Funny Story!

Nine months ago I had the Post Office hold my mail for a week during my summer vacation. Sounds simple enough, right? When I got back, my mail arrived no problem, however a few expected packages went AWOL. One, the Vanity Fair book, was a birthday present from my cousin to my wife; the other, the record, was another of my many eBay purchases. The two items were nothing really precious or valuable, but highly anticipated nevertheless. For answers, we grilled our postman, Mike; checked with the post office; reconfirmed the shipping addresses with both senders; then re-grilled Mike, now fully charred. All to no avail. Then nothing. THEN, nine months later, our packages arrived. Here's what happened . . .

Last September, an irresponsible stand-in for our trusty postman Mike must have realized too late in the day that two packages he loaded onto his LLV that morning should not have been brought into the field. Now, if you know anything about working for the Post Office, you know that mail travels only one way, Out--it never comes back In. When workers go Postal, it's almost always because they are overwhelmed by too much mail. Anyway, when this new-be schmuck realized his mistake, he decided to ditch our treasures in the nearest empty receptacle--a neighboring condo's parcel box. He probably thought he'd have the opportunity to deliver them to us the following week. Or, maybe he knew all along these packages were going no further.

Luckily, those nine long months were fairly temperate, or my precious vinyl would surely have warped and the coffee table book would most likely have wilted.

Fast forward to last weekend. On Saturday, our trusty mail carrier Mike knocked on our door. His his arms were full and his smile was large. With what, we wondered? It was neither of our birthdays, nor was it Christmas. "Look what I found!" Mike said. "Remember those packages you were looking for last year." Yes, Yes, YES!

The following conversation held no real answers, only this. One of the parcel boxes on Mike's regular route had no key--which he had somehow ignored for the past nine months. Then he got curious. He decided that the box with the missing key must be opened. Acquiring a replacement key from management took about a week, but when opened, the box revealed our missing treasures. His amazement was surpassed only by his embarrassment. And luckily for us, he choose not to conceal the mistake--his only desire was to present us with the packages we'd been longing for. And here they were! Mystery solved.

My cousin was greatly relieved to hear the good news, but my eBay pal must forever suffer the negative feedback I posted those many months ago.