Thursday, January 17, 2019

What is going on with the mail?

Hot on the heels of yesterday's blog post, these two envelopes, postmarked on Dec 28 and Dec 31, arrived on Jan 13! That is around 4 to 5 times as long as first class mail is supposed to take.

A nice collaged envelope from Carolyn in the PTEX December exchange. I like how the red from the poinsettia stamp is continued in the address and added pieces.



And a handmade envelope from Hester, with one of the Birds in Winter stamps that compliments the colors of the envelope. The bird is a  black-capped chickadee - although with the postmark he is more of a black-bodied chickadee. I was surprised to see this postmark (recycled from last year, I think) as the only one I've seen this festive season is the happy holidays slogan that you can see on Carolyn's envelope.


Hopefully a more normal postal service will resume soon. 

15 comments:

  1. 13 days don't seem too long... Well, maybe I'm still thinking as if I was living in Morocco :)

    I'm curious about the "2009" on the second envelope.

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    1. US mail is supposed to take 3-5 days. Hester sent me an envelope in January that I received before the one she sent in December!

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    2. I didn't answer your question... the 2009 is the second part of my zip code. Most of the time people leave off that second part on personal letters, however all the bills have that. It should increase mail delivery accuracy (but not really this month!).

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    3. I leave the choice up to you :)

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  2. Maybe the delay caused by the government shutdown?

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    1. The post office receives no government money, so it shouldn't be affected by the shutdown.

      Bad weather does affect delivery - maybe now that winter has decided to arrive in force in many parts of the country that could be it? But it doesn't explain why letters sent from the north and south took so long.

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    2. Honestly, I think the Mail Monsters have something to do with all these delays. (And the increase of mail traffic in Christmas, too).

      I received today a postcard from Switzerland (one of the most reliable postal services) that took more than one month to arrive (?!).

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    3. I am not sure how, but I forgot about the mail monsters! Maybe they are extra frenzied around the festive season.

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  3. Deux jolies enveloppes et deux beaux timbres ! Je n'arrive jamais à comprendre pourquoi une lettre met quelques jours ou quelques semaines voir quelques mois pour faire le trajet France Usa :(

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    1. It is indeed one of the unsolved mysteries of the mail system.

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  4. Ce sont les mystères du courrier ... Je vous souhaite une très belle année 2019

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  5. Philip, I feel your pain. I've had two pieces of mail returned to me, the sender, from last month. I can only assume that the post office doesn't like pretty envelopes or mail art. Or maybe they just struggle to read a clear domestic address. Oh, let's not forget to add five more cents on January 27th... Grrr.

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    1. The returns seem to happen on a semi-regular basis, usually when the return address is clearer than the fancy/arty address. And I've bought a few sets of stamps while they are still 50c :)

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