My first errand came from a call on a Friday



night about 6:00 pm to my newly formed business,

Emerald Coast Errand Service. The caller said

they needed some grocery shopping done and that

they had just arrived in town and were staying at

White Cliffs condos in Santa Rosa Beach, a town

about 12 miles from me. (Little did I know that

this errand was more like 25 miles from me almost

to Panama City Beach) The woman caller said that

they needed this errand service done by 8:00 as

they were going to an important function at that

time. I figured "no sweat" thinking that the

errand was only 12 miles away and a Winn-Dixie

store was right up the street from me where I

could buy the groceries for this errand service

run and I assured her that I could get the errand

done by the 8:00 pm deadline. The caller said

that it was important that I meet the deadline

for the errand and gave me directions to the

White Cliffs condos I was to go up 30 A to a

white wall and a White Cliffs condo sign. Here

again, I was thinking she was talking about the

Santa Rosa Beach and Hwy 289 intersection. Which

was wrong by about 10 miles of two lane beach

road to get the groceries delivered from this

grocery shopping errand.

It was now time to take down the shopping list

for the errand run from her. It went something

like this: 3/4 lb. sliced roasted turkey breast

from the Deli; 1 small pack of sliced cheese

individually warped; 4 apples; 3 or 4 bananas; 1

loaf of whole wheat bread; 1 small Hellman's

mayonnaise; 1 six pack of Miller Light in the

bottles; 1 small Entenmann's coffee cake; and 1

half gallon of 2% milk. I took all of this list

down making sure I wrote the details so I would

be sure to do this grocery shopping errand right.

I was a little nervous it being my first errand.

I hung up and was enthusiastically off to Winn-

Dixie to shop for my first errand service job.

Time was short so I hurried, grouping the items

in my mind as to where they were in the store so

as to save me time by not having to go up and

down too many isles, but there was one thing I

could not hurry and that was the deli. Guess

what, there was a line at the deli so I was held

up to get the turkey breast. Even so, I still

finished the shopping part of this errand at 7:10

pm which (I thought) gave me plenty of time to

get to Santa Rosa Beach by the 8:00 pm deadline

for the errand service run. I zipped up Hwy 98

and turned right at the intersection of 289 then

about 2 miles and turned left on Hwy 30 A looking

intently on the right for a White Wall and a

White Cliffs sign. It was about 7:55 and I

thought I was going to be able to finish this

errand service run on time, or not more than 5

minutes late.

This is when I decided to call and tell them

where I was. When I told her where I was on 30 A,

she was upset and said that I had about 10 more

miles to go. Where this White Cliffs was would

not have been called Santa Rosa Beach by anybody

who lives around here and this was the biggest

part of the mix up that happened on my first

errand service run. If I had known this fact at

the beginning when we were first talking on the

phone, I would have told her that there was of

course no way that I could have shopped for the

errand and got to her before 8:00 pm. I told her

that I had just passed Criolla's restaurant on 30

A and I heard a guy's voice in the background

saying to go back to Criolla's and he would meet

me there to pick up the groceries. I was now

sorry I had misunderstood where they were located

in the beginning when I first accepted the errand

service job. It was embarrassing that this my

first errand was turning out so wrong. As I

waited for the guy to come to Criolla's parking

lot I looked at my watch and it was now 8:40 pm

and I was feeling quite self conscious the way

the errand was turning out. About that time the

guy turned into Criolla's parking lot. I was

standing at the back of my SUV and waived at him

and he saw me. Here is another embarrassing

thing that happened the night of my first errand

for my errand service. In all of this hustle and

bustle, I had forgotten all about change if a

customer paid cash with large bills. I had

hastily prepared an invoice showing the charges

for the errand. $68.50 for the groceries and two

hours for my errand service $60.00 for a total of

$128.50. After we "both" had loaded the

groceries into his car from mine, he remarked

that I had bought his favortie kind of Entenmann'

s cake and asked me how much it was and I told

him $128.50 including the groceries and forgot to

give him the invoice I had prepared, but did give

him the receipt for the grocery part of the

errand. He said all he had was $100.00 bills. I

was sort of red faced and told him I did not have

any change but could write him a check. However

I did look into my wallet and found a fifty

dollar bill. I do not usually carry large bills

and sometimes not even as much as $50.00 on me at

times. It seemed like God was looking out for me

because this particular night there was one $50.

00 bill in my wallet. I gave him the fifty

dollar bill and he said that he guessed that it

would have to do for the change. I again offered

to write him a check, but he said no. So, I

ended up with a $21.50 tip. And so ends the story

of my first errand with my very own errand

service.

About the author: Rodney Powell is the owner of

Emerald Coast Errand Service.

What is an Errand Service?

An errand service takes care of the details and

does all the chores that you do not have the time

to do for yourself, including the ones you don't

do and let build up that put pressure on you. We

do the all the actual running around. We will go

to the grocery store and shop for you. Stand in

line for you and get your new car tag. Pick up

gifts for others that you know what you want to

get for but can't take time to go and shop for.

In short, we are your extra hand.