Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Heat...
Well, today's Washington's Birthday, and yesterday was the official "Presidents Day" holiday. I'm just now recovering, and starting to catch up on all the stuff that's gotten put aside. But before I get into that or anything else, a quick correction to make.
I was reading the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend (one of the better papers published nowadays, IMHO), and noticed an article. Essentially, I goofed up. I was in such a hurry to figure out when the origin of the name "Presidents Day" came about, that when I saw the gummint had changed it in 1971 during the Nixon administration, I pounced on this as fact. Well, as the song goes, it ain't neccessarily so. I don't know what this guy's politics are, or if there's some hidden agenda behind this, but I agree with him, as you know from my previous post on this. For generations we've honored Lincoln and Washington on their respective birthdays, and we should keep doing that-- none of this "Presidents Day" baloney. As for my faux pas, this'll teach me to return to the basics of my former craft, and do a better job of research next time. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa...
That said, I'm finally recovering from whatever it was that laid me low. Today I just have a very raw, sore nose (I guess there's a reason why they market tissues that have aloe in them!), and some mild fuzziness. A shower quickly took care of the foggy head. While I'm not 100% myself yet, I'm definitely getting there.
Spent most of my day tidying up, getting back in the swing of things. A sort of bland, non-descript day, really. Even the mail was bland for the most part. A couple of bills, ads, and the like. Our mail service finally seems to be improving. I'm not sure if our usual carrier is back yet or not, but whoever it is isn't screwing up. Back in late October or early November, I started noticing that the mail was coming later in the day. No problem, I thought; carriers can and do change their driving schedules or routes according to what their supervisors want.
But soon I was finding mail addressed to different people in our building in my box. Occasionally it happens that a letter for the people next door is in our box. Not a big deal, mistakes happen. But three or four different people's mail in my box? Then I started seeing mail for the same apartment number, but the building next door. This happened several times. Then the same thing, but the building two doors down. Things finally came to a head when I got a letter addressed to the people at the same street number, but the next street over. I got a bit peeved, took the mail with me, and drove down to the Post Office. Our PO has some really friendly clerks, so they were attentive when I told them what was going on. The clerk took the mail, told me she'd be right back, and disappeared. After waiting a while, she finally came back, told me she'd taken care of the problem. She left a note for the carrier to check with his supervisor when he came back from his shift. She also told me we had a sub, because our regular carrier had been in a very bad accident ("Oh, my goodness! How bad??" "Bad." "Will he be okay?" "I don't know." This continues for a few minutes more. Monosyllabic, no?), and it was not known when or if he'd be returning. So in the meantime, we had a green carrier who apparently failed the literacy test in high school. I was told to be patient, they'd resolve things.
So I went home, and figured within a few days there wouldn't be any problem. While I didn't get mail for other homes/buildings anymore, there were a few instances where it was clear things weren't back to "normal" yet. I found letters, circulars, and magazines addressed to people in our building, with their names and the street addresses on them, but no apartment numbers. Without checking the boxes to match the name on the mail to the name on the box, our carrier just decided to put them on the floor by the boxes, and go on his merry way.
This went on for a while. One day, I just happened to be downstairs when he was there, and saw him trying to cut corners. I picked up the envelopes, as sometimes we get stuff for previous tenants. So I checked: nope, nope, and nope. These were items for current residents. So I gently handed them back to him one by one: "This is for Mr. Studio Employee in #8. This is for Smiling Lady in #11. See her name there? Let's see, and this one is for Mr. Weirdo in #6, and this last one is for Frowning Bitch in #9." He dutifully took each one, and under my steady gaze, put them in the correct slots. Mission accomplished.
Since then I've seen a huge improvement. I'm still cautious, though, but I'd say I can start expecting more often that my mail be where it's supposed to be. We'll see. I hope these are permanent improvements, and that this carrier keeps his appointed rounds. The rain doesn't seem to be holding him back, fortunately. This is the fourth or fifth day now of rain, but today was punctuated by bursts of sunshine. It started raining about the time I got sick, so I'm hoping as I get healthier, the weather does likewise. We've gotten more rain this season than Seattle does on average. Come to think of it, the L.A. area has plenty of hills. We have a port, down by San Pedro. We have a coastline, the sea. There's plenty of fog. We even have an island or two: on a clear day, you can see Catalina from Santa Monica, or from the top of the Getty Museum. Yep, I think we could pass for Seattle for a while... Meantime, we're safe and sound, and dry for the moment. I just hope tomorrow's mail is more interesting.
I was reading the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend (one of the better papers published nowadays, IMHO), and noticed an article. Essentially, I goofed up. I was in such a hurry to figure out when the origin of the name "Presidents Day" came about, that when I saw the gummint had changed it in 1971 during the Nixon administration, I pounced on this as fact. Well, as the song goes, it ain't neccessarily so. I don't know what this guy's politics are, or if there's some hidden agenda behind this, but I agree with him, as you know from my previous post on this. For generations we've honored Lincoln and Washington on their respective birthdays, and we should keep doing that-- none of this "Presidents Day" baloney. As for my faux pas, this'll teach me to return to the basics of my former craft, and do a better job of research next time. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa...
That said, I'm finally recovering from whatever it was that laid me low. Today I just have a very raw, sore nose (I guess there's a reason why they market tissues that have aloe in them!), and some mild fuzziness. A shower quickly took care of the foggy head. While I'm not 100% myself yet, I'm definitely getting there.
Spent most of my day tidying up, getting back in the swing of things. A sort of bland, non-descript day, really. Even the mail was bland for the most part. A couple of bills, ads, and the like. Our mail service finally seems to be improving. I'm not sure if our usual carrier is back yet or not, but whoever it is isn't screwing up. Back in late October or early November, I started noticing that the mail was coming later in the day. No problem, I thought; carriers can and do change their driving schedules or routes according to what their supervisors want.
But soon I was finding mail addressed to different people in our building in my box. Occasionally it happens that a letter for the people next door is in our box. Not a big deal, mistakes happen. But three or four different people's mail in my box? Then I started seeing mail for the same apartment number, but the building next door. This happened several times. Then the same thing, but the building two doors down. Things finally came to a head when I got a letter addressed to the people at the same street number, but the next street over. I got a bit peeved, took the mail with me, and drove down to the Post Office. Our PO has some really friendly clerks, so they were attentive when I told them what was going on. The clerk took the mail, told me she'd be right back, and disappeared. After waiting a while, she finally came back, told me she'd taken care of the problem. She left a note for the carrier to check with his supervisor when he came back from his shift. She also told me we had a sub, because our regular carrier had been in a very bad accident ("Oh, my goodness! How bad??" "Bad." "Will he be okay?" "I don't know." This continues for a few minutes more. Monosyllabic, no?), and it was not known when or if he'd be returning. So in the meantime, we had a green carrier who apparently failed the literacy test in high school. I was told to be patient, they'd resolve things.
So I went home, and figured within a few days there wouldn't be any problem. While I didn't get mail for other homes/buildings anymore, there were a few instances where it was clear things weren't back to "normal" yet. I found letters, circulars, and magazines addressed to people in our building, with their names and the street addresses on them, but no apartment numbers. Without checking the boxes to match the name on the mail to the name on the box, our carrier just decided to put them on the floor by the boxes, and go on his merry way.
This went on for a while. One day, I just happened to be downstairs when he was there, and saw him trying to cut corners. I picked up the envelopes, as sometimes we get stuff for previous tenants. So I checked: nope, nope, and nope. These were items for current residents. So I gently handed them back to him one by one: "This is for Mr. Studio Employee in #8. This is for Smiling Lady in #11. See her name there? Let's see, and this one is for Mr. Weirdo in #6, and this last one is for Frowning Bitch in #9." He dutifully took each one, and under my steady gaze, put them in the correct slots. Mission accomplished.
Since then I've seen a huge improvement. I'm still cautious, though, but I'd say I can start expecting more often that my mail be where it's supposed to be. We'll see. I hope these are permanent improvements, and that this carrier keeps his appointed rounds. The rain doesn't seem to be holding him back, fortunately. This is the fourth or fifth day now of rain, but today was punctuated by bursts of sunshine. It started raining about the time I got sick, so I'm hoping as I get healthier, the weather does likewise. We've gotten more rain this season than Seattle does on average. Come to think of it, the L.A. area has plenty of hills. We have a port, down by San Pedro. We have a coastline, the sea. There's plenty of fog. We even have an island or two: on a clear day, you can see Catalina from Santa Monica, or from the top of the Getty Museum. Yep, I think we could pass for Seattle for a while... Meantime, we're safe and sound, and dry for the moment. I just hope tomorrow's mail is more interesting.
posted by Mr. Sandman | 10:18 PM
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