"The line is out the door," a grey-haired woman with sparkly, Christmas ornament earrings warned me as I pulled my four-year old from the car in the post office parking lot.
"Oh, I'm just dropping this off," I smiled and showed her my package, complete with shipping label paid for on the internet and printed out the night before. I know I could call the postal worker and have them come pick up the package, but that would mean I'd need to know when I would be at home. Besides, I have an aversion to telephones.
So there I was, dropping off the package at the post office. My son and I went through the front doors, and sure enough, the line stretched out into the lobby. A shorter line stood in front of the automatic postal machine, the one that can print shipping labels if you swipe your credit card. I'd never seen a line for that dreadfully slow machine, not ever! This was serious.
I towed my son past the line, straight to the package receptacle in the wall by the letter slot. "Here, do you want to put it in?" I put the box in my son's hands. "Here, put it in. It's going to eat it!" I said with gusto as I pulled down the handle to open the package receptacle.
"Well, I hope not!" chuckled a man standing behind me with three large boxes in his arms.
I grinned at him, then encouraged my son, "Put it in."
My son lifted the box high over his head and tipped it into the receptacle. I let the door swing back up as I made a big slurping sound and then a gulp. "Yum!"
Everyone in line laughed. I smiled at them, then chased after my son as he dashed for the lobby doors.
As I buckled my son back in the car I thought sadly of the day soon to come when I'd no longer have a little child to run errands with me. I could never have gotten all those people to laugh by myself.
3 comments:
awesome way to look at it! :) i did not know about the online postal thing...thanks a million for the tip!
AND - printing labels on line is actually CHEAPER than doing it at the Post Office! So, not only does it save you time, it saves you money, too! Can't beat that! I love this service, and use it all the time. If the package is small enough you can put it out in your mail box just like you would an outgoing letter... ah, modern technology... P.S. you do need an accurate scale for weighing - i use my kitchen one
I got my postal scale a couple of years ago, back when most literary agents wanted paper submissions. I never used it because I took a break from submitting for a couple of years, and now everyone wants electronic submissions instead.
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