I Apologize In Advance (USPS Rant Ahead)

As if I didn't despise the USPS enough! Yesterday I received two boxes from my sister-in-law in the mail. As I was opening the first one, I was cursing her for how much tape she used. I planned on calling her and asking if she intended for me to chop my arm off opening the boxes. Then, I realized that the package had been opened. Scratch that. The package had been reconstructed all together. It appeared that the original box had been destroyed, so they cut the top of the box off and taped it onto a new box. They wrapped the whole darn thing in layers of that fibrous packing tape with a sweet little label reading 'We're sorry. You're package was damaged in transit. We hope it doesn't cause you any inconvenience. Bla, bla, bla.' When I finally get the box open, I am greeted with a strong, musty, moldy smell. I picked up the first item, and it was damp. And moldy. And stinky. The box contained mostly clothes, for the kids (birthdays, etc.) All of the clothes smelled pretty nasty, and one dress is most like ruined because it has dark gray mold stains all over it. From what I can tell, the original box must have been soaked, and they repacked the (wet!!!) contents into a new box, sealed it up, and took 14 days delivering it. (It was sent Priority Mail!!!) The other box she sent also had that the same label. I opened that one up to find 19 cans of Squirt. One was leaking. They looked like they had taken a tumble down the conveyor belt as they were very scratched up. Now the Squirt, I can understand. It is a can of liquid, and apparently more of the burst and that was the reason they had to repack that box. They removed the exploded cans and repacked it. I can handle that. But what happened to the clothes?! They aren't sticky, or smelling of Squirt, so I can deduce that they were damaged in another incident all together and not from sitting near the Squirt box. Fabulous service, yet again, by the USPS. I can only hope the box I just mailed to my friend Erin will get there intact, and heck, maybe even within a month or two since I sent it Parcel Post. I should have sent it Pony Express.

PS. On a happy note, we are now the proud owners of 18 cans of Squirt, and 6 cans of Green Chile Sauce....Colorado Contraband!!!