Colorful Sunset

 

Brother Phil suggested that the U.S. Postal Service should be privatized and I remember saying I didn't think that would be a good idea.  I'm probably wrong on that point.  Remember the Christmas card I sent to a cousin in Missouri?  I sent it out December 6th and it didn't arrive until mid-January.  I sent out a card to Texas Monday of last week.  I asked for tracking on it but didn't think much else about it until this morning when I was ready to send a card to Indiana.  I checked the tracking number of the Texas card - nope, it was still sitting in Fair City where it had directly gone after leaving my local post office. I handed the card I was sending today to the Post Mistress and again asked for tracking.  I explained the delay w/ the other cards.  She related that the main postal center in Fair City had, late last year, removed some of it's sorting machines to economize  and that caused a backup of semi's w/ packages waiting to be sorted. If I understand what she said correctly, the postal service raised the price of stamps to buy more efficient sorting machines in order for the mail to move faster but those machines are now off-line in order to save money,   She said if the cards don't arrive I can petition the postal service for the cost of the cards.  My mail not arriving on time is of a concern to me but a more pressing issue is absentee election ballots.  State law is that absentee ballots have to reach the municipal clerk by the day of the election - having a postmark from before the election doesn't count.   Should a ballot get stuck in the postal system those people will lose their vote.  The Post Mistress assured me that the envelopes containing ballots can be stamped at this post office, put in the P.O. Box for the local municipal clerks, and don't need to be sent to Fair City for sorting.    That works for local people voting absentee but for those people out-of-state, their ballots still rely on the whims of the U.S. Postal Service.  I am not happy.   Reminds me that I'm also not happy because I also have to apologize to Phil since I insisted my state was part of the Louisiana Purchase (it wasn't).