But then, I got a new mail carrier. And now I really understand the difference between good mail delivery and shitty mail delivery.

With my old carrier, the mail would arrive almost exactly at the same time each day. Usually right around 12:30pm. Okay, so you wouldn't set your clock by it, but it was pretty damn consistent, day in and day out. You knew that if you needed something mailed, it'd better be in the box by noon.

About a month ago, my old mail carrier (a guy in his 30s maybe) disappeared and was replaced by a woman perhaps in her mid to late 40s. Apparently, she's just not up to the task.

With my new carrier, mail arrives late. Really, really late. On days when I'm lucky, she shows up around 5pm. But usually it's more like 6pm. Or 7:30. It's all over the map. Some days, I just don't get mail at all. And this isn't the "there's nothing in the mail for you today" kind of not getting mail. I get -something- every damn day, even if it's just another stupid MacMall catalog or something. I haven't -not- gotten any mail for like 10 years. So this is a different kind of not getting mail. So I know it's not just "you don't have mail today". This is "the new carrier is so far behind in her schedule she just flat out gave up for the day" not getting mail.

This week, I have roofing contractors working on the house. They've put one of those giant construction dumpsters in front, to throw the old roofing materials into. The dumpster partly blocks the front door and mail slot. Note, I said "partly". It's still accessible, it just takes a little thought to understand where to go. The UPS guy figured it out. The FedEx guy figured it out. All the neighborhood annoying-leaflet-delivery-services figured it out. My new mail carrier? Nope. To her, that's a convenient excuse to not deliver mail at all. Now, I grant you that the words "minor inconvenience" don't appear in the phrase "neither rain nor sleet, nor snow, nor dead of night...", but I don't think that gets her off the hook.

I realize that I shouldn't get worked up about "the little things" in life. And when the mail contains grocery coupons and credit card offers, I really don't care if I get it or not. But sometimes I get important things in the mail. And just on General Principle, it pisses me off that my highly consistent and competent carrier was replaced by someone who clearly either doesn't give a fuck, or is too slow/stupid/incompetent/whatever to do the job.