Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Dark of Night...

Have you heard? The mail has been running late. Maybe it's just around Backroads. People complain that the mail carriers are out at 9:00 p.m. with headlamps, delivering junk. They get their neighbor's mail. They find their own dumped in a snowdrift. Folks have been up in arms about their bills being late. To the tune of 30 days late, with city water bills. Somebody complained to a congresswoman, and the bills were "found" and delivered within several days. I had no dog in that fight. (That's just an expression. Val Thevictorian certainly does not condone canine altercations. Nor stuffing felines into sacks just to release them.) We have well water, so whether people pay or do not pay their water bill on time is of no nevermind to me.

What does concern me, though, is my credit card bill. We only use one card. On purpose. And we pay it off every month. It normally comes around the 25th, and I send my check right back out in the mail. I'm not one to let things slide until the due date. Bill in, money out. No forgetting that way. Hick used to wait until the due date. "Why should I let them earn interest on my money instead of me?" Yeah. Like earning interest is even much of an option these days.

Anyhoo...I looked and looked for my credit card bill every day. Some days we got NO mail. Some days we got junk mail. Still, the credit card bill did not arrive. I looked on my old statement. It's not really due until the 18th. But with the state of postal service in Backroads lately, I didn't want to cut the turnaround time short. I have been telling Hick for at least a week that our credit card bill is missing. "Maybe it got put in somebody else's box. We get that one lady's Victoria's Secret catalog all the time. And that other guy's retirement check statement. I guess we're out of luck if somebody took it. They'll have our account number and address and know where we charge stuff. I've been calling that automated number to make sure no new charges are on it. I guess I'll just call tomorrow and tell them we didn't get the bill, and pay it over the phone with the debit card. At least it'll be done."

This morning we didn't go to school again because of the snow. That means that I got to loll in the warm bed with no sharp toenails woodpeckering at my shins while Hick got up and went to work. I was up by 7:30 to remind The Pony to take the trash dumpster to the end of the driveway. I went into the kitchen and saw a note on the counter. This was not the usual note on a paper plate, but a note on the back of a wide junk-maily envelope. Still in Hick's handwriting, though.

"Val, I found this mail in the truck. I guess it's been in there since the last time I drove it and picked up the mail." Which would have been, oh, I don't know...during the last batch of continuous snow days.

Under that note and a DISH Network advertisement and a Consumer Reports junk mail fake magazine was our credit card bill. I checked the statement. It was sent out on January 15th.

I can't blame the post office for this one.