Skip to main content

What affect will the Post Office consolidation have?

I read yesterday about the Post Office consolidating and closing some facilities, which kind of makes me sad because I use the Post Office a lot for mailing my books.

But then I thought about it--I don’t actually use the Post Office, I use the US Postal Service. I have a program and monthly subscription with Endicia.com to allow me to print postage from my computer. That way I can print up postage whenever I need to, and we drop the mail off at the Post Office whenever we’re out next doing errands, or my husband will drop it off on his way to or from work. It helps out in terms of the time I spend standing in line at the Post Office, and I don’t use up gas to drive down there just to send mail.

I’m sad about the jobs that will be cut because the economy is hurting as it is. And this isn’t really true in my neighborhood, but in Hawaii, the postal workers are a friendly bunch. They’ll chat with you if they happen to see you when they’re delivering mail, they’ll sometimes pick up your stamped packages even if you haven’t filled out an official pick-up notification, and people in Hawaii will usually give gifts to their postal workers for Christmas. It will be sad to have those postal workers out of a job when they contribute so much to the local community.

Are you friendly with your local postal worker?

Comments

Pattie said…
Because I mail a lot of books, I end up in my local PO a lot. Many of the POs on military installations are the ones cutting hours or closing completely. Kinda sad. I'd be willing to give up Saturdays and only have Mon-Fri delivery. Or, Tues-Sat would work too.
Camy Tang said…
Pattie, from what I've read on the web, several will be cutting Saturdays and only going M-F. I'm okay with that, too.
Susan F. said…
We are losing a distribution center here in Maine. It is going to add at least 3 days to the delivery of some or most of our mail. It's going to make things hard for those with deadlines.
Camy Tang said…
Oh my gosh, THREE days??? That's awful!
Marian said…
My mail carrier will pick up outgoing packages without notification. When I was a girl, we could leave letters in the mailbox with the correct amount of money and the mailman would get stamps for us and put them on the letter. I don't really know my carrier, but my cat does.
Camy Tang said…
Wow that's really nice of your mail carrier! My mail carrier won't do that, I have to take any packages to the post office or make sure I put in a notification for pick up.

Popular Posts

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.22.2008 I actually wrote out my pattern! I was getting a lot of hits on my infamous toilet seat cover , and I wanted to make a new one with “improvements,” so I paid attention and wrote things down as I made the new one. This was originally based off the Potty Mouth toilet cover , but I altered it to fit over the seat instead of the lid. Yarn: any worsted weight yarn, about 120 yards (this is a really tight number, I used exactly 118 yards. My suggestion is to make sure you have about 130 yards.) I suggest using acrylic yarn because you’re going to be washing this often. Needle: I used US 8, but you can use whatever needle size is recommended by the yarn you’re using. Gauge: Not that important. Mine was 4 sts/1 inch in garter stitch. 6 buttons (I used some leftover shell buttons I had in my stash) tapestry needle Crochet hook (optional) Cover: Using a provisional cast on, cast on 12 stitches. Work in garter st until liner measures...

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Favorite chocolate?

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.22.2008 Lately I’ve been on this chocolate kick. Normally, I’m not a huge chocoholic like Captain Caffeine. I enjoy chocolate, but if given a choice, I’ll usually choose a fruit or custard/creamy dessert over a triple decadence chocolate layer cake or a chocolate-lovers’ downfall brownie. But lately, I’ve been eating dark chocolate squares. I think it started when I went into Joseph Schmidt gourmet chocolate shop in Santana Row. We’d gotten Joseph Schmidt truffles for Christmas, and they’d been fabulous—I can honestly say that they were as good as DeBrand truffles (author Colleen Coble’s favorite). So when I saw the brick and mortar shop in Santana Row, I went in immediately. Inside, this man was buying up stacks—and I kid you not, stacks —of the Joseph Schmidt Belgian Dark Chocolate bars. He raved about them, said they were terrific. A cashier was restocking the display case the man had cleaned out, and I snagged a bar. “I’ve got to try one, after watc...