All’s well that ends well.

My mother’s 91st birthday is Monday the 6th. Since there’s “Independence Day Observed” today (Friday) and Saturday the 4th is Independence Day, I made special cookies* for her birthday and mailed them on Wednesday to make sure they’d arrive on time. Yesterday USPS sent me an “Alert” telling me that the package was being returned to sender (me) because of an incorrect address! That’s baloney. She’s lived there since 1964 with the exception of a few years in the Persian Gulf and Somalia, and I mail cookies to her every few weeks.

The U.S. Post Office has been swamped with packages during the coronavirus pandemic since more folks are using mail delivery instead of going into brick-and-mortar stores. I’ve seen the normal mail carrier here go back to his truck multiple times each day to get more packages for just the few blocks that I can see from the corner window. I wondered if the “Wrong Address” was baloney to cover for a substitute Poulsbo carrier’s mistake since her normal mail carrier knows where she lives and usually takes the goodies that I send every couple weeks right to her front door, knocks and leaves.

Long story shorter. I was unhappy. Cookies have a shelf life and a week’s delay means stale cookies. I phoned Mother when I got the Alert, growling about it, and asked her to write a note to her carrier to find out what happened. Last night she called me back, said she’d called the postmaster who miraculously found the package in a stack in the post office, correctly addressed. So sorry. Lots of packages. Stuff happens.

It was delivered today to her mailbox, so … all’s well that ends well.

* Goodie box contained three kinds of cookies: my new Limey Wich, new Peanut Butter Wich, the even newer Pistachio Orange Mini Teacakes (no post) and a jar of my freshly-made Jam of Cherries**. She may share some of them, but she’ll hide the rest.

**https://mschefinseattle.com/2019/06/30/a-jam-of-cherries/