POSTAL TIRADE & EXPLODING SHEEP

Last week brought some more goodies. If only the post person in the truck would actually ring the door buzzer which connects to my phone I would know when he/she is here. No the first time I find a note taped to my door that there is a parcel to pick up at the postal outlet. It is timed in the morning so it was taped to my door in the morning and I was home!! I had hoped to pick it up Thursday after I dropped off the brochure but it was too cold without my long johns on and so I went home. Friday morning I actually received a phone call from the postal outlet to let me know there was a package for me waiting to be picked up. Jokingly I asked if there was only one since I am expecting several more packages and she said actually there were two. When I asked about them she did say one was from Avon. Later in the day on my way out when I checked my mailbox I found the card indicating that there was a second parcel at the postal outlet to pick up. This notification was dated 8PM Thursday evening. AGAIN I was home!!! The only reason I can think of for the second parcel getting to the postal outlet so soon is because it was sent expedited. It has been taking two or three days to get the packages dropped off at the postal outlet for pick up if you are not home when they attempt delivery.

To continue on my postal tirade while I was out with Shelagh Wednesday we stopped at the postal outlet in Polo Park so I could send off two packages; one to my friend Rori in Florida and another to Sharon the fourth of four in the weluvknitting yearly swap. Before I took them I measured them and weighed them to guesstimate the cost of mailing both packages. Shelagh and I get to the postal outlet and wait our turn in line with more people getting in line behind us. First let me say I weighted and measured correctly and I got the correct amount for both packages. BUT the postal clerk there is the one who causes so much grief when I mail swaps. Generously, she fills out the customs forms for me and even the top part (where the weight and cost etc go) which few postal clerks fill out. Then she asks me what is in the package for the custom forms. I don't always list everything or the all the correct items and I tend to try to write illegibly so the recipient can't read what is in the box and has to wait to see until it is opened. Gives away the surprise when you can read what is in it before opening it. ANYWHO, to go on I tell her yarn and she says can't mail yarn. I am sure I looked confused when I said (again as we have gone through this before) what do you mean I can't mail yarn? She replies well yarn is wool and you can't mail wool. Shelagh says, well all yarn is not wool and I added the yarn I am mailing is not wool. She says, in the big book of dangerous good it lists as highly flammable yarn/wool. This has been a continuous contention when going to this particular postal outlet and it has been discussed numerous times on different groups and even at my knitting meetings. BUT this postal clerk insists wool/yarn can't be mailed due to it's highly flammable state when wet. I said to her when was the last time you saw or heard about sheep in the pasture exploding when it rained? I wondered what the people in the line behind me were thinking? Then she said I won't put that down. What else is in the box? I said cookies. She said to me I couldn't mail commerically prepared cookies and candies, only those personally baked and prepared BUT then adds but it is okay during Christmas. Excuse me!!!!! I can't normally mail commerically prepared items but I can mail them during Christmas????? She really doesn't know why that particular rule is actually in effect. It has nothing to do with homeland security in the states but has to do with bankrupting the cookie and candy industries. Apparently also this includes the inability of mailing other food items including dog and cat foods to the states. Imagine the cookie. candy, tea, coffee industries going bankrupt b/c people are mailing treats down to the states. On with the story. Next she asks what else is in the box. I say jewellery and she says you can't mail real jewellery either. I tell her it isn't real. She says oh it is costume jewelry and I say yes. Then she tells me I can't mail leather. I say there is no leather in the boxes. We went through this with both boxes. I didn't know what to list as everything I mentioned wasn't able to be mailed.

I keep imagining all the packages mailed within Canada without custom labels on them having possible exploding yarn and other non mailable items in them no one knows about. Also, yarn shops don't receive all their good via UPS and FEDEX. I am sure some companies must use the postal system to mail their wools and yarns to and within Canada. One of these days there is going to be a mighty big explosion when all these wools/yarns get wet. I hope I am around with my camera to get some photos of that and those sheep exploding for my blog to show everyone amazement it actually does happen.