When I think about this, it makes my head hurt...

Is common sense really going the way of the Dodo? Or is the collective intelligence of this country going to hell in a handcart?

I saw something on Sunday that I needed to post somewhere, and thought it would be better here than on one of my other blogs (TBWA or PSC).

Sunday morning, after church, we had to mail some Christmas cards (Wait, I should say Holiday shouldn’t I??? Or Hanukkah? Or Kwanzaa? Or Navidad for our Hispanic/Latino friends? Nah, I’ll stick with Christmas…but I don’t want to offend anyone… screw it, it’s the U.S., I can say anything I want according to the First Amendment)

We decided to mail our Christmas cards (that ironically enough say Happy Holidays) after church.

We were fourth in line for a process that, normally, takes about 10 seconds… you check to make sure that each item has a stamp, then you slide it into the slot… piece of cake, right?

Not today…

The first person in line takes (literally) 2 minutes to put their mail into the slot. Why? Because the mail wasn’t going in very easily… in fact, he had to get out of his car and force the mail into the slot. My immediate thought was, there must be a lot of mail in that box…

Person two pulls up, and has a small box of items to mail. She also gets out of her car and has to really work at putting the mail into the slot. She takes about 90 seconds.

The third person goes, and proceeds to take 2 minutes to mail his letters. Why? Because nothing had changed since the two people ahead of him put their mail into the box. This person also gets out of their car, puts the mail in and it falls out… he picks it up, tries it again and it again falls out. He picks it up again, and forcibly, and strongly, shoves the mail into the slot. They get in their car, and as soon as the car door closes, 2 of the letters fall out. They get out again, and push the mail back into the slot harder than before… they than drive off.

There’s 5 and a half minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Now it’s my turn. As I drive up, I see the letters overflowing from the mailbox and realize that there is NO WAY our cards are going to fit. No problem I say to myself… I’ll just… use… the… OTHER… BOX!

Yes, that’s right. There is ANOTHER mail box RIGHT NEXT TO THE OVERFLOWING ONE…

There’s nothing different about the other box.

It’s not separated out for local or out-of-town post

It’s not for express or anything special, it’s just another, normal mailbox that even has the same pick-up time as the overflowing one.

Did I mention they were right next to each other?

I, being the incredibly smart person that I am, decide to put my mail into the other mailbox. Down it goes, with a nice little sound when it hits the sparse contents of its bottom.

Did I mention they were right next to each other?

So… we have two mailboxes right next to each other… one is overflowing, the other is, maybe, a quarter filled. Three different people decide to forcibly shove their mail into the overflowing one, and totally ignore the box standing right next to the overflowing one.

One of three things is happening to me after witnessing this.

One: I’m making too much of this fiasco and need to relax.

Two: I have a right to spout off, as it should be common sense to check another mailbox when the one next to it is overflowing.

(Did I mention they were right next to each other?)

Three: Accept the fact that people are stupid and go on with my life.

After careful consideration, I decide to go with a combination of all three: I probably am over blowing this a little, but I do have a right to make fun of these other people because mailing letters is not brain surgery, and I made the realization long ago that there are a LOT of stupid people in this world and I just have to accept it and move on.

Tell me what your thoughts are about this; agree? Disagree?

Did I mention they were right next to each other?