Going Postal
So...if lunchtime is the busiest time of the day for the post office (or one of them, at least) and this can be discerned somewhat by the number of cars lined up in the driveway waiting for parking spots, and the line inside the post office seems to commonly be twelve people deep...and there are two people in back sorting mail (which, I agree, is at least a two person job) and only one person on the desk, wouldn't it make sense to put two people on the desk just from, say, 11:30 am to 1:00 p.m.?
I keep opting not to park in the church parking lot...mainly because there's a sign that asks me not to and, try as I could, I could not find any fine print that said: unless you're a Block Island resident, a registered church member, or somebody in a hurry. So I sit in line with the rest of the Connecticuts, Massachusetts and New Yorks because my husband comes home for lunch and it's easier for me to run to the post office and Depot without the baby (makes carrying milk and the mail a little easier, at least). I always check to see who's parked in the handicapped spot...very rarely do I ever see the little thingy hanging from their rearview mirror or on their license plate. Once I did see a wheelchair placard hanging from the rearview mirror, but the elderly driver was sitting in the driver's seat waiting for her teen-aged grandson or great-grandson to come out with her mail...Anyway, we all know that there's almost always that person who parks there because they're only going to be a minute...while everybody else intends to have lunch there or what? And there's the white truck - don't know if it's the same white truck - that twice this week now has parked parallel to the curb three feet east of the outside mail box. Besides illegal, it's also stupid. I'm not 100% positive, but I could have sworn the dent in the back right side of the truck that I saw when I exited the post office wasn't there when I entered. And, of course, there's the people who park in any spot that doesn't say 15 minute parking only and get out to go to Ballard's, or the breakfast joint, or shopping in town, etc. But what 'cha gonna do, right?
My personal favorite today was the cute young thing who was standing evenly with the sign in the post office that says "please refrain from cell phone use while inside the post office" as she chatted away on her cell phone about whether or not she was going to have a bagel. Listen, if I want to listen to some adolescent have boring conversation on a phone, I'll stay home, okay?
That's one of the few things I look forward to in regards of my move. I will receive my mail directly at my door and in the summer, I will still receive my mail directly at my door. Then again, I won't get the chance to catch up with anybody. Then again then again, I won't know anybody to need the chance to catch up.
*sigh*
posted by The Warbler | 7/11/2005 09:26:00 PM
5 Comments:
Why don't we have our mail delivered? I've heard tell of great feats performed by them thar postal employees over on the "Main Land." I hear folks livin' over there get their mail delivered everyday, right to their mailbox.
Will wonders never cease.
(Sorry , I was channeling Adrian.)
It seems to me that I pay federal taxes. It seems to me that the Island has enough mail coming in to justify at home mail delivery. (And for once this isn't a town related issue.) Who do I contact? The Postmaster General. Why should my Grandma's stamp not provide the same service whether affixed to a birthday card for me or my cousin in CT? (I don't really have any cousins in CT.)
Now that would alleviate some traffic in town!
Expanding that note...you know why Postal Trucks have the steering wheels on the wrong side? For Rural Route Delivery.
But then we'd actually have to have addresses and such and then it DOES become a town issue, doesn't it? *sigh again* bureaucracy...can't live with it, can't seem to live without it.
Cluster boxes may work, also. Those are shiny boxes on the side of the road and you get a key and you don't have to go to the P.O. except for large boxes. It seems to be working for me in our new digs on our Island. Maybe downtown, Corn Neck, New Harbor, and strategically on the lower and west side.
There may be a problem in the transition - you don't have "real" addresses on the Island, do you? I seem to recall fire numbers or P.O. boxes. -Sam
Ah, my husband the Islander, has pointed out to me that if I really DO wish to receive hate mail and veiled threats, all I have to do is suggest people give up their fire numbers. Apparently there are folks out here who would sooner give up their kids than their fire numbers.
I know some of those kids...I think it's a toss up.
I could never understand the love affair with fire numbers ... and those must have been some really stinky kids! What's the deal with those fire numbers, besides for calling fire and EMS? It doesn't matter, though. The problem in our little town was that the addresses became too long, as in:
Sam Wells
Route Cluster Box A (Lantana)
P.O. Box #1
South Padre Island, TX 78597
So they went for a physical address with a street (or fire number, I suppose) and redirected the mail to the appropriate box. The transition was bad, though, because the poor postal worker has to remember TWO addresses, the new and the old, and seemed to mess up half the time (unless you were good friends and the worker wasn't "going postal" that day).
This is bad is you're a freelance worker that depends on checks coming in the mail. Gosh do I love direct deposit!
~Sam
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