I need to let off some steam here. I ordered a huge lovely oncidium from an ebay orchid vendor known to many of us here-- I will not mention the vendors because he did the best job he could under the circumstances and I hold him guiltless (except for one area which I will enumerate below). I ordered the orchid on the 27th of November and the entire USA was warm and lovely. A storm was brewing in Canada but (I thought) we still had a good week of clear weather. Little did I realize that the vendor would not mail till the first of the next week when the bad weather was starting. That's okay, I thought, it would get here as long as it is by Wednesday, 3 days after it was sent.
Nope! the Orchid gods did not look down favorably upon me. The tracking at the on-line USPS tracking ends with the 3rd of November. For 3 days the truck or whatever it has been on has been absolutely silent, not coming into depots, not doing any postal business worthy of "tracking."
In the mean time a major storm has come through and the weather is now freezing at night, and pretty cold during the day.
My poor orchid! I see it dead of freezer burn, a horrible mushy mess of wilted greens! It had lots of bulbs, It had to be at least 10 years old! I am so darned angry at the Post office and I am a bit miffed at the famous orchid vendor for not looking at a weather map and shipping my orchid just a few days earlier.
I wrote him an e-mail and he said no doubt it would arrive today. Friday the 6th. Nope. No mail at our house. The package according to USPS Tracking has not moved. It is still in Wisconsin, not moving.
I will never allow the USPS to ever again get ahold of any orchid I buy online.
I see this as my fault and my fault alone. I should have known better. No more online orchid purchases in late fall.
I will be surprised if the orchid arrives alive when it does. I am fuming and sad at the same time! Just pffft. Yech. Errrggg!
