Fun mail (and a small rant)...

I got a fun package in the mail the other day.  I recently won a giveaway over at Sinta's blog, The Pink Pincushion.  I don't often win prizes, but I'm always grateful and excited when I do.  She was giving away several patterns because she found she had already purchased them.  Have you ever done that?  I know I've done it several times with fabric.  But I figure it just means I really, really liked it!

Giveaway package from Sinta

My favorite of the patterns is 'Forget Me Not' by The Cotton Way.  I want to dig through my stash and see what fabrics I have that will work for it.

And now for my rant.  Has anyone else noticed a sharp decline in the US Postal Service?  In the past six months, I've had more problems with them than in the previous 10 years combined.  For example, this is the way Sinta's package arrived at my house...

I'm grateful nothing fell out of it.  I've also had the following problems recently:

1. A Priority Mail package mailed from North Carolina to Wisconsin took 14 days to arrive.
2. A First Class letter mailed in-state from 2.5 hours away took 11 days to arrive.
3. A First Class letter again mailed in-state to 3 hours away took 8 days to arrive.  
4. A Priority Mail package mailed from North Carolina to Florida took 27 days to be delivered.

I imagine the decline in service is the result of necessary cutbacks, but I wonder how much worse it will get and if at some point, they'll have to close down.   I remember as a child hearing their 'motto' of "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  I used to think so highly of this venerable institution and it's just a shame that their reputation has fallen so far.

Until later...

Johannes Kepler, the famous mathematician and astronomer, once said, “Science is simply thinking God’s thoughts after him.”