MAIL

We still have a permanent ( bricks & sticks ) domicile where we pay State & Local taxes, ect.. We needed to have our local post office stop our RFD ( now for those of you that may not remember that term, it stands for Rural Free delivery ) mail service and start forwarding it, temporarily ( four months ), to the post office nearest to our workamper job site in Colorado.
A simple straight forward process, one might think. But remember, we are dealing with a semi governmental agency. That's the formula for lots and lots of regulations, nearly to the extent that an interpreter might be needed.
But, being an optimistic kind of a guy, I went to the USPS web site and started the process.
It went well as long as they were taking my money ( credit card ). I got the PO Box rented and recieved the confirmation, which included the brief statement that I needed two forms of photo Identification to be able to pick up my PO Box keys and get my assigned box number.
Cool, I thought, we doin' it now !
Next step, set up the forward date with my local post office. Now my local post office has no part in this process, they just have to frequently check the internet to update their customers requests.
So I am filling out the form to have my mail sent to my new post office box, when it happens. They ask me for my new PO Box number. End of process ! They havn't given it yet, and won't until after we drive hundreds of miles and present ourselves and two forms of photo ID.
So, I wonder, why they have designed a system that won't work ?
Luckily, we have known our local post master for many years. She's a nice lady that fills all of her Deer and Turkey tags every year. A woman with above average common sence.
She sent a internal communication to the other post office and voilla ! In two days, I knew what the post office box out there was going to be. Within a few minutes, I had completed the mail forwarding process !
I am thinking, ain't the internet great ! What a way to expedite things ! He, he, leave it to a semi governmental agency, who's policies are dictated from the District of Columbia or, somewhere within the Beltway, to design a process that had to be made work by a country Post Master !
Uncle Sam came up short on this one, but my hat's off to you mam', you gotter' done ! Thanks, Johnna !