Save The Post Office - Write a REAL Letter!*

Yikes. You KNOW things are bad when you go to the Post Office and THEY'RE out of forms anyone can easily get online. Of course, by the time I realized I was running low on 2976-E's and went to order some last week, the USPS online shop was down for the count for a day or two. Fortunately, I found a few spares in my scanner (of all places... I guess I need to use it more often, huh?), but those ran out yesterday. Amusingly enough, I'd forgotten to ask for a few when I dropped off some packages because a rather silly verbal battle broke out at the post office that involved a supervisor and some really cranky people waiting on a really LONG line.

It turns out that the staff at the branch I use is stretched pretty thin and has been for a while, as I figured with all these budget cuts and closings (PLUS the fact that people just don't write as many REAL letters these days). Nevertheless, some customers still want to rant away while they wait instead of staying home, going online and using more time-saving USPS functions. Buying stamps, shipping supplies and even postal scales online and using the currently FREE Carrier Pickup service is one way to save a LOT of time and money (online rates are much cheaper AND you get free or reduced price Delivery Confirmation). Oh yeah - please don't fall for that heavily advertised (and cash-grabbing) Priority Mail Flat Rate Box "deal" for EVERY item you need shipped quickly. If you ship out a lot of stuff that needs to get somewhere fast, you can order a number of differently-sized non-Flat Rate Priority Mail boxes plus labels and/or stickers for FREE from the USPS.com website (again, DEFINITELY buy that postal scale I mentioned above - it'll pay for itself faster than you realize, especially when you see how much you save by NOT paying the Flat Rate fees on the Medium and Large boxes).

The funny thing about the fight was the impatient woman who instigated the event (she thought another woman had cut the line when in fact she hadn't) ended up storming out and had some other line-waiter follow her to express solidarity. What actually happened was the first woman ended up getting into a BIGGER fight with her solidarity mate because she completely misunderstood someone coming out after her as a threat. For some folks, I guess there's nothing like having a crappy day and spreading it around. Anyway, I finally managed to place a forms order last night, but I think I'll order some more now, especially as I had another package going overseas this morning and I cringed watching the clerk TAPE the label to the Priority Mail envelope with no other protection. What would he have done if it were a multiple page form like the one used for bigger boxes? I dread the thought...

Hell, I sure hope it's not raining in France...

*Of course, it might be too late to actually "save" USPS from itself - there's a LOT of waste in the organization (as there is in any Federal, State or Local government services) that needs a more thorough combing over and weeding out, but it seems that as usual, the powers that be would rather trim from the base instead of chopping from the top down. Someone needs to call a financial engineer in to point out some basic structural as well as monetary physics here...