my, how time flies

A while ago, just a few weeks to my memory, I got a PO Box. Paid for

Monique Y. Mudama...

[snip]

6 months.

I kept telling myself I'd check it soon, but hadn't.

Christina Websell...

I'm going to ask a really naive question here. Why do you have to have a
mailbox? why can't your mail be pushed directly into your house through a
hole in the front door, like mine is?

Monique Y. Mudama...

Good question. Probably a matter of how long a given route is
supposed to take.

In my neighborhood, as I've mentioned, there's already a central mail
area for every 20 or so houses. I doubt I could convince the delivery
guy to make a special case for me when there's already a mailbox
specifically intended for my house.

And, honestly, if everyone wanted to get their mail delivered to their
house, the route would take much, much longer, so they'd have to pay
for more postal workers, and eventually I'm sure we'd see even more
postal rate hikes. I'm okay with the situation as is, aesthetics
notwithstanding.

Jo Firey...

When I had my office, I had to have a PO box. At least then I had a prayer
of a chance of getting all my own mail and only my own mail. It was
unbelievable some of the mail that was delivered to my office address. God
only knows where mail addressed to me at the office address would have ended
up.

Since I'm a CPA lots of what I get is confidential.

Once I received five different peoples welfare checks at the office on
Christmas eve. At least that made a nice lesson for my kids as we went
around to see they were properly delivered. Usually though I just called
the postmaster and chewed him out (again) and had someone come pick up the
misdeliveries.

If I went on vacation I'd come back to find the box stuffed full of other
peoples mail.

Worst post office incident? When my younger daughter turned sixteen or
thereabouts, she started getting some really nasty x rated mail at our home.
So much so that she asked me if I could get it stopped. Seems the DMV sells
off a mailing list of everyone that gets a new drivers license.

So off to the postoffice to fill out the forms. Gather up offending mail to
show them what we were objecting to. Fill out more forms. Take in
additional objectionable mail that should be prosecuted now that the forms
have been filed for months and the offenders notified. Only to get a
package in a plain brown wrapper from the post office a few weeks later
addressed to my daughter. Containing all the garbage we had turned in to
try to stop delivery.

Did I mention out local postmaster now recognized my voice on the phone?

mlbriggs...

If my memory serves me correctly (I am sure it does) in the old days
"Civil Service Tests" were required to get a Post Office job. The person
delivering the mail wore a uniform identifying him as an employee of the
US Postal Service. Now they come in shorts and flipflops, or any other
garb depending on the weather. Most of the buildings have been rebuilt
and have the latest equipment I guess that is progress..

jmcquown...

No joke! One night about 8PM a guy knocked on my front door. He was
holding a big ol' box, and was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals. As I
peered at him through the glass he said, "I'm your postman." Really? Could
have fooled me. I told him to leave the box by the door and I'd retrieve it
at my leisure. He really *was* my postman, but how was I to know from the
way he was dressed?

Well. I finally got my butt into the post office (just a half mile or
so from where I work) and ... the PO Box was locked. Seems I haven't
checked the damn thing in over 6 months.

It hadn't yet been reserved, so I was able to pay for another 6 months
and even get all the mail that had accumulated (not much).

Still. How did 6 months slip by so quickly?

I felt a little bit better when the guy behind the counter told me
this was a pretty common problem.

Christina Websell...

Why do you need a P.O. Box? Why can't your mail come directly to your house

Monique Y. Mudama...

My personal mail does. I've been trying to start a little business,
and my husband didn't feel comfortable advertising our home address as
the contact location. Thus the box.

jmcquown...

Obviously you aren't all that excited about this business or you would have
been jumping at the chance to check the box every chance you got. Who knows
what you missed in 6 months?

Monique Y. Mudama...

Well, I got a lot of the pieces together, but I didn't advertise at
all. I had one advertising plan, and when that plan fell through, I
didn't have a backup plan. So, without advertising, I wasn't too
worried about missing anything. In any event, I didn't envision the
PO Box as the first means of contact.

It's not that I'm not excited about the business; it's that I have a
more than full time job already, and some other timesinks that have
come up. When I get home, it's hard to think of doing anything but
veg. Obviously, I need to make the time if I really care about it.

Argh, I feel like I'm being attacked when all I wanted to say is "wow,
I can't believe how fast 6 months flew by." I opened myself
up for commentary by posting, but sheesh. I don't see how it hurts
anyone for me to spend $14 on 6 months of a PO Box.

Monique Y. Mudama...

Sorry; I guess I'm a little testy. I do feel foolish for opening a PO
Box and never checking it. So I read your post as "You shouldn't even
bother with this business." I do feel guilty for not spending more
time on it.

The business is cover letter consultation. I've seen a lot of bad
cover letters! I'm sure I could make a difference, if only I found
the time!

like mine does?

Helen Wheels...

Here in Oz most people living outside towns have to have a PO box in
town as there's no mail delivery to many rural or remote properties.
Dunno if that applies in Monique's case though.

NMR...

Ok tell the truth now you don't want the brown paper wrapped items to come
to your house :-D

Helen Wheels...

I do like mail order stuff though. It's still fun to open the parcels
even when you know what it's going to be!

mlbriggs...

If no one is home during the day, it might be safer that way.
We have been told to watch our boxes carefully because there have been
mail thieves active in this region.-- especially those who have a mailbox

sriddles...

You bet they could. We had a book drop about the size of one book, when
I worked at the Library. That happened often. The worst incident was
some live birds.

Lesley...

Where we used to live (20+ years ago now) we had some nasty kids on the
estate who took a dislike to the disabled people who had the 6 flats at
the front. We were in flat 1. They threw lighted fireworks through on
one occasion narrowly missing Speedy Joe who was in the hallway at the
time, after that I got a wire cage to catch anything.,....and that
included the head of an airgunned pigeon with the rest of the body
stuffed into the letterbox...

When our landlord in a fit of pique offered to transfer us to a small
"hard to let" property they had (making it clear that they thought this
was a real dump but if we didn't take it they wouldn't move us) and
weren't too pleased when we came back from the viewing saying
"PLEASE!!!"

We've been there 20+ years now

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

at the curb rather than the house. MLB

jmcquown...

I get my mail at the curb and even when I'm not home during the day I pick
it up when I come home in the evening. It's no more fearful than renting a
P.O. box and walking in to get something in a quiet enclosed unguarded
space.

sriddles...

I think she means your *mail* is much safer, not you. Most home
mailboxes don't lock (although I think some apartments do). Anyone can
steal your mail, and that's one way identity theives work. At a PO box,
no one has access to your mail.
A friend of mine had a box of new checks stolen from her front door
mailbox. It was a real nightmare for her.

jmcquown...

If anyone wants to steal my identity they are welcome to it! I am in debt
up to my ears although I'm holding my own. They are welcome to my credit
cards (on which they can charge nothing) and hey, I don't get checks in the
mail every week! Have fun being me, guys! LOL

Monique Y. Mudama...

Argh. I see your point.

Monique Y. Mudama...

Our neighborhood has one communal mailbox area for every 10 or so
houses. It's an ugly beige box with a mail slot for each house, each
with its own lock. If you get a package, it gets put in one of the
two larger bins and the key is in your slot.

It's really ugly, but I guess it does keep people out of your mail.
And keeps kids from banging up your mailboxes.