Going Postal, Less Often

The price of stamps went up two cents today.  I don't really care.  This will increase my postage spending approximately ten cents a year.  I doubt that the USPS is going to make up $3.3 billion (plus the estimated 3 billion more this year) it now owes (as of 3/31/09) two cents at a time.  The USPS has not made a profit since 2006, when parcel volume totaled 213 billion.  In the 2008 fiscal year volume dropped to 203 billion parcels, and the Postal Service lost $2.8 billion.  It has lost $2.3 billion in the six months since then.  Parcel volume is expected to drop more than 20 billion pieces this year and another 10 billion the following year.

Whatever the reason, the Postal Service has been experimenting with Segways and bicycle delivery.  I'm no accountant, but buying a fleet of Segways whose batteries die mid-route doesn't seem like a good way to get out of debt.

Postmaster General (Really?  General?) John Potter says it could become necessary to temporarily reduce delivery to five days a week.  This could supposedly save $3.5 billion annually.  Trouble is federal law has mandated six-day delivery since 1983.  The Postal Service's Board of Governors must approve a work-week reduction, and is unlikely to do so.  Instead the USPS is seeking to reduce annual retirement fund contributions from $7.5 billion to $5.5 billion.  

Why do I give a crap?  Because it's stupid.  If this were a real corporation, instead of a government operation we would have lost Saturday delivery years ago.  You know what I would do?  I'd get rid of Wednesday delivery, too.  Seriously--who's going to notice?  How much good mail does a person get these days?  I don't even get most of my bills by snail mail.  The Postal Service pats itself on the back for exploring alternative fuels and delivery methods, but almost everything that I get goes straight into the trash.  

I've got nothing against the USPS, but let's keep things in perspective.  We don't need the mail every day.  I don't really look forward to the mail like I do packages, which are often delivered by someone else.  Drop Saturday delivery.  Drop another day.  Then shut-up about it.

Special shout-out to my favorite letter carrier, Mary Fenton.  I like your hat.

My Ghetto, Part Deux

So, yesterday I am parking my car inside my pointlessly gated community.  I pull up behind my roommate's second car--a 1998 Corolla, with the gold trim package.  It was fairly pimp in it's day, but is no longer much to look at.  Well, as I get out of my car I see that the driver's side window had been smashed.  Walking up closer I see the dash ripped out and a $89 stereo missing.  Making things strange, is that the Corolla was probably the least awesome car in the line-up (no offense, Mario).

When I think about it, I've had seven stereos stolen, so maybe I've been living in little ghettos all along.  I am somewhat desensitized to the scene.  That said, the scene of the crime is a mere forty yards away from the stranded shopping cart.  To clarify, this happened on the good side of the complex.  

This is another little check in the reason's to leave column, as I think the grass really is greener concerning my future plans.  

Oh!  One more thing on the insult to injury factor.  By that afternoon there was a notification on the windshield from Patrol One, the lamest mother f*%@ing company in the world, saying that they're going to tow the car because it obviously has not been moved recently.  

This is where I live.