Petty Vents

[GotGarlic]

In my neighborhood, the mailboxes are on the porch. No one has their name on it that I have seen.

 

[Farmer Jon]

There are rules in the mail folks contract. They are there to help prevent them from being hurt on the job. Such as they don't have to deliver the mail if the following applies"

A known dog that bites is running loose on the property
A known dog that bites is running loose on the street
If your sidewalk or steps have not been shoveled
If your rural mailbox is too low or too high. It should be at the height of reachability from the window of his truck.
If you don't have a mailbox or slot for your mail
If a package is too heavy
If the mailbox is blocked
Even if you don't have your name on your box
There are many more rules.

They are also trained to notice if an elderly person lives in the home. If their mail is piling up, they then call the police so they can make a "wellness call."

That 'not having to bend' rule was being carried to the most foolish end. She ended up losing a great paying job over it. How many times have I heard the Temp Christmas help state, "I wish I could get on at the post office permanently."

We are on a rural route. We had the same mail man for years. Real nice guy. He retired and we got a real jerk. First it mail box was too low. So raised it. Then it was too high. We got the post master out here to inspect it the third time. My boss has known him for years so it wasn't a big deal. I live on the farm I work at. My mail box and my bosses are on the same post.

 

[CakePoet]

TaxLady: They use a harder one in lesson 3 I think.
This is the orginals https://www.slayradio.org/home.php#mastering_swedish_lesson_1

 

[Mad Cook]

Think yourselves lucky. Royal Mail has been privatised and sold off to God knows who. Mail can arrive days after it was posted even if sent (and paid extra for) First Class. If there aren't many letters for our lane "They" don't bother with authorising a delivery until it's "worth" sending a postman/woman who then struggles with an over-filled bag or trolley.

They are closing our local sorting office so if we miss a parcel delivery and we have to go and collect it we will have to go to one 5 miles away (not the nearest one!) where there is no customer parking or road-side parking and there isn't a bus service within a mile - great for elderlies who don't drive.

Ok, stopped grumbling now.

 

[roadfix]

I'm actually thinking about installing a new mailbox next to my driveway for easier access. My current mailbox is built in a cement wall and tucked between rows of cacti, many with pointy needles. Access to the mailbox can be a bit tricky (for the delivery person) when there are vehicles parked alongside the "sidewalk". (I can retrieve mail from the other side of the wall, no problem) And now with mail delivery conducted after dark I'm a bit concerned due to safety issues and not getting mail at all.

 

[medtran49]

At our old house, we had this HUGE woman mail carrier. I don't know how many times I'd see her squeeze out of her truck (and it was a squeeze in and out) and walk (waddle) just far enough to toss a package at a neighbor's front door that was too big to fit in the mailbox. On days that it was raining, she'd leave a delivery note in your mailbox like she had tried to deliver the package but nobody was home (I work from home and my office area was about 15' away from the front door then).

One time I just got totally ticked off cause I asked for a redelivery and she did the same thing to me again so I called to complain. It was right before Halloween and back then we always did the house up really cool complete with a masoleum, graveyard, walls to make the house look like a castle, coffins, iron cages with skeletons, gargoyles, huge spiders, heads on pikes, etc. I had been outside working on the decorations earlier in the week and she stopped to chat when she delivered our mail about how cool our house was. Well, when I called to complain, the postmaster of that branch came to deliver my package personally. He said she told him that she was too "scared" to come into our yard. I told him that was really odd since she had just told me a few days ago how cool it was, and I also told him about the package throwing and about all the "coincidental" not at home delivery notes and rain days. His response was yeah, I know, I've heard all this before, it's just really hard to get rid of someone. She finally disappeared, don't know why, was just glad she did.

Must be nice to have a civil service job.

 

[mcrx]

Can I start a new one??

It's cooking related (as sadly the majority of my petty ranting is), thing is, I was planning on chicken breasts for today, but as the meat thawed out, it turned out to be whole chicken pieces instead. See, this requires EXTRA cleaning/processing time and just a whole different type of recipes to capitalize on the natural flavors with the bones and all.... so just,

why when I am already sooo behind and ready to jump into so many other interests right now, that I get sidetracked by this ****??!!
(oh, can we curse on here?? :P )

 

[GotGarlic]

Can I start a new one??

It's cooking related (as sadly the majority of my petty ranting is), thing is, I was planning on chicken breasts for today, but as the meat thawed out, it turned out to be whole chicken pieces instead. See, this requires EXTRA cleaning/processing time and just a whole different type of recipes to capitalize on the natural flavors with the bones and all.... so just,

why when I am already sooo behind and ready to jump into so many other interests right now, that I get sidetracked by this ****??!!
(oh, can we curse on here?? [emoji14] )

Ah, yeah. That sucks. It sure can derail your afternoon. But it's not too late to make a good meal with it. Roasting to the rescue! [emoji2] C'mon, you can do this!

And a suggestion for the future: I keep Sharpies, small pads of stickies, a pen and transparent tape in a kitchen drawer with the silverware. Anytime I put something in the freezer, I write the contents on the freezer bag or tape a stickie on the lid of the container, including the weight (if applicable, like a roast) or the number of pieces (like chicken or pork chops). It's been a very easy, helpful system.

If you curse, it will be replaced with asterisks

 

[caseydog]

Think yourselves lucky. Royal Mail has been privatised and sold off to God knows who. Mail can arrive days after it was posted even if sent (and paid extra for) First Class. If there aren't many letters for our lane "They" don't bother with authorising a delivery until it's "worth" sending a postman/woman who then struggles with an over-filled bag or trolley.

They are closing our local sorting office so if we miss a parcel delivery and we have to go and collect it we will have to go to one 5 miles away (not the nearest one!) where there is no customer parking or road-side parking and there isn't a bus service within a mile - great for elderlies who don't drive.

Ok, stopped grumbling now.

That is our possible future. There are politicians who want to privatize our postal system -- and pretty much everything else, too.

As much as people complain about the USPS, we actually have it pretty good. If privatized, my mail in the relatively wealthy suburbs would not change a whole lot, but rural mail service would probably be horrible, if it even remained.

CD

 

[GotGarlic]

That is our possible future. There are politicians who want to privatize our postal system -- and pretty much everything else, too.

As much as people complain about the USPS, we actually have it pretty good. If privatized, my mail in the relatively wealthy suburbs would not change a whole lot, but rural mail service would probably be horrible, if it even remained.

CD

Yup. Just a year or two ago, the main post office in Norfolk (across the river from us) was closed. Now all the mail for a metropolitan area of close to two million people goes two hours north to Richmond to be sorted before returning south to be delivered. Somehow that is more efficient

 

[caseydog]

Yup. Just a year or two ago, the main post office in Norfolk (across the river from us) was closed. Now all the mail for a metropolitan area of close to two million people goes two hours north to Richmond to be sorted before returning south to be delivered. Somehow that is more efficient

Not more efficient, just "cheaper," at least on paper. Some bean counter figured that the USPS could save X-amount of dollars by closing down that post office. Under pressure from politicians to cut costs, the bean-counter's bosses approved of the closing. Did they really save X-amount of real dollars, maybe, and maybe not. It all depends on what you include on the spreadsheet.

CD

 

[roadfix]

I don't mind paying more for better, efficient service. Among most all developed countries around the world we have one of the lowest domestic postage rates here in the U.S.

 

[GotGarlic]

Not more efficient, just "cheaper," at least on paper.

Yeah, I know. Their excuse to us was that it was more efficient.

 

[Cheryl J]

Same here, GG. Small town here....letters and packages are routed to an even smaller town an hour away for processing.

If I had a say, I would make the budget cuts by doing away with Saturday mail delivery altogether. But they didn't ask me for my opinion.

My little neighborhood has 2 mailboxes on a post for every 2 houses, out near the sidewalk. Some here in town have personal mailboxes, and some neighborhoods have locked community mailboxes for every 6 houses or so.

 

[caseydog]

My little neighborhood has 2 mailboxes on a post for every 2 houses, out near the sidewalk. Some here in town have personal mailboxes, and some neighborhoods have locked community mailboxes for every 6 houses or so.

My not-so-little town (140K pop) is the same. My hood has 20 boxes per post. My previous hood had the six-per lock boxes. I like my current arrangement much better, and so does my mailman.

CD

 

[Addie]

I'm actually thinking about installing a new mailbox next to my driveway for easier access. My current mailbox is built in a cement wall and tucked between rows of cacti, many with pointy needles. Access to the mailbox can be a bit tricky (for the delivery person) when there are vehicles parked alongside the "sidewalk". (I can retrieve mail from the other side of the wall, no problem) And now with mail delivery conducted after dark I'm a bit concerned due to safety issues and not getting mail at all.

Wouldn't it be easier to remove the cactus? Ouch, Ouch! Dang it! Ouch!!Forget this dang cactus.

 

[Addie]

Same here, GG. Small town here....letters and packages are routed to an even smaller town an hour away for processing.

If I had a say, I would make the budget cuts by doing away with Saturday mail delivery altogether. But they didn't ask me for my opinion.

My little neighborhood has 2 mailboxes on a post for every 2 houses, out near the sidewalk. Some here in town have personal mailboxes, and some neighborhoods have locked community mailboxes for every 6 houses or so.

We actually have three sorting centers. The big one is in Boston at Fort Point Channel, one at the airport and one in Chelsea. Out of state goes to the Boston one or at the airport. Mail from in state goes to Chelsea. The sorters at Boston and Airport take up one whole huge floor. And as a rule, we get our mail in one day. The Boston one is where they hold the bi-annual auctions. All the trucks here in Boston have a GPS follower on them. If a worker is parked for too long in one space, they want to know why. When gas was on the high side, our mailman was told to not swing into our driveway, but park on the street. That order didn't last more than a day. It meant he had to leave some of the mail unsorted in the building, while he went back out to get the second basket. He came back in with the second basket and found the Building Busybody going through it to find her mail. She didn't want to wait for him.

Our mail goes from Boston to Chelsea. They also have a major sorting centers for UPS, FedEx and DHL at the airport. Then there is a sorting center for smaller carriers. If the package is small enough, it is sent to USPS right there at the airport for delivery. From there it is sent to Chelsea.

The Boston one is the sorting center for all of New England. For packages and mail.

 

[rodentraiser]

When I bought land and had a house put on it, I had the unique experience of putting up my own mailbox. I gotta say, there's nothing that makes you feel more like a pioneer breaking sod on the claim than putting in your own mailbox.



My petty vent today is my computer. I'm on a puzzle site and I was starting to put together a 450 piece puzzle. I had all the pieces sorted, the border done, and half the sky filled in, all in 45 minutes. Then my computer hiccuped and when I got back to the site, I found I was set back to 8 minutes and all the pieces hadn't been sorted yet.

*grrr-RUMBLE*

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Addie, when I get my coffee shipped from Orange, MA it first goes to Shrewsbury, MA, then to our neighbor town, then to our town. My coffee never has to go through Boston. Same route for Christmas gifts our daughter has mailed from OH before we could go back home every Christmas.

**************************

Let's see...if I drop something off at my town post office for somewhere else in my town, it goes from my PO to the next town over. From there it is bulk-shipped out to the Shrewsbury sorting location. Once it is sorted to return to my town's post office, it first goes to the neighboring post office where they (mis)sort it for drop-off at my town's PO to be delivered. OR...I could just walk to wherever it is the mail is supposed to go and probably faster, in spite of gimpy hip/sore ankles/bad feet and all.

At least our regular mail carrier is sharp. They usually catch all the mis-sorts and straighten the mail out before it hits our boxes. I can always tell when we have a sub carrier.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have a free PO box at the post office since they do not deliver mail in town. Now if they would only open on my schedule...