Postmaster Jekyll and Mister Hide
Dec. 9th, 2009 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogOur local post office building got phased out of the retail business sometime in the 1990s. They opened a storefront in the strip mall next to it, where all of your everyday stamp and passport and shipping material needs are served in a carpeted and cozy (if still understaffed) kind of way.
Unlike many locations where the "old" post office was demolished or sold to hold another business (our old one in Rochester had been turned into a bagel shop if I'm remembering right), the Williamsville "branch" building still exists as the coming-and-going point for all the letter carriers, and is also the place to go for anyone unfortunate enough to need either "window service" or "held mail."
My office has long considered signing up for the first of these. They deliver the mail to our offices ever later, and pick it up from our drop box ever earlier, and their only proposed solution for either is to pick up from, or bring the mail to, the old Sheridan Drive building, where for at least the former, you are charged a substantial annual fee for the privilege of them not delivering the mail TO you.
Yet it was a something personal, not business, that required me to go there yesterday- a certified letter on a family matter, which had to be signed for when nobody was home, so a slip was left telling me to head to the "held mail" window at the old branch. I did so, three times, before the missive was finally in hand, since they weren't open as late as they said they were yesterday and they didn't come close to opening early this morning.
As with federal buildings and airport lobbies, such facilities bear the lasting Dark Mark of the Bush Administration. The lobby has been shrunk to a size capable of maybe holding a civil jury, with no amenities and no access other than a swing-in half-door which you are required to ring at to be served.
Decorating your view while you wait are not murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, but a door full of BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD signs trying to get you to siddown and shaddap:
As opposed to the fee your sender paid to make you go out pre-snowstorm to the post office three times in 18 hours to get your goddam mail?
Adding the irony to this display is the plaque on the wall next to that door, left over from when this building was an actual full-service postal facility, way back when:
If your soul will fit through the slot, please feel free to deposit that there, too. As long as it doesn't weigh more than 13 ounces.
----
It's enough to make you want to kill somebody. Fortunately, I already have an outlet for that.
At least one of you has RSVP'd for a virtual Facebook viewing party for Sunday night. Those of you on either side of Flyover Country have another option, though: joining a viewing party with actual cast members!
This SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13th watch the epic season finale of DEXTER, while sipping Dexter themed cocktails at select Starwood Hotels!
Mingle with Michael C. Hall, John Lithgow, Julie Benz, James Remar, and C.S. Lee at the W Hotel Los Angeles! Plus, special appearances at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers by Desmond Harrington and Clyde Philips.
Doors Open at 8PM, Show Begins at 9PM — First Come First Serve.
Dexter door prizes available at all locations.
There's also three of them in LA, but I don't think anyone who's posting regularly here is there except the young lady who tipped me to this:)
Now if I were king, I'd begin the end of this season with an answer to the ultimate anti-spoiler:
We know Dex is gonna triumph, because he's the star. Star star star! It's not like the show's named "Arthur," is it?
Well, yeah. Unless you gorked the opening credits to CALL it "Arthur," putting Pasty White Lithgow in all the scenes we're used to seeing MCH in, having him walk out of his Perfect Suburban Home at the end of the intro with the same smug look on his face that we're used to seeing on Dex's. They already did a riff on this once, so it's not without precedent, and it would at least make you guess a little bit about the struggle between not-so-good and way-too-evil.
Nahhhhhhhh.
Unlike many locations where the "old" post office was demolished or sold to hold another business (our old one in Rochester had been turned into a bagel shop if I'm remembering right), the Williamsville "branch" building still exists as the coming-and-going point for all the letter carriers, and is also the place to go for anyone unfortunate enough to need either "window service" or "held mail."
My office has long considered signing up for the first of these. They deliver the mail to our offices ever later, and pick it up from our drop box ever earlier, and their only proposed solution for either is to pick up from, or bring the mail to, the old Sheridan Drive building, where for at least the former, you are charged a substantial annual fee for the privilege of them not delivering the mail TO you.
Yet it was a something personal, not business, that required me to go there yesterday- a certified letter on a family matter, which had to be signed for when nobody was home, so a slip was left telling me to head to the "held mail" window at the old branch. I did so, three times, before the missive was finally in hand, since they weren't open as late as they said they were yesterday and they didn't come close to opening early this morning.
As with federal buildings and airport lobbies, such facilities bear the lasting Dark Mark of the Bush Administration. The lobby has been shrunk to a size capable of maybe holding a civil jury, with no amenities and no access other than a swing-in half-door which you are required to ring at to be served.
Decorating your view while you wait are not murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, but a door full of BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD signs trying to get you to siddown and shaddap:
As opposed to the fee your sender paid to make you go out pre-snowstorm to the post office three times in 18 hours to get your goddam mail?
Adding the irony to this display is the plaque on the wall next to that door, left over from when this building was an actual full-service postal facility, way back when:
If your soul will fit through the slot, please feel free to deposit that there, too. As long as it doesn't weigh more than 13 ounces.
----
It's enough to make you want to kill somebody. Fortunately, I already have an outlet for that.
At least one of you has RSVP'd for a virtual Facebook viewing party for Sunday night. Those of you on either side of Flyover Country have another option, though: joining a viewing party with actual cast members!
This SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13th watch the epic season finale of DEXTER, while sipping Dexter themed cocktails at select Starwood Hotels!
Mingle with Michael C. Hall, John Lithgow, Julie Benz, James Remar, and C.S. Lee at the W Hotel Los Angeles! Plus, special appearances at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers by Desmond Harrington and Clyde Philips.
Doors Open at 8PM, Show Begins at 9PM — First Come First Serve.
Dexter door prizes available at all locations.
LOCATION — NEW YORK CITY
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There's also three of them in LA, but I don't think anyone who's posting regularly here is there except the young lady who tipped me to this:)
Now if I were king, I'd begin the end of this season with an answer to the ultimate anti-spoiler:
We know Dex is gonna triumph, because he's the star. Star star star! It's not like the show's named "Arthur," is it?
Well, yeah. Unless you gorked the opening credits to CALL it "Arthur," putting Pasty White Lithgow in all the scenes we're used to seeing MCH in, having him walk out of his Perfect Suburban Home at the end of the intro with the same smug look on his face that we're used to seeing on Dex's. They already did a riff on this once, so it's not without precedent, and it would at least make you guess a little bit about the struggle between not-so-good and way-too-evil.
Nahhhhhhhh.