Today is Sunday, September 21 and there are only 51 days until my birthday, which is one day that the Lovely Elaine allows Christmas music.  However, when you go birthday shopping, don’t worry about getting me a CD, I have plenty.  Speaking of birthdays, today we recognize the birthdays of Gustav Holst, Fannie Flagg and Bill Murray.  On this day in 1897, the NY Sun ran the famous “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus” editorial, in 1930 Johann Ostermeyer patented the flashbulb and in 1981 Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Supreme Court Justice.  In Malta it is Independence Day, it is Thanksgiving in the Philipines and Press Sunday in the US.

I think that,if you work for the post office you should be required to “Read and understand English sufficiently to be able to perform the job.”  This used to be one of the requirements for civil service jobs.  Let me explain why.  Recently, the lovely Elaine and I went away for a few days.  Before going, I went to the USPS web site to put a hold on our mail.  I had done this in the past without much success, but I figured I would give it another try.  I asked to have the mail held and indicated that I would pick up the mail that was held.  I received an e-mail confirming that the hold was in place and that I would pick it up.  The hold was to run through Thursday and delivery would start again on Friday.

Just to give you some background, I tried the hold one time and asked that the held mail be delivered after the hold expired.  Unfortunately, events conspired to prevent us from going away, but I left the hold on anyway.  The second day, I happened to be in the living room and heard our mailbox being opened.  I went to see what was going on and there was a mail person delivering mail.  I asked why we were getting mail when there was a hold and she said that she was a fill-in and no one told her there was a hold.  What made it even better was that the mail which was supposed to be delivered on Saturday did not actually get to us until Monday.  Apparently, the carrier did not understand what was to be done.

After trying to have it held and then delivered several times, unsuccessfully each time I might add, I decided to have it held and that I would pick it up.  I tried that twice and both times the mail was delivered a day earlier than it was supposed to be.  Even though I knew there would not be any, I went to the distribution office and asked for my mail.  The person taking care of the window went away and came back a few minutes later to tell me there was nothing there and that the carrier must have taken it.  Apparently, the carrier did not understand what was to be done.

I explained that the mail was to be held and that I would pick it up.  Each time this occurred, I was told that they could not understand why this happened, that my carrier was one of the best they had.  I said that if he was one of the best then the rest of the town must really be suffering.  I was told, both times, that it would be looked into and the problem would be taken care of.  I walked out, shaking my head, knowing that nothing would change.

Fast forward to this past week.  I did not want to bother our neighbors with the chore of picking up our mail and I hadn’t been annoyed by anything lately, so I decided to give the vacation hold a try again.  When we got home Thursday evening, there was no mail, which was as it should be.  If things worked the way they were supposed to, I should have been able to pick up our held mail and our regular delivery should have been made on Friday.  Guess what!  When I went to pick up the mail I was told that it wasn’t there and that our carrier had probably taken it to be delivered.  Apparently, the carrier did not understand what was to be done.

I asked why he would do that when the hold said that the mail would be picked up.  The person I spoke to said that he probably took it because the hold had expired.  I said yes the hold had expired, which was why I was there to pick it up.  I then said that this was getting to be a little ridiculous.  I pointed out that this was not the first time I had this problem and that they seemed to have difficulty with any kind of hold.  He apologized and said that they would look into the matter.  I suggested that they contact the other people working there who looked into the previous matters and see if any of them could come up with a solution.

But wait, it gets better!  The lovely Elaine and I had to go out for the day.  When we arrived home we checked our mail box, expecting to see a pile of mail from the past few days.  There was nothing!  At that point the distribution center did not have our mail and neither did we.  We had no idea where it was and hoped to be able to find out the next day. 

Saturday morning, the lovely Elaine called the distribution center and explained our problem.  The person she spoke to put our carrier on the phone.  He said that he had a copy of the hold order and that our mail was there to be picked up.  Apparently, the person I dealt with the day before had no idea what he was doing and could not find (or did not look for) our pile of mail.  Ultimately, we got the mail and things sort of worked the way they were supposed to.

So there you go little Roseann Rosannadanna, it’s always something!

Our fact this week tells us that cat’s urine glows under a black light.  According to the various crime scene shows on TV, so do a lot of other liquids, so don’t assume a cat has been let loose in your motel room if you happen to turn on a black light when traveling.