Do you ever wonder when you drop an important letter or bill in one of those U.S. Mail boxes if it will really get to where it’s supposed to go? Most of the time I try not to think about it as I drive by and drop in.

Once I put a $2500.00 check to a heating and air contractor in the big blue box. It was a local address and it took two weeks to get to where it was supposed to go. I should have hand delivered it.

How much mail gets lost behind counters or mail truck seats? When Jason got married, we just assumed friends were so involved fighting the wife’s illness, they had forgotten to return the reply card. In reality they never got the invitation and were surprised and disappointed thinking they weren’t invited. For Travis and Jill’s weddings we assumed nothing, but made phone calls. We were shocked to find out how many invitations were evidently lost. But where did they go? One of Jill's invitations came back three months after the wedding in a ziplock bag looking like evidence from a crime scene.

Benjamin Franklin was the country’s first Postmaster General. What did that guy not do? In the beginning postal service rates were figured on the distance the letter traveled. I guess, the further it went the more horse feed they needed. Postal rates are now increasing so fast now I’m surprised there aren’t more disgruntled postal patrons than postal workers.

I read in USA Today standing in line at the post office is in the top six things we dread following public speaking and going to the dentist. Truly it is a strenuous exercise in patience. My question is why have four clerk stations if only one or two are ever used?

Clearly the postal service has taken a hit with email use. It’s so much easier and greener to delete email than throw junk mail away. However, emailing an important letter is not a whole lot different for me. I can hit send on my computer and lose it in the black vortex of cyberspace because of one wrong letter in the address. It’s not like Google where you get a message saying, “Did you mean...?” At least postal carriers extend a little grace if they can read your writing.

Even if it’s a gamble and sometimes frustrating to send something postal, I don’t now, maybe Ben Franklin and the fellas had a pretty good idea after all. I still look forward to going to the mailbox every day.