Mystery Solved
Bad timing but with a happy ending.
A friend and fellow Suzuki motorcycle fan in France had a simple request. He found a rare part for sale on eBay for his Suzuki street bike, a Suzuki T500 Brake Cable, but the seller was quoting a too high shipping cost. I sometimes help my friend in situations like these when domestic sellers choose not to sell to overseas buyers or other problems. No problem my friend!
So I contacted the seller, purchased the rear brake cable and in a bizarre sequence, Covid-19 became a Big Problem overnight it seemed although it was bubbling below the surface at least as far as everyday folk knew, like me. Not that I hadn't been aware of the potential or even had discussions about the problem in China with folks like my dentist, at a much earlier date, but had no clue it had reached our shores.
I received the part in the mail from the seller and immediately mailed it at the local post office to my friend after completing the USPS Customs Declaration And Dispatch Note as I had done before. The problem was the timing - this was as many institutions and services were shutting down or implementing new procedures for Covid-19. I remember going to the Post Office, nearly deserted and not seeing my usual helpful post office worker behind the desk, it just seemed very odd.
When I returned home I emailed the package tracking number so my friend could follow it's route. Unfortunately, after leaving LaGuardia International Airport, the next notification was it was in Stockholm, Sweden. This seemed odd to me but after communicating with my friend we assume the plane and it's content were diverted because of the quarantines being instituted. It was just a guess, but what happened next was more confusing ... NOTHING.
Everytime i returned to check the package tracking number, it was still in Stockholm. There was nothing to be done, my Postal Service does not have reponsibility once it leaves the USA, whether the package is bound for Canada, Europe, or any other place. In May I offered to return my friends payment he sent, but he wasn't interested and instead said the best thing to do was wait. Perhaps he had a better sense of what was happening throughout Europe.
Then one day I am checking Facebook and I have a notification from my friend. @ August 24th, the package was delivered! I repeat, after almost 5 months. I breathed a sigh of relief as it had been bugging me that I did something wrong because of the stress that Covid -19 was putting on everyone and every service. But in the end, the delay was just a delay and the process worked ;-)
