Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night . . .

I got this photo from April a couple of days ago, along with a text that said, “Thanks for my birthday present!” I was surprised? Skeptical? Flummoxed? Relieved?

Here’s the story:

Kevin had known that April really wanted to make a basket, and I knew that they liked getting massages, so I made a basket-making gift certificate for April and a friend, and I wrote a check for massages. I put those things in an envelope and mailed it off. On April 1, which is April’s birthday.

I told Kevin that I’d made the birthday things and had mailed them. A couple of weeks later, he reminded me that I’d said I was going to mail them. And I said, “I did mail it. On April 1!”

Kevin said, “Are you sure? It hasn’t come.” I was absolutely sure that I’d mailed it. I’m positive, I told Kevin.  I knew because I’d gotten a manila envelope for the check and gift certificate, but when I looked at the size, I realized that a regular, small envelope could hold what I was sending, so I put the things in the smaller envelope. And, because I don’t send much mail to them, I had checked my address list, just to be sure that I was putting the right address and zip code on the envelope. I knew I’d mailed it.

But, it hadn’t arrived.

Meanwhile, I got a text that said my AT&T bill was overdue. I thought it was spam, because I always pay my bills. And, when I mail the checks for every bill I receive, I put the bill itself in a folder where I keep all the household bills after they’ve been paid. I checked, and, yes, there was the AT&T bill, which meant I had sent the check. The next day, I got another text, reminding me that I’d not paid my bill. I checked my bank’s website, looked over the checks that had been paid, and, yep, there was NO cashed check for AT&T.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO MY MAIL?!?!?!?

The next day, I went to the AT&T store (with my bill), and spoke with an employee about the missing payment. I wanted to pay my bill, and, since another bill was undoubtedly on the way, I wanted to pay that upcoming bill, also, sort of a good-faith effort. We got all that settled. However, I have begun to take my outgoing mail straight to the post office, instead of putting it our on our mailbox on the front porch. I’m out running errands and shopping two or three times a week, and the post office is nearby, so it’s easy; just a new habit.

Which brings us to the very tardy envelope that arrived with April’s birthday gift certificate. All Waco mail goes to Dallas to be postmarked and then gets sent back to Waco to be delivered. I guess the processing machinery is faster, and trucking mail back and forth makes sense. Anyway, the postmark on April’s envelope says, “Dallas, Tex, 20 May 2021,” about 7 weeks after it was mailed. We do not know why or where or what is the reason for the extreme delay for that simple piece of mail. But, it did actually arrive, belatedly.

Meanwhile, I also checked the AT&T bill, and it says the “issue date” was March 27, which means that bill might have arrived at our house around April 1. And I’d have sent the payment in the next day or two. The check I wrote for the late April payment plus the upcoming May payment was processed at the bank on May 10. Yesterday, I checked my online bank statement and, TA-DAH, there’s another check that has also cleared, on May 26, the check I wrote and mailed, also on April 1.

Jesus told the people another story:

Sometimes things get lost. And, sometimes those things get found. This was really an easy thing. I could have stopped payment on the checks that went missing, and written new checks. I did get charged a late fee, even though I mailed the payment in plenty of time. And I’m thinking about giving the AT&T folks a call, asking them to look to see that there was a check that arrived late, but it was because of a problem with the post office. I suppose they hear that all the time.

Kevin and April have not charged me any extra fees due to the tardiness of the mail.