After leaving you with the Krampus yesterday, I’ll give you a light note today.  🙂

Back in the day, people used to write “S.A.G.” on the back of envelopes or other mailings to invoke St. Anthony of Padua’s intercession for safe mail delivery.  An explanation for this is found here.  So I  thought of him immediately when I read the following notice from an online retailer I had recently patronized:

Thank you for your recent order. Due to longer than usual order processing times at our delivery center, your order has been delayed. In an effort to speed things along, we’ve upgraded your package to UPS 3rd Day at no cost to you…. We anticipate that you will receive your order Thursday, December 15th.

Big deal, you think.  You’ll still get it in time for Christmas.  Well, that is true, but this order is the Angel Tree gifts that I ordered online as I knew it wasn’t going to be terribly easy to make it to the big box store prior to the deadline (or if I did make it there, I didn’t want to make junk decisions based on the dwindling timeframe–those kids deserve better).   So I remembered St. Anthony, and although I felt sheepish asking him (sometimes I think if a saint could get annoyed, he’d be justified for all times we bug him looking for lost things), I did anyway.  I said: “Ok, St. Anthony, this is a little crazy asking you to deliver my shopping order, but you know and I know what this is for, and you know I need it by the 11th.  So if you could do anything, I’d be grateful.”

Yesterday we notified you that due to longer than usual order processing times at our delivery center, your order had been delayed. That notification informed you that you could expect to receive your order on Thursday, December 15.  We’d like to inform you that the email was incorrect.  Your order has been upgraded at no additional charge to UPS 3rd Day and has an estimated delivery date of Thursday, December 8.