Come Monday...Going Postal (Almost)

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about,  websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

Around a month ago, I found myself in quite a tizzy over what I considered to be more poor service by our local mail carrier.  No, it was not the first time, and what was adding all the more to my constipation consternation was the thought of not being able to get in contact with anyone to hear my grievances.

You see, the main post office for Springfield, Missouri has made it rather difficult to just give them a call when there is a need to for quite some time, and if you have ever tried negotiating the USPS website maze, you should have some idea why there are very few answers to be found there.  That is, of course, unless you have a problem that exactly matches one of the millions of options given, and you do not mind making 19,237 steps to get to an answer.

In all fairness, it has been a while since I last tried negotiating the USPS website maze.  For once was more than enough for me, and it may be a whole lot easier now.  Yeah, I still like being an optimist from time to time.

Speaking of such, I started ringing numbers that were listed for anything even remotely related to our local post office(s) after finding that the main listed number is now to an automated service with instructions on how to obtain a passport, which could sure be considered as encouragement on leaving this country while the getting is good to less than patriotic sorts.  Lo and behold, a real person answered on my third or fourth try, and he kindly gave me the number to the office that handles customer complaints in the area!

It was without further ado that I dialed the number, and I was quite shocked to hear the lovely voice of real lady (in every sense of the word) asking how she could help me.  I then proceeded to tell her, and I must say that I should be highly commended for the amount of restraint I employed.  For Arlynda had already threw a blanket over me to keep the foam coming off of the corners of my mouth from soaking everything within 20 feet of my chair, and I was quite prepared to hear black helicopters hovering overheard before I finished expressing my concerns.

Anyway, the main thing this time was not finding the really cool laminated card I had made to put on the outside of our mail box to let our mail carrier know when we had outgoing mail.  For the mail box that has been by our front door since we bought the place does not have a flag/swing arm to indicate having outgoing mail inside, and I made the card after our mail carrier failed to check for outgoing mail a few times in the past.

Now, I have found my precious card lying on the ground several times, but this time, it appeared to be gone for good.  Since we have had 5-6 different mail carriers lately, I felt compelled to make it clear to the nice lady that I could not be sure which one had actually took off with my card, and it was around then that it was pointed out to me that it was lying on top of our two outgoing letters on a shelf next to my chair.

It is at this time that I would like to point out that our Heavenly Father could have been a lot more helpful with defusing the situation long before He did.  For it was not until after He showed me where my precious outgoing mail card was that He explained that my mother-in-law had went out to bring in the mail a good two hours before our mail carrier usually comes by, and that she had simply brought back into the house what I had put out a few hours beforehand.

Be assured that I started apologizing profusely to the nice lady at the post office when it was all made clear unto me that our mail carrier was not involved in any heist of my precious outgoing mail card, and she was very gracious in expressing her understanding.  Then she told me something that shook me to the core, which is that urban mail carriers are NOT required to pick up outgoing mail from residential addresses.

Be assured that it literally left me reeling.  For I have spent most of my life out in the country, where residential/business mail boxes have a flag/swing arm on their side to be put up when one has an outgoing piece of mail to be picked up by their assigned mail carrier.  In fact, I cannot recall ever having a piece of outgoing mail not picked up until we moved to our present address, and we have lived within the city limits of Springfield for the past 15 years or so.

As it was explained to me, the most likely reason why our past outgoing mail had been picked up was on account of us having incoming mail, along with the kindness of our mail carrier at the time.  For they can pick up outgoing mail from residential addresses if they want to.

Oh, I just had to tell [Adullamite] about this.  For he is a retired British mail carrier, and I was quite sure that he would get a big kick out of learning something else to poke fun at America about.

Well, the joke was still on me.  For he informed me that British mail carriers are not required to pick up outgoing mail from residential addresses—regardless of where they may be!

Come on now, am I being unreasonable to expect mail pick up to be an essential part of postal service?  Yes, I can see where it would not be a big deal for those who can get out and about.  In fact, there have been times when I have felt much better about dropping a really important piece of mail off at the post office or one of their established drop-off locations, but now that we are both practically housebound, doing so poses quite a challenge at times.  Yeah, my appreciation for email has grown by leaps and bounds.

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]