Not a Fan

I am not a big fan of the US Post Office. Although both of my grandfathers and my mother worked as sorters and carriers, I just don't like the post office. Wanna know why? No? Well, too bad (sorry, I'm in the mood for a rant today). Here's my list, Letterman style:

10. Somedays we don't get any mail. No big deal. Sometimes there isn't any. But when we get mail TWICE the next day, then I know someone's falling down on the job.

9. Our mail carrier often forgets to close our mailbox and then our mail gets wet (it rains a lot here in the summer).

8. The first Christmas we lived in our house (and had an actual mailbox as opposed to one of 300 hundred drawers at our apartment complex), I left a little tin of chocolate treats for the mail carrier as a "thank you". I even wrote "Happy Holidays to our mail carrier" on it and it sat there for three days. I'm sure they have rules about accepting gifts, but why is it my parents' mail carrier always grabs her holiday gift AND writes my parents a thank you note for it?

7. We have a "Point of Service" barcode on our box that the carrier has to scan when our mail is delivered so that the USPS can keep track of how long the route takes. Sometimes, one carrier comes by and scans our box and our mail is delivered by another carrier several hours later. What is going on with that?

6. Our mail carrier only delivers mail. He/she won't pick up outgoing mail so I have to drop it in the community box at the post office. It's no big deal to do so, but what's up with that?

5. The post office closest to us is five blocks away from our house, yet we are "zoned" to one that is about five miles away. Anytime we have an issue, we have to go the one five miles away (and it only has three parking spots - seriously).

4. The post office closest to us no longer does passport services. It's not like I need a passport since we're no longer traveling to Europe next summer, but c'mon, the closest one that does passport services is near downtown. Yuck.

3. The post office closest to us does not have stamp machines that take credit cards - cash only. And of course, my cash is always too wrinkled and is never accepted by the machine.

2. The workers at the post office move slower than molasses. There are 20 people in line...you can't move a little faster?

1. And the reason for today's rant: It took me 30 minutes to get two books of Christmas-themed stamps today because of items #2 and #3. The lady in front of me offered up her spot in line when Liam got fussy (and I can't blame him for being bored), but I didn't take it. She was holding a huge box and I wasn't about to make her carry it any longer than necessary.

Anyway, I'm not a fan, but what can I do? It's not like there are any competitors I can switch to. Hmmm....