I’m Glad I Was Not a Postal Clerk Today 0

Sooooo, I went to the local post office today to mail Christmas presents.

I wanted to get them off because a couple of them were to APO addresses.

I thought that by going early, I would miss the rush.

More fool I.

The rush got there before me. And the early rush included large numbers of persons picking up certified mail, registered mail, and holiday holds. When those persons got to the counter, the clerks had to leave their stations to look for their mail. further slowing down the process.

The clerks looked pretty numb.

(Thank heavens I had my mp3 player–I was listening to Diane Rehm’s Friday News round-up.)

Then, when I finally got to the counter, got the postage figured, and filled out the customs forms, the credit card/debit card system went down.

No, I didn’t have $67.41 cash on me. I got cleaned out over the weekend and made the mistake of not stopping at the ATM on the way to the post office.

The clerk was kind enough to hold my packages while I went to the ATM, though when I got back, I had to stand in line again.

The clerk told me that she had heard that this was not a local outage–that multiple post offices were affected.

I said to her, “There must be hell to pay in L’Enfant Plaza” (Post Office HQ is in L’Enfant Plaza South–I did a training class there once for the security department).

First smile I got from her all day.