Lick, Stick and Try To Mail

It was 6:10pm on April the 15^th (Tax Day) when I suddenly detested our post offices. On the door of my closest office, going far earlier than planned just to be safe, I saw a sign letting me know that they were keeping regular hours, with an insult-to-injury jab at the bottom about the late penalty I'd suffer if I didn't send my return back in time. Time for the mad dash downtown. 

Okay, so I get that every media in the Valley was used to convey that post offices would have regular hours. I know that the Roanoke Times, the local radio stations, and the signs at the post offices communicated this fact to where few could miss it. However, aside from most certainly being one of the people who did miss it, the point I must make is that communicating regular hours doesn't make only holding regular hours okay. 

Everywhere else I've lived had post offices open until midnight, and while those were bigger cities, we aren't exactly a one-horse town here. Even the USPS website boasted of convenience, reliability and extended hours on tax day.

I know that the post office is in trouble with the ubiquitous usage of email, but suck it up: we actually need you for once! (Well, selling books online, I need them a lot, but I'm adopting a community voice here). 

And from the research I conducted after the fact, I see nothing in the way of dissatisfaction about what can only be called shoddy service. I sent a Carrier pigeon to a friend living on an island populated by 18 people, and he told me their post office stayed open late. 

Luckily, my homage to Uncle Sammy still made it out with about five minutes to spare, though this was after wading through the crowds of not-so-happy people who had no stamps and had to wait to use the vending machines. Some might call us procrastinators, but I call us expectant. Expectant of a post office that would make just a little extra effort one day out of the year instead of holding the same friggin' hours they hold every weekday. At least act like you care by being open an extra half hour.