. But the address was in Carol Stream, Illinois. And that was familiar. It was Google. I had ordered a Samsung Galaxy S25+ from Google Fi. And that was supposed to arrive ... when? I looked. Tuesday, this time.

Hm.

I tried not to worry about this too much. We live in a little 55+ community of condos, or town houses, or whatever the heck they're called. We're the youngest people there, by far, and we're surrounded be elderly people. It's not exactly a high-theft area. But still. This was--calculating--$1600 worth of stuff that would be sitting out in front of the door, assuming they were delivered at all. The Google Fi package required a signature, so that might be held until Monday, in which case we would be home.

I texted my sister and brother-in-law, cognizant of a shared history with certain family members who are leeches and constantly take advantage. I'm not that kind of person, but I also very much do not want to even seem remotely like that person.

"Hey," I began, tentatively. "Are you guys home today, or is somebody there?"

My sister and her husband had been...