The FedEx saga continues

Regular readers (all 5 of you) may remember last week's unsuccessful attempt to ship some of our bacteria to London.  FedEx returned our package to us because we hadn't met all their stringent requirements for infections bacteria.

This afternoon we went back to Shipping and Receiving with all the new correct FedEx paperwork and our 24 vials of bacterial cells.  The vials were in a plastic box, in a special leakproof container, in this container's specially labeled cardboard carton, in a big styrofoam container for the dry ice, in a very big cardboard box labeled OVERPACK.

Only to learn that Shipping and Receiving had run out of dry ice! 

It was too late to rush over to Chemistry Stores to get dry ice, as we'd miss the FedEx pickup time.  I briefly considered finding an open-late FedEx office and hand-delivering the package to them.  This would have involved sending someone over to Chemistry Stores to get the dry ice while I rode my bike home (5 miles) to get my car.  But then I remembered that I'm probably not authorized to even touch this hazardous-goods shipment, much less drive it around town.

Shipping and Receiving won't have dry ice until the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow one of us will go over to Chemistry Stores and get the dry ice we need, and we'll try yet again to get the shipment on its way to London.