In Other News

Just like that, from one day to the next, we received a letter in our mail box saying our postal service had been suspended.  Seems our mail delivery person deemed our road as "too dangerous" to deliver mail safely, and put a complaint in at the ministry of transportation, as well as the workplace safety board.

We now needed to drive into "town", (which is about 5 km from home, and not in a direction we'd normally drive in) to get our mail until a solution to our collective problem was found.  It's no great secret that Canada Post has been cutting back on their rural delivery over the past few years, and I can't say I really blame them.  What I disagree with is Canada Post's insane policies, and the creative ways they twist rules to suit their needs.

It was funny that about one week into our mail embargo, our postie went on vacation, and the replacement postie obviously didn't get the memo.  We started receiving our mail again.

I guess the ministry of transportation got the memo though, because a few days ago, a new speed limit sign was posted down the street.  Even I thought the speed limit at the end of our road was 70 km/h, but apparently it's been 50 km/h, just the sign was missing.  As in, for 10 years, missing.  Ahh, the bunglings of bureaucracy.  I used to burn up the non-emergency number for the cops in early years, complaining about the speeders tearing up and down our street.  Had I known the speed limit was only 50 km/h all the way along our street, I might have been a little more militant.  Alas.  I guess all we needed to do was clip the postie's car and watch the wheels that are government departments spin into over-drive.

Finally, four weeks later, we received a little envelope with 2 keys to an assigned community mail box.  We now get to walk down the street and pick up our mail and packages at a so-called super-box.  It's not convenient, there's no place to turn a car safely, but what the heck.  This little thing called "progress" is nipping at our heels.  As the saying goes:  You will be assimilated.  Canada Post will see to it, that's for sure.

In completely unrelated news, our town is still on a boil-water advisory because of high E. coli test results in our municipal water system.  It's been 3 months now, and a solution to our H2-Oh-Oh problem isn't anywhere on the horizon.  It's hard not to drink water out of the tap, especially while brushing one's teeth, for example.  I've never been a fan of bottled water, so buying water in bulk irritates me.  It's probably more dangerous than what comes out of the tap, considering most of it is bottled in plastic bottles and stored in dog knows what conditions, and for how long?  We always have the choice of switching over to our well water, but if the municipal water supply is contaminated with E. coli, ours is too, in all likelihood.  Why take that chance?

The only water that is tested potable is the run-off from our septic system, disinfected by UV treatment, no less.  Too bad we're not allowed to drink it.  Municipal rules, dontchaknow?  Oh, the irony.

So, every two weeks we receive a new notice, put in our old rural mail box no less, informing us of another 2 week delay.

It's great when systems work, isn't it?