the other kind of post

I saw a headline in the local newspaper about changes in mail delivery routes, and the subtitle suggested many residents were unhappy to lose the familiar mail deliverer they'd had for years. I wouldn't mind losing mine. I never thought his behavior was offensive enough to write a letter of complaint to the Post Office, but I don't like being scolded for not emptying my mailbox every day. If I sleep over at a friend's house, or if I am too depressed to leave the apartment and come downstairs for 3 days, I don't want that to be any of his business. I still bear a bit of a grudge for his teasing me about not being able to lock the mailbox properly, though Redbird fixed the lock for me more than a year ago. His refusal to deliver the mail when I could not lock the box was inconvenient but not insulting--I could go to the Post Office in the town center every few days and pick it up--but it really bothered me that he presumed to chide me for being careless and lazy, for not doing something acutely painful.

I don't know yet if my delivery route is one of the 50% in town that has a new delivery person. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

The mailbox was packed full this morning, because I neglected to empty it yesterday. And because it contained
a huge circular (like a newspaper insert, 8 big sheets of newsprint, folded up) from Micro Center. Buying a computer with a rebate meant giving them my address, and getting out of that has been difficult. I managed it when I lived in Somerville, but it was less important then, because I didn't have a finite mailbox then.

a publication from AAA that comes with my membership. I loathe this publication. I hate the way it makes driving seem inevitable, while encouraging it, and the way it combines wholesome-looking drivel with fearmongering. I wish I could just buy the AAA guarantee of roadside service, and not support their lobbying or this kind of publication.

a Penzeys catalog. Why do they send me a catalog every month when I walk into their store several times every month, have ordered gift packages online? I think it's because they don't know how to NOT send a catalog.

a catalog for an ASM conference in California, about Materials for Medical Devices. I'm interested in the subject, but I am starting to recognize it is too late for me to work in the field. It's discouraging to even read the brochure and think, "Oh, are they using that for teeth now?" or "How on earth did they measure that?"

and an advertisement from the USPS, offering "Stamps By Mail DELIVERED To Your Door." They say it is "Quick, Easy, Convenient," with a little trademark doohickey. I think that goes a step beyond the usual sneerquotes. It is not a bit convenient to deliver more packages to my mailbox, and fill it to overflowing, when there are stamps for sale at the Post Office, at the supermarket, from the bank machine, from the drugstore...I can't go 2 blocks without finding some kind of stamps for sale more conveniently than having them delivered.

word

These days, I use "family" as an adjective with entirely positive connotations. It goes with feeling close and cozy and safe, a word that implies more quiet welcome to me even than "friendly." The word has somehow come disconnected from decades of tangible experience saturated with resentment (spite, shame, walking on eggshells).