[prev] Sun, 28 Mar 2004 09:09:33 -0500 [next] [life] - [comment]
I tried to send a couple of nice photos to my Grandma the other day. I put them in a standard manila envelope, you know the kind I'm talking about. Pretty standard 9" x 12" envelopes. I popped the requisite 37 cent(!) stamp on, and sent my letter on its way.
I'd been using them to send out resumés, but since I have a job that pays money now, I no longer have use for them. I would venture to guess that I sent out close to 25 copies of my resumé using these plain brown manila envelopes from September to December. But apparently, the one I sent out last week was different.
It arrived back in my mailbox, decidedly worse for wear, with a nastygram little sticker on it. In hindsight, I wish I had saved the sticker so you could have all seen it. Instead, I offer this artist's(?) rendering:
I think that's pretty close to what it looked like. So now, I need to pay an extra 12 cents to send my letter to Grandma. The only thing that I guess could justify my envelopes suddenly becoming non machinable is that it's being sent out of town. But it makes me wonder -- what did they do before they had machines to do the presort for them? Would they charge extra then?
"We're sorry, we've returned your letter because the machines necessary to deliver it haven't been invented yet."
Why does it cost more because my piece of mail is inconvenient for the post office? It's not like I'm trying to stuff a llama in a mailbox. It's an envelope.
I guess the fact that it was non machinable would explain why it was beat to all hell, too.
Needless to say, I'm going to slap an extra 37 cent stamp on this highly unwieldy envelope and see if the extra postage enables someone to throw it into the proper bin.
Ach scheisse! Ihr mussen ein 12 cent stamp hier stellen um diese Brief deinem Party zu kriegen.
I think "kreigen" is the verb to use....