Can I get my mail?

 I am spoiled. On route 20, my current route, I don’t deal with a lot of headaches. The people are nice to me and appreciate what I do for them. The people who ask to get their mail are few and far between. There’s Calvin in my last apartment building on the route. Once every couple weeks he asks if I can get him his mail. He has lived there for at least five years, back when I was a young city carrier assistant on the route. His mother once sent him a package without postage, and I’m still not sure how that got through. He had to pay $30 in postage for it. He hasn’t had a mailbox key in a long time and I even once returned his mail because the box was full. He didn’t mind. I think he understands he should get a mailbox key, he just doesn’t want to go to the trouble. 

Today I was tasked with delivering part of a heavy apartment route. I had to give up part of my route for training, and the regular on this apartment route had to leave early, so they asked if I would do it. I kind of wish I had said no. 

First delivery of the route a man pulls up after I’ve left his apartment building. 

“Did you have any mail for apartment one?” he asked

“Um, I think so,” I said. These days, my mind likes to wander off. I had also brought in packages that were one street over, so I’m also thinking about that potential mishap. I grabbed the rest of the mail for the apartments and started to walk across the street to the next building when a woman yelled at me from across the street. 

“Did you deliver over here already?”

“Yes I did.”

“Did you have any mail for apartment five?” 

I may have had a look of annoyance at this point. It had been at least 45 seconds since I delivered there and I’m in “get this shit done” mode. “I’m sorry, I’m not really sure.” I went into the building and started delivering. I came back out and she was still standing out there. 

“Excuse me sir, could I get my mail?” I lost my key.” I must have had a look of slight annoyance on my face as I began to walk across the street.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s hot out here.”

“No, it’s ok,” I said as I crossed the street. 

I opened the mailbox and pulled out the notice that her mail had been returned and handed it to her.

“This is all you’ve got. You’re going to need to get a mailbox key to get your mail or it will get returned again.”

She said OK and I moved on to the next building. 

I don’t necessarily want to turn this blog into “You know what really grinds my gears?” although that was an excellent segment. My point is, please don’t make my work day more difficult than it has to be. I’m on an unfamiliar route (although she doesn’t know that) and it’s not exactly helpful to have multiple people asking me about the status of their mail. If you keep that mailbox key, you can just check the box to find out that you have mail. 

On this same route I also had a man who wanted to pick up his mail early and noted that I wasn’t the regular carrier. She always gets him his mail early. I was about 10 houses away, although he would have had to turn his car around and inconvenience himself. I also had a guy at the large apartment complex ask me to open his mailbox three separate times. The first time his key didn’t work and he wanted to check his mail (there was none), the second time he wanted to put his name tag in the box and the third time he wanted to take it out of the box, which didn’t make a ton of sense to me. Something about wanting to prove that was his mailbox. He may not have been all there. 

I actually don’t mind going above and beyond to help people. I know I just bitched about people flagging me down to help them out, but if I’m still at your mailbox, I’m not going to complain if you ask for your mail. Is it slightly annoying, of course, but these people are at least being courteous and not making me take extra time for their mishaps. 

But you know what really grinds my gears??? Kidding, of course. 

A candy review, because this is what people really want to read:

I had some sour straws today. These are a staple of my daily route diet. They are a near perfect blend of sour bite and sweet, sugary goodness. They come in a large bag, so I’m not polishing them off in 5 minutes like the Exploderz (review coming later) that I used to get at the gas station on my route. They are also sometimes available at the CVS that I pick up packages from, which is a major plus. Their only negative is messiness, as I have to lick the sugar off my fingers, which makes them harder to eat between mounted deliveries. 4.5/5 and a higher score for today since I forgot I had them in my lunch bag. 

I should also rate the 20 ounce red bull I bought today. I hadn’t had a red bull in a long time, although I enjoy just about every type of energy drink. The aftertaste to it made me do a double take to check if I had committed the sin of buying a diet or sugar free one. I had not, so something may have changed in the three or so months I had bought one (this counts as a long time in the mind of a caffeine addict). To be fair, this drink did keep me going until about 4:50 when I finished the other route, which is the main point of drinking something like that. Still, it needs to taste good. 2.75/5, and it’ll probably be another three months before I drink another red bull. 

I am going to post something more positive next time. I enjoy my job and wish to bring this positivity to the current zero readings of Pichael (I haven’t looked at the stats, but I’m assuming this to be true). Hopefully by the end of this I have a good synopsis of what it’s like to carry mail. I can even show this to my trainees and they’ll think I’m even crazier than when I started talking about my divorce.