A Night at the Post Office

Ugh. For various reasons, we got an extension on last year's taxes, which were due today. I just got back from the post office downtown, where I waited in line for about an hour and fifteen minutes for the automatic postage machine. There were only fifteen or sixteen people in front of me, and yet it took them most of that time to get what they needed. I wrote "most of them" because when the fourth guy in front of me went to the machine, it went down for daily maintenance. I couldn't help but get impatient, but I was still considerably ahead of the woman who came in at the same time I did and was standing in the line for personal service. A security guard insisted that a post office employee would come to see what the problem was with the machine, but after about ten minutes, even the security guard was surprised no one had come (which is odd--she works at the post office, so she should know what to expect better than those of us in line did, but we knew it was iffy whether anybody was ever going to come over at all). Finally, someone actually did come, but all they could say was, "I've never seen it do this before. I don't know when it will come back."

I haven't been to the downtown post office for a while, but it turns out that besides the automatic postal machine in the lobby, there are three automatic postal machines where there used to be counter workers. The line for those three, which was obstructed enough by the huge line waiting for personal service, was moving at quite a nice pace. So those dozen or so of us still waiting for the out-of-service lobby machine joined that faster line. It was another twenty minutes or so, but with three machines it moved at a reasonably brisk pace. Suddenly, I was at the front of the line, waiting for the next machine to become free. I have to admit that I've never particularly identified with Ziggy before, but there's a first time for everything. When the first one freed up, it went down for whatever service these things need to have. I wasn't too worried, because there were still two more than were working. A guy who'd been in front of me waiting for the lobby machine finished up his business, but as I stepped to the control panel, it went down, too. Meanwhile, the woman who would've been behind me in the long line was coming up to the window for personal service. But there was still one more machine. The same guy had been at that machine since we'd moved our line in from the lobby--I think he was the reason that the post office personnel made the rule of no more than five packages for the machines--but he was finally mailing all his packages. And as he walked away--you already know what I'm going to type. One of the postal workers said that the machines had been going up and down all evening, so it was possible that they could come back, but otherwise the best she could do was suggest we go into the only line left that was still moving (and I could tell it was moving because the woman who'd arrived at the same time was leaving the window and on her way home). By this time, it was after 11:00, and the line was just as long as it had been when I'd arrived. I wanted to send my taxes by certified mail, and I was considering getting a book of stamps and sticking them all over the envelope until I got up to the $5.00 and whatever that a certified letter costs. Before I could do that, though, one of the machines came on line again, and I was all over that in getting started before it could go down again. I finally got out of there after about an hour and forty-five minutes. I barely made it home in time to get this going before midnight.

The lesson here? Do your taxes on time. I'm sure I'll have long forgotten it by the time April 15 roles around again next year. Oh, yeah, and props to the Post Office for keeping the postmarks going after the normal last pickup of the night--without that, I and every other person standing in those long, long lines would've missed our tax deadline, so despite how it might sound, I'm certainly appreciative of the Post Office and its employees.