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16 MAR 04: THE FINNISH LINE
"Five minutes or less service," says the sticker on a door of the Downtown Post Office. Yeah, right. It took me close to half-an-hour to use the post office Monday afternoon - so maybe that sticker went up back in the days when Domino's Pizza
promised 30-minute deliveries.
It was a bit past the lunch hour when I rolled down 12th Street to the Downtown Post Office. It turned out I made the right call in picking a parking spot. The ones right in front of the door have a 15-minute time limit - while down the block they're two hours long. Why would anyone dare risk it?
(Besides, the short walk from the two-hour parking spot takes you past a row of newspaper boxes. Even "Investor's Business Daily" is there - which I guess makes sense, because downtown loft apartments aren't cheap.)
At around 1:15 p.m. Monday the waiting line at the Downtown Post Office stretched well out to the lobby of the federal courthouse. I had to double-check to make sure I hadn't overslept -- and it wasn't April 15 instead.
Only two people were working the Post Office counter downtown - along with someone who was walking around with a tape, measuring the counter itself. He checked how high it was, and how wide it stretched. Was this man a government
inspector, trying to make sure customers have a safe distance from crazed postal workers?
People from all walks of life can stand in line at the post office. My group included a woman who walked in carrying a box with an HSN logo on it. I'm going to assume this Home Shopping Network customer was NOT completely satisfied....
The young woman behind me in line was prepared for a long line like this. She pulled out a wireless phone and talked to somebody. Since I don't have a wireless phone, all I could do was stand there. Starting a chorus of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" didn't seem quite appropriate.
A big event brought me to the Downtown Post Office. I mailed the first copy of my debut CD to Finland! Apparently there's one part of the world which hasn't heard of KaZaA yet....
How much would YOU pay to send a CD to Finland? The lowest available price was $3.20, arriving by air in seven to ten days. For some reason, there was no rate for shipping by dogsled.
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