I love the ol’ hub and spoke paradigm [1] for transporting things places. I mean, seriously, it is the most efficient methods of routing in that all points can be connected with the (number of points) minus one routes. All points can be reached in no more than two jumps. Totally efficient.
Except when it isn’t. For example, a shiny bauble I ordered is being shipped from Commerce City, CO (Denver) to Council Bluffs, IA. The shipping manifest so far looks like this:
| Location | Date | Time | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Des Moines, IA, United States | 05/30/2014 | 11:15 A.M. | Arrival Scan |
| Omaha, NE, United States | 05/30/2014 | 8:41 A.M. | Departure Scan |
| 05/30/2014 | 7:18 A.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| North Platte, NE, United States | 05/30/2014 | 3:17 A.M. | Departure Scan |
| 05/30/2014 | 2:19 A.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| Commerce City, CO, United States | 05/29/2014 | 9:35 P.M. | Departure Scan |
| 05/29/2014 | 7:24 P.M. | Origin Scan |
Now, then, the damn thing passed through Omaha at roughly the same time I was driving to work. I probably passed it on the Interstate. Council Bluffs is exactly the same thing as Omaha as far as UPS is concerned. Dump the damn thing off the truck here and get it on a delivery vehicle so I can play with it!
Instead, it traveled on to Des Moines. It’s probably on its way to Kansas City now, from which it will be shipped to back to Omaha where it will be removed from the truck this time and delivered to me. Hopefully. Perhaps it will make yet another trip around the Midwest first. Or maybe it will go off visiting the Southeast. I hear it isn’t too humid out that way yet.
All of this is really just a whinge because I want my shiny bauble now, not Monday. Why couldn’t they have just thrown it off the truck while it was here? If it was just passing through, don’t tell me about it on the package tracking page.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-hub_distribution_paradigm
Instead of going out on tour, it just returned to Omaha. So if you ever want to get from Denver to Council Bluffs, remember to stop through Des Moines. I hear it’s really nice this time of year.