Thursday, June 07, 2007

Over-reacting or a Sign of the Times

There once was a time when I knew one thing for certain. The mail would come, usually with bills. I could always expect that somewhere between 11:00am and 5:30pm the little old mail truck would swing by my mailbox. It was almost comforting to know they were coming. Sometimes I felt that I could almost tell what time it was because of when the mail came. Once in a while a truck would break down or for some unknown reason the mail would be very late. Since being in Houston I can say, other than during Allison, the mail got to it's appointed rounds. I only had a couple of occasions when the mail was delivered after 5:00 in the afternoon. That is until now. All this week our mail has been coming later and later. One day it was after 6:00pm when it came. Then it continued to get later. One day I checked and finally got the mail around 7:30 after walking to the mailbox nearly every hour since 2 in the afternoon. Yesterday the mail finally came after 8:30 at night.

Maybe there is a new mailperson running the route. Maybe the truck broke down again and again. Maybe equipment at the substations was not working. Maybe the US Postal Service doesn't have enough employees to handle the load of a growing city like Houston. I don't know. Maybe I am just hypersensitive. Maybe it is a sign of the times. Yet another government service that is falling down on it's responsibilities. I should remain positive. I will surely get my mail by 4:00pm today, or maybe 9:00pm.

2 comments:

cube said...

Getting your mail in the dark puts you at risk for mail theft.

Ron Franscell said...

Lately, it seems I've gotten an unusual volume of mail returned to me stamped "No Such Address" ... when the address on the label is correct!

I've also noticed an erratic delivery schedule. You're probably not old enough to remember -- but I am at 50 -- when the postman delivered TWICE a day. Now, the once seems to be just this side of "iffy."

And I wonder why the US Postal service takes off every conceivable holiday? What's next? No delivery of "National Air Compressor Day"?