Paranormal World |Negative synchronicity

Once again I’ve been neglecting this blog, again because of  efforts connected with my coming book, Autism Dreaming. But this is a story about another book.

In the past 20 years I’ve probably bought 50 books from Amazon, and all of them without a glitch. Then came this book, the most important one to me of them all.

Because my mail box in the apartment building I live in would be too small for the book, I asked Amazon to provide me with an alternative pick-up location. They directed me to the post office on Main St here in town, which worked for me once before.

But in this case the post office staff insisted, day after day (I was there in person), that they didn’t have it. Then I received notice from Amazon that the package had been returned because it was no one had appeared to pick it up.

So I ordered it again, this time directing it to an Amazon drop location in Toronto, which I used several times when I was still living there. Amazon’s computer system disagreed with me about the address I gave for it, and replaced it with another. Since that looked very similar, I assumed the computer knew better than me what the correct address was, so accepted that.

Then I began to get phone messages from a courier driver in Toronto, telling me that he was “unable to get into my building.” Since the drop box I referred to above was outside, I knew something else had gone wrong. It took us a few days to connect and get the book returned a second time.

Then I tried having the book delivered to my apt, which when the post office delivery worker found it wouldn’t fit in my mail box, should have generated a message from the post office that they had a package for me. This has worked before. This time though, the book was returned to Amazon with no one consulting me.

Then I searched Amazon again and found that they have a second pick-up location in Listowel – a small computer shop next to a supermarket I use, and within easy walking distance of me. Perfect I thought.

Well I received an email from Amazon advising me that the book had arrived at the shop. When I went to the shop to pick it up, the package was sitting on the shelf, waiting for me, my name on it, but the troubles weren’t over yet.

The store’s rep informed me that I needed a code that Amazon would have sent to me with the email notifying me of its arrival. We checked my email to see if it was there – no it wasn’t. We then called Amazon and asked them to provide me with a code. I forget what the excuse was, but it only came after we had been transferred to times to different people.

The Amazon rep insisted that I had to have a code, but he couldn’t give me one. The only solution, he claimed, was that the package be returned to them, and he would see that I could re-order it with no charge for shipping.

The book inside its package was sitting on the counter in front of me. I told the Amazon rep that if they book was returned I was going to buy it from someone other than Amazon. He started to argue with me some more, then I hung up.

The store rep then told me that he considered this ridiculous and he was going to give me the book and then work out the problem with Amazon. I thanked him, then, over an hour since I had entered the store, left with my package.

Yes, this is what I call negative synchronicity. Unfortunately, it is not something new to me. This mysterious world can be mysteriously contrary.

Was there anything special about this book? Well, yes. It was written by my daughter, who, unlike me, an ‘indie’ self-published writer since 2006, has managed to get her first book published through a subsidiary of Random House/Penguin, the biggest publisher in the world I believe.

It’s a good book too. In my next post I’m going to do a review of it for you.