us postal blues

If you want no greater example of how bureaucrats in search of justification of their political/personal agenda can foul up just about everything they put their hands on, look no further than Louis DeJoy's United States Postal Service.

I briefly touched upon the Post Office in my note of October 17, 2022 on turning sixty-five, in which I outlined how the Post Office managed to hold a month's worth of junk mail while forwarding bills, my Medicare card, instructions, etc. to an address I had left in Wyoming that month earlier, leaving a simple forward order as I do every year at the end of the summer season.  I had no idea of what I was in for this season.

Apparently, the procedure for forwarding mail changed some time this spring from the usual fill out a forwarding order and wait for your mail to actually get forwarded to something akin to an episode of "The Twilight Zone".  The simplicity of the new system is such that the Postmaster here in Wyoming told my wife and me the system is screwed up and she does not know how to unscrew it.  To add to our confidence in the system, she told us she had never seen anything as bad.

It all started on June 21 when my wife went to our post office on Long Island to submit the annual forwarding order for the summer to our home in Wyoming.  She went in person.  She submitted all the paperwork in person.  She had her government issued photo id with her, and showed it to the nice person at the post office counter, although at the time we did not know this was necessary.  She asked if anything else was necessary.  She was assured it was not.

So off we went to Wyoming.

Having our suspicions about the post office, upon our arrival, we went to the post office location here in our hometown in Wyoming.  We showed our governmental issued id to the nice person at the counter, who turned to her handy dandy desk top, clicked a few buttons, hummed a bit, and assured us that our hold was in the system, and that we should expect to receive mail shortly.

So we waited...

On July 8, having seen nothing arrive in our mailbox yet, we went to the local post office again, showed our governmental issued id, and were once again assured that our forwarding order was in the system and mail was on its way.  Upon our return home, we stopped at our mailbox, where we found a notice in the mail from the post office on Long Island that we had twenty days from the date we had requested our mail be forwarded to Wyoming to show up at the post office with our governmental issued id to confirm who we were and that we were where the mail was to be forwarded so that the mail could actually be forwarded.  Our carrier from Long Island had thrown a bunch of mail that had accumulated in the enveloped stack, including bills, checks and a jury summons for my wife informing her she was to report for jury duty the week prior to the date the package arrived in our mailbox in Wyoming.  The package sent by the carrier from Long Island to Wyoming was postmarked June 27.  It took the post office eleven days to get it to Wyoming.  I could have gotten it faster myself by bicycle.

I immediately called our Long Island post office, and was assured that our mail was not being sent back to senders, but that I should go to our post office in Wyoming to confirm we were here, something we had already done, but that they could not confirm in Long Island.  It was too late to go back to the post office, so we returned on July 10 at which time the nice worker behind the counter took our governmental issued id again, this time my driver's license, turned on his handy dandy post office computer, entered the information on my driver's license, and hemmed and hawwed for a few minutes while the computer would not accept my license in spite of the fact that it is governmental issued photo id.  Not to worry.  I had my global entry photo id.  The program would not accept that either.  The nice person behind the counter then told me THIS WAS HAPPENING TO PRACTICALLY EVERYBODY.  After disappearing into the back offices for several minutes, the nice worker returned and told me everything was fine and we would be receiving our mail shortly.

So we waited.

At the end of July, having still received no mail, we went back to our local Wyoming branch.  My wife spoke with the postmaster, showing her driver's license with her photo.  The postmaster then personally contacted our Long Island post office while standing directly in front of my wife, and told her this should satisfy things, but if they did not, she did not now what else to do.

So we waited.

By the end of August, with our local Wyoming mailbox threatening to sue for non-support, I lodged a complaint with the local Long Island post office.  This resulted in a call several days later from a postal inspector from Long Island, in which she first told me I had to go to the local Wyoming post office.  When I told her we had already done this four times, she told me she would look into this.  In the mean time, she volunteered that the new system requiring everybody to confirm their confirmations was screwed up, not working at all, and you can't believe how may people are complaining that they are not getting their mail.

I think I can believe it. 

The next day, she called back and left a message for me that there was nothing she could do as our original forwarding order had expired without our confirmation being entered into the system.  We would now have to submit a new forwarding order and attempt to repeat the process.

In the mean time, after I spoke with the postal inspector, our carrier put together another stack of accumulated mail and shoved it into an envelope where this time, it only took five days to arrive in Wyoming, meaning I could not bicycle it faster here, but I could personally drive it faster.  This time, we had the usual collections of bills, checks owed to me, and another jury summons for my wife, this time telling her if she did not show up two weeks prior to the mail arriving with the summons that a warrant would be issued for her.

Also in the mean time, we have still yet to receive any mail all season long in Wyoming, other than a grand total of three letters, each of which were addressed here in Wyoming rather than to our address on Long Island.  

Two were birthday cards for my wife.

Instead of  conforming to the definition of insanity by doing the same thing over and over and expecting a new result, on September 7, I simply placed a hold on the mail on Long Island.  The longest we are allowed to place a hold is thirty days.  Today, October 1, I went on line to extend the hold another two weeks.  I was told I cannot do that.  I tried submitting a brand new hold, but was told I could only do that if I cancelled the original.

So now, there will be a race to the Long Island post office when we get back to claim mail before it is all returned to sender, I am told ten days after the expiration of the hold order on October 17, assuming the Long Island post office is actually holding mail, which I must assume, as there has been no mail delivered here, but then again who knows?

I am, however, looking forward to eventually receiving a stack of accumulated mail, either when we get to Long Island or when we eventually return to Wyoming, including the arrest warrant for my wife for ignoring her jury summons yet again.

my own personal debt ceiling

I think I have this right.  I am sure somebody will correct me if I do not.

The republicans in congress understand that the debt of the United States is guaranteed under the 14h Amendment of the Constitution.  They also understand that the debt ceiling needs to be raised to ensure that debts already incurred by the federal government are paid, just as is required under the Constitution.  In order to ensure that the debts are paid, however, they are demanding that future spending be cut, but only from programs they do not like, such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and the Internal Revenue Service, the first three of which protect seniors and the least fortunate among us, whom the GOP apparently do not care much about, and the last of which ensures that everyone pays their fair share, especially those who earn the most, which they certainly do not want any part of.

They somehow think banks, lending institutions, investors and the general public will go along with this.

It got me to thinking...

I have a rather large credit card bill coming up.  I know the bill has to be paid.  After all, it represents debts already incurred, but...

Before I pay this bill, I need to negotiate with those ultimately responsible to pay the bill so as to ensure that I do not continue to incur this much debt or simply to prevent such spending in the future.

Therefore...

I am placing my wife on notice.  Before I pay my credit card bill, the two of us need to reach a deal. Going forward, we are no longer going to purchase household cleaning items, plants, flowers and shrubbery for her garden, which she has used the credit card to purchase, or any of the clothes she wants to wear during forthcoming vacations.  

We are also not going to purchase new shoes for her or any doohickeys she thinks may either be helpful around the house or beautify it in any way using the credit card.  

For good measure and to ensure that our already incurred debts can be paid, our agreement will include a prohibition of purchasing any gas to be put in her car or groceries I do not like, especially those disgusting lemon cookies, or any ingredients used to make avocado toast, which, ought to be classified as a biological weapon of mass destruction and should be outlawed anywhere and everywhere.

Of course, she will agree that the stuff I like is not subject to negotiation, including the sports channels on our cable system, all food items I like, including mushrooms, most seafood, goat cheese and yogurt, all of which make her gag, gas for my car and vacations to places I want to go to, regardless of whether or not she does.

This is all friendly, so we do not need to engage lawyers to draw this up, especially since I am one, and I am not willing to pay for hers.

Once we get all of this agreed to and signed, we can pay the credit card bill, as long as we pay it out of her accounts.

I am sure my wife will agree to this.

I am equally sure the credit card company and our banks will think this is a great idea as well.