Broken Mail Box? What’s Up With That???

Citrus Heights, CA – sister’s house

Above is your typical US Postage Mail Box…open the door, put in your letter or small package, shut and walk away.  It has three moving parts…the door slot to drop the mail, the lock on the door for the postal service employee to open, and the door this lock is in.  Three moving parts.

This mail box above only has two moving parts….the slot to put the mail in has no door, so you have a lock and door for the mail person to open when they gather the mail.  To the right you can see a mail person getting the mail out of the mail box.  These mail boxes have been around for most of my life…although they were an “Army Green”, and I vaguely remember seeing a few mini boxes on a post, but they did not hold very much mail.  I have also seen some that look like they are twice as big as the ones shown…but the bottom line, they are all very simple…two or three moving parts to them.

So how funny was it when I pulled up to the mailbox in front of the post office near the local grocery store and saw this sign.  “Don’t Drop Mail!!!  Mailbox not working drop you mail inside.  Sorry for the inconvenience.”   Yep, not only can’t the post office keep a simple mailbox in operation…the person who made the sign to notify that it functionally is not working, could not even make a simple sign that made sense.  I was not the only one who thought it was funny.  A couple pulled up near the box to address their letter and put on a stamp, and as I walked in to mail my letter, they pulled up next to my car.  “One would think that they could keep such a sophisticated piece of equipment in operation,” I said.  They laughed.  Saw them both in the store a few minutes later shopping, and we had another laugh about it.

Speaking of mail…have you ever watched the tracking of one of your Amazon orders?   It is 1,750 miles by car from San Antonio Texas to Citrus Heights.  My last order originated in San Antonio…went to Erlanger Kentucky, then Stockton California, then Vacaville California, then finally to Citrus Heights.  By car that is 3,640 miles.  But hey, I ordered on Thursday, got it on Saturday…can’t beat that, can you?  Well, yes you can.  On Tuesday, August 29th, I finally remembered that Marcia needed a new mouse for her computer…she has been having problems with it for a good month.  We had been back in Sacramento for about five days, and I promised I would get her a new one as soon as we got to town.  Seeing her “mess” with her bad mouse again to get it to work, I got online with Amazon, and ordered two…one for a backup.  As I was checking out, I saw that if I spent 9 more dollars, they would deliver TODAY, before 8 pm.  So I upgraded the mouse she was going to use, and the other mouse is similar to the one I use. Sure enough, around 7:15 pm, the package arrived.  It too came in from San Antonio…but it flew directly to Stockton, then to West Sacramento and delivered by Amazon Delivery truck (like the one shown here to the right…no name, just a plain white van).  With Amazon buying Whole Foods, and plans to build more (or take over other stores and convert them), I am sure the delivery options for same day service will grow and grow.  They already give you the option to have your order (not large items) sent to a Whole Foods Store, so you can pick up your Amazon package after work, and pick up some eggs, milk, and ready to heat up dinner on your way home.  And the great thing about that is that no one is going to rip off the package sitting in your mailbox, or at your front door before you get home.  Wow!  Everything sure has gone a long way since the days of the Pony Express…which, by-the-way, had its western terminal right here in Sacramento.