Waiting for The Core

I spent all of September rereading Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle. That's four books of demon awesome. I planned my reading so that I would finish just before book five, The Core, came out on October 3rd.

On September 26th I got a shipping notification from Indigo saying my pre-ordered book was on its way. I was half way through The Skull Throne, so it was perfect. I'd get the book a bit early and be able to start reading it on Monday (I don't generally read on the weekends and I wanted a good stretch of uninterrupted time to read this).

Three days passed and the book, which started out in Toronto, which is where I live, hadn't been scanned at the Toronto depot yet or arrived at my home. Strange... Friday night I finally see an update. My package was scanned at the depot in Richmond, British Columbia. I live in Ontario. For some reason my package was sent to the other side of the country.

At this point I realize that if I'd just gone to a store to buy the book I'd have it already and my pre-order started to feel like a teasing punishment.

In order to send in a service ticket with Canada Post to figure out why my package was sent on a scenic detour, I needed the sender's postal code. So I called Indigo customer service where I was told they couldn't give out that information (really not sure why). The lady looked at the shipping info and was just as confused as I was as to why my package had been sent to BC. So she told me she could ship a replacement copy if I wanted (with the understanding that if both showed up I'd return one to a a store). I said sure, and she shipped copy 2.

Copy 2 was picked up on October 2nd, to be delivered on the 3rd. Yesterday I waited at home for my package. Usually my Indigo packages are just left at the door so I figured I'd have to wait for regular delivery, which comes around 4:30. Just after that I check the mail and find a pick-up slip for getting my package at a local post office on the 4th after 1pm. The mailman didn't even try to deliver the package, which it seems requires a signature (it was sent by a more expensive means than the other one) (ETA Got a message saying it's on its way to the post office today, so it may not have even been in the postal van).

Now, I know packages arrive at the post office the night the notices go out, so I tried calling in the evening on the off hope that it had been scanned there already. But I was told that their system was down and they couldn't do anything until tomorrow when their tech person could come and fix the problem.

So here we are, October 4th. Copy 1 is set to arrive today (will probably be left at my door), while I'm hoping to collect copy 2 at the post office just after 1pm. With any luck a few hours from now I'll be happily reading The Core. Assuming nothing else goes wrong...

Update:

At 1:30 I walked to the post office to learn that they'd JUST gotten their system running again. I handed in the notice and gave an approximate package size and the worker found it lickety split! I am now going to sit down and read this beautiful book (I mean, what a cover! I love that there's a second image under the dust jacket).

And at 2:30 copy 1 arrived at my door.