In yet another tale of Pomona dysfunction, my post today is about our local post office. The one on Monterey and White. Our main post office in town. Now my husband has been griping about this forever, but now it's my turn: For many years, our post office has been without a scale in their lobby. If you run in with a letter of unknown weight, you are out of luck unless you stand in the always-very-long line to have a clerk weigh your package.
Last week, Mr. Big and I rushed to the post office to mail off a contest entry to the Lego company. As the package was oversized, I had no idea how much postage to put on it. Mr. Big's big dream in life is to grace the pages of the Lego Magazine, proudly displaying one of his creations, so getting this in the mail was a life or death situation. As I saw the time nearing 5 p.m. as we were still on the road to the post office, I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, they don't have a frickin' scale." But I quickly convinced myself that since nearby Claremont and nearer-by La Verne post offices have sported fancy, self-help computerized scales/postage dispensers for some time now, that surely the Pomona post office had finally entered the 2000's and would have the same.
As Big and I rushed into the post office at 5 p.m., my hopes for Pomona turned into Claremonte poste office envy. The doorman had already locked the inner lobby, which was, as usual, overfilling with people in line. Said doorman could not be convinced to let us in, and confirmed that there was no scale at the inn for us to use. When I started to discuss this obvious deficiency with him, the doorman explained that they used to have a scale in the outer lobby, "But that just didn't work out. No it sure did not." The doorman then suggested I try the La Verne post office, which he advertised was open until 6:30 p.m. and had a scale.
Now personally I find a scale-less post office about as acceptable as our local Stater Bros. not having hand carts for something like 4 years. I immediately announced to Big, who was also in an uproar about the whole thing, that I would write a post on the blog about it. Even 6 year old Big could grasp the cathartic power of an online rant, and with that we were off to La Verne.
Once inside the La Verne post office on upper White, the scene was one of serenity, order and virtual emptiness in comparison to the jam-packed Pomona office. And there in front of us was a working, unoccupied computer containing a scale and postage dispenser.
I know that some people will tell me to stop complaining and get my own postage scale. And perhaps you are right. If there is one thing I love about Pomona, it's that it forces all of us that live here to be creative, self-sufficient, and a little more immune to heartache. But sometimes it really sucks!
THE END
