The US Mail

My Mother used to work for the US Mail, so don't think that I am just trying to rag on the postal service, but I am often puzzled by them.

I can't believe some of the things that show up in my mailbox. I have had nearly shredded mail that I have sent out returned to me. One of those pieces of mail was years ago. My house payment never arrived to pay my payment. It did come back to me about 6 months later in another envelope ripped in half and only half of it was returned. (the half with the return address on it!). Another time someone sent one of my boys a whole bunch of stamps that had been used. They were stamps from all over the world and there was a lot of them in an envelope. The envelope arrived in my mailbox torn open and stamps just tucked in to this open envelope. I have no idea how many of them escaped. I often get letters in my mailbox addressed to someone else with a completely different address. It makes me wonder how many of my pieces of mail get delivered to someone else. I once had a piece of mail delivered that was post marked almost a year before. I have no idea where it had been all that time!

Today, however, we received a piece of mail that I have never seen before. My sister in law had sent a card (with a check no doubt) to my son that just got married. She mailed it before the wedding so that he would have it for his wedding day as she could not come. Well, it arrived today 3 weeks after the wedding. Stamped on the outside of the envelope was the phrase "Found in a supposedly empty piece of equipment"! This was a rubber stamp that is obviously used for just this purpose.

I guess I found it rather funny that this happens enough that a stamp had been developed for just this occasion. I would think that it would make more sense to take steps to fix the problem rather than develop a stamp for it. I find the same humor when I see a sign on the road that says "bump" or "rough road". I wonder why they would take the time to make a sign when it seems to me that a little tar to fill the roughness would be easier.

Now I'm sure there are reasons for all of these situations that I'm just too naive or uneducated about to understand. I still get a chuckle from them, however. All except the missing house payment -- THAT ONE WAS NOT FUNNY!!!!!