Snow on Balsam

 I mailed out five packages early Monday morning - December7th.  The clerk asked on the first package if I wanted it sent regular post or priority (which would be more expensive).  It was almost three weeks before Christmas so I said regular post.  However by the time she got to my second package I had rethought that decision.  Covid,  bigger than usual Christmas rush, potential bad weather, the much ballyhooed slowdown measures by the government, and the cost for priority was only 20 cents more.  All of the rest of the packages were sent priority.  The post office gave me an estimated date of arrival and a tracking code for each pkg.  All of the priority packages should arrive by Friday - December 11.  My one non-priority package would arrive on Monday - December 14th.   I checked on Friday.  My packages were all still in the Big City except for the non-priority package which was already in Texas, the state where I sent it.  Hmmm.  Maybe the priority pathways were glutted w/ packages and regular mail was the way to go.   I checked again later the next week.   All of my packages have been delivered except the non-priority package whose progress had halted in the Dallas Distribution Center. It languished there for the next week.  Today it moved to the Frisco Post Office and was delivered.  I checked the distance from Dallas to Frisco - around 28 miles.  Which got me to thinking about Benjamin Franklin.  He was the first Post Master General for the British colonies in America.  ` Franklin was paid from any profits left over after mail services were conducted (which was running a deficit when he was appointed.)  To fix the situation Franklin improved efficiency, added innovation and in four years the mail service for the colonies was turning a profit.  Ben Franklin then lowered mail prices to increase usage.  Our current Post Master General Louis DeJoy in order to make the post office run more profitably chose to shortened hours at post offices, removed some mail processing equipment, raised the cost of stamps, and allows no overtime for delivering mail (let mail sit in the post office until you can get to it during working hours.)   Of course current conditions aren't the same between now and the 1700's.  Still ... I could have easily walked my package from Dallas to Frisco in a week.