Why Don't I Write You?

Interesting article on the future of the post office, which is desperately short on money and not getting a lot of business.

People just aren't sending mail the way they used to.

It's kind of sad, seeing an institution that's always been part of the way you do business in the world foundering. Sort of the way it's sad to see what's happening to newspapers.

It's the local newspaper! It's the post office! What the heck? How can that not be a major part of town? And yet, more and more I guess it's not.

How would we manage without it? What would our letter-and-package-sending life look like?
I guess we're figuring out ways to manage.

I have fondness for the post office, but I can't send enough mail to keep it alive. I dunno.

Things change, even when it's kind of unnerving.

Air Travel History Theme Park

I recently bought some plane tickets via Travelocity, as one does when one finds the lowest price there. I am ever mindful of the fact that you get what you pay for; I accept some loss of refundability/flexibility when using discount travel sites.

But in this case, there was an extra twist: the particular flights I wanted were only available as paper tickets (because the deal was just that awesome). I didn't even know they printed paper tickets anymore!

OK, that's an exaggeration, but really, buying online and having to get paper tickets mailed? Isn't that more trouble than it's worth for everyone involved? (Well, evidently not...but it should be.)

And now it develops that I can't check in online in advance with these tickets, but have to actually wait in line at the airport tomorrow, as if civilization had never advanced to the point that the internet possessed the capability to assist us with these annoying details.

What is this, 1997?

Hang in There, USPS

I like this post on Cogitamus arguing that the coming increase in the price of stamps is not that big a deal. 

Certainly I always kind of whine about it when the price goes up, because it means I have to go get some make-rate stamps, and keep track of how many old ones I have to use up, and when I can get the new ones, and which are which in my desk drawer (since half the time they don't have an actual number on them these days). 

It's sooooooo haaaaaard, people! 

And expensive! The extra two cents means that by the time I've sent 20 letters, I should almost have been able to send 21 for the same price!

But what, in life, is without pain? (Also, isn't the price of stamps tied to inflation, meaning that it's staying essentially stable? Everything else is more expensive too, ya know.)

I have a certain fondness for the post office. There was a time when I thought I might like to deliver mail, because I could be out walking around a lot in the outdoors. Exercise, seeing people, breathing the air.

Then I decided sitting indoors at a desk with a computer and regular internet access sounded like more fun. Mmmm...internet.

Anyway, is a 2-cent increase really enough to make a big dent in my limited letter-mailing and my use of the post office for all my holiday-package-sending needs? Nah.

You still have my love, USPS. 

Keeping in Touch

I got a friendly note yesterday from the Alumni Association at my alma mater (hi, Alabama!), asking for information on what I'm doing, how the family is faring, what the harvest looks like (hair), whether my hereditary weeping boils have subsided, and so forth. 

I would return the lovely postage-paid card with spaces for filling in my name, address, home phone, place of employment and work phone, but...well, it's just a postcard. All that information is just there, totally exposed in the mail for anyone to see! 

Not that anyone cares, but with all the identity theft worries these days, is it really a good idea to send that kind of information through open mail?

I admit this may be an unreasonable apprehension. After all, my home phone is listed in the phone book (I think---I haven't looked at a phone book in years, so I'm just guessing), my work phone will be on the internet once that website is updated, and I put my home address on the outside of every piece of mail I send anyway, usually in the form of one of those little return address labels that various  organizations send out in the vain hope that people will give them money. (I suppose some kind people must actually give them money.)

Am I getting weirdly paranoid about harmless low-tech identity-distribution, while blithely strewing personal information to the trillion-plus corners of the internet, and, therefore, spending my worry-points in exactly the wrong place?

It is entirely possible.