The Insanity of the United States Postal Service

Quote: Evenbob

My PO attempts delivery 5 times, then they
stop trying. They hold all your mail till you
come and get it. I know this because for
decades that was me. My box is on a corner
that always got plowed under, they would
bury the box. They told me at the PO what
the procedure was, which was fine with
me. The PO is 4 miles away, go there once
a week and pick it up.

Huh. I wonder if that's official policy, that particular office's policy, or what? I was never given any guidelines about holding mail (which isn't surprising, because I've gotten no guidance on anything ever at this place =p)

A lady did find me on my route Saturday and asked what to do because her box got wasted by the plow. I just told her I'd keep bringing the mail; if it's up, it goes in, if not, I take it back. A situation or an individual like that, it doesn't even register as a negative to me. Just part of the job.

2241 WB Lane, though,... no. He gets no quarter. I'll bundle up his s#$% and toss it on his roof for him, I'll do that. But that's about as far as I'll work for his ass =p

Kind of slick of you. You basically got a PO box without having to pay for it lol

Quote: Face

Kind of slick of you. You basically got a PO box without having to pay for it lol

They told me the carrier doesn't have room
to carry around mail he knows he can't deliver.
I bet you can do the same. Ask them.

Quote: Face

Just no. I ain't doing it. If it ain't cleared tomorrow, he's going on hold, I ain't telling no one, and I ain't labeling s#$%. And when he comes for his mail, no one will know and no one will find it. Make him waste some of his own precious time. If someone remembers to tell me, I'll get it to him the next day. If not, then he'll just wait. Maybe a couple late fees on his bills will set him straight =p

This may sound crazy, and much more than anyone would expect from a postal worker, but did you mention to the guy that if his box isn't cleared he will have to pick his mail up at the P.O.?

Quote: DRich

This may sound crazy, and much more than anyone would expect from a postal worker, but did you mention to the guy that if his box isn't cleared he will have to pick his mail up at the P.O.?

They leave a tag on my box that says
no more attempted deliveries until
it's cleared out. Fine with me. It's
a pre printed USPS tag, so it must
be a problem everywhere.

Quote: DRich

This may sound crazy, and much more than anyone would expect from a postal worker, but did you mention to the guy that if his box isn't cleared he will have to pick his mail up at the P.O.?

Well, if I was gonna get out of the truck to tell him, I'd save myself the time and just get out and deliver his mail =p

There are cards, as EB offered. We got cards for everything. Your dog is too aggressive, your box is too low/high/far back, your walkway isn't safe, your box is damaged/dangerous. But again, the card has to go into the box, and getting to the box is the issue. I know that, long term, it'd save us both stress by just telling him. But I just... Don't... Want to.

I dunno, man. Some things just set me off. Like, I got a guy on my route, all crippled up. When I have a certified and need a sig, it takes him a lunar month to answer the door. But I still wait, still greet him with pleasantries. It's my 5th stop of the route, 5 out of 800+. My truck ain't warm, I ain't warm, but I'm cool. I even place his packages just-so, so his crippled ass doesn't have to work too hard to retrieve them. My pleasure. People find me on my route and want their mail now; I lay in the middle of the GD street and dig all the way to the bottom tray just so they can get their SS check and be on their way. Only got surly to one person one time, because she's a miserable bitch. Otherwise, happy to help. An old lady (60+) was stuck in her driveway yesterday. I skipped 7 boxes just to rush to her so she'd stop flogging her new car's tranny, and I pushed her ass out myself. Happy to help.

But this dude... I just can't. He's no ignorant 20something that just left the nest. He's not a cripple, not with that snowmobile he's riding. New Ram BigHorn in the drive, dude works and has money. I saw him shoveling, he saw me get stuck in his neighbor's mound. He's an able bodied, self reliant, capable dude, just like me. He just happened to leave a heaping s#$% pile right in front of his box.

Dunno, man. I just can't. If it makes you feel better (or saves my reputation), it got real cold last night / today and everything froze. I blasted into and over the mound this morning and he now has his mail. 1 down, about 4 to go =p

Not SS check, the gov't stopped issuing
paper checks in 2012. Everything is direct
deposit now. My SS is downloaded onto
a debit card issued by the gov't, very
convenient. My military son has direct deposit,
there are no other options.

Quote: Evenbob

Not SS check, the gov't stopped issuing
paper checks in 2012. Everything is direct
deposit now. My SS is downloaded onto
a debit card issued by the gov't, very
convenient. My military son has direct deposit,
there are no other options.

I think we can all see he was talking figuratively.

Quote: AZDuffman

I think we can all see he was talking figuratively.

Not allowed.

Oy vey. Someone tried getting me in trouble a few days back. They video taped "me" and everything, then brought it to the PO to complain. I put "me" in quotations because the actions that were being filmed ( the carrier getting out and walking box to box to fix a mistake), isn't something I ever have or would do. I turn the truck around and drive to them, hell with walking up and down the street. But anyways... who the f#$% cares that much that they'll sit, wait, and then video, just to show that a carrier made a simple, honest mistake? And the guy is a retired carrier to boot! Wtf is wrong with people? What a weird job...

But that aside, it looks like I'm in the clear for the next 10 months. Mail volume is still high, but after December (which, seriously, was like the 13th Labor of Heracles =p), even a busy day seems easy. I got stuck with 4 bundles the other day. That extra bundle, just those three extra seconds, winds up equating to 3 whole hours on the route. It also means that on top of all the physicality that mail already takes, I now have to do 681 sit ups on top of it. But even still, a "disaster" day like that found me finishing up at a totally reasonable 4p. I've made it, and at least for the next 300 days, I should have steady, reasonable, even enjoyable employment.

But all this isn't why I'm here. It's OT, but I just gotta boast to someone =D

When I divorced in 2012, and after the dust all settled, I was looking a $30k debt right in the eye. All of the work and struggle to make a life went up in a 4 month cloud of smoke, and 12 years washed right down the tubes. After all of that, all I was left with was my truck, my boat, one Glock, and a $30,000 bill for it all. I was in a bad way. I remember I literally had enough money for gas, food, and smokes, and that was completely it. If I had a hockey game, that $12 or so in gas went onto the debt. $3 for tape, $5 for a sharpening, onto the debt. If I wanted to eat twice that day instead of once, it went on the debt. I remember trying to take my kid out for burgers and curly fries at the local diner and having my CC denied. I remember the pain of trying to explain to a 3yr old why dad said we could go and now we can't. I remember watching him open Xmas gifts my parents had bought, because dad had nothing. I remember splitting an entire, 30' tall maple by hand, using nothing but a maul, just to afford some triviality no one would typically ever worry about. I remember that struggle.

I remember the financial freedom after we finally sold our marital house. No longer did I have to pay mortgage, electric, heat, and water for a house I hadn't lived in for 9 months. I was still broke; I had $30k+ still on the tab. But just the act of not going further into debt made me feel the richest man in the county.

I remember thinking that after my kid, debt was now my job. I remember thinking it would take 5+ years to erase it, and that's only if I enjoyed the amazing employment I currently had. Disaster was always "right there", but, for some reason, it never got to me. I put my head down somewhere around May of '12, and all this time... I never really picked it back up.

I remember this last year. I remember sitting in wonder at how I was making it work making what was, in essence, a yearly salary of $15k. I remember the days of not eating, or eating the cold scraps my kid left behind. I remember paying for things in change, or speeding home at 70mph just so I had enough time to redeem my beer cans so I had enough money to get my kid into the races that I promised him. Lol, I remember beer as a food. It has a lot of calories and is cheap; we do what we gotta do. I remember seeing "food", just in case. Worms on a rain soaked driveway, a mess of squirrels in a particular patch of wood, thinking that 2 crows has to equal one Cornish hen, and one Cornish hen was a good 3 days worth of sustenance. Lots of "outs" like that, just in case it came to it.

I remember the reevaluation. I remember watching the mail and wondering what people do with their money. I remember recalculating what makes me happy, and whether that thing was worth the monetary expenditure. Was $12 for a new track in my racing sim going to give me $12 of "happiness"? What do I get from the ~$15 it takes to go to hockey? Is it worth it? Where can I find value I overlooked, and what am I doing that's pissing money out the window? I don't need to wash clothes or even myself that often, I don't need it this warm in the house, I don't need lights that bad.

Here I am. It's been 4 years almost to the very day. I haven't cut the check because, the way my luck has been for the last 18 months+, I don't trust not having a few hundred as a safety net. But in 5 more days when I get paid again, I will be cutting a check. And I, *ahem*, WILL BE COMPLETELY DEBT FREE!!!11! No truck payment, no personal loan, no credit cards, no nothing. My monthly bills are about to drop from ~$1,000 to just $3XX.

I did it. I f#$%ing did it.

Quote: Face

\ My monthly bills are about to drop from ~$1,000 to just $3XX.

Congrats Face. I couldn't even imagine only having bills of $1000 a month let alone $300.

Your story makes me reflect on how fortunate I have been, and also makes me feel a little guilty for what I have and the $4000 a month I spend mostly frivolously.