Our mail carrier left a notice that she would no longer deliver our mail, because of an obstruction. The "obstruction" was a light-weight sliding door panel we placed at the bottom of our wheelchair ramp during construction to prevent the dogs from escaping. My husband and son are both severely physically disabled, wheelchair bound, and completely dependent. The dogs would take advantage of them and slip past. The construction was needed to make the house more accessible and was finished in Oct 2013. So, why wasn't the sliding door completely removed? (Usually it leans against the ramp railing in an open position.)
First, we ran out of funds to complete everything we needed in the remodel, which included a "special" gate for the mail carrier. And secondly, until this past month, I was the sole care giver for both my husband and son, which meant on call/working 24/7. I only got sleep in two hour increments. I was exhausted and didn't have time to train the dogs. Recently we got a part-time care giver, so I can get some sleep. I have been training the dogs and telling all visitors not to shut the slider. On the 27th of June, a visitor who hadn't been at our home in quite a long time, slid the panel shut. There has been no obstruction since then. I got a notice that the mail carrier would no longer deliver, as of July 9th, 2015.
Sure enough, on July 9th, she walked past our house, with no attempt to deliver, even though there was no obstruction. I need to add that I have health issues, which sometimes makes it very difficult to retrieve the mail from the box, even though it is next to the door.
I called the post office to explain our situation. We can't afford to pay someone to move the box and, if it was moved, would find it very difficult to retrieve mail. They asked if there was a driver in the house. Yes, me, but running errands is difficult, because I can't leave my guys alone and I, myself,have mobility problems. When our part-time caregiver comes, I need to sleep, which gives me four straight hours of sleep. The postal person on the phone asked if the care giver could go to the post office. The care giver's job isn't going to the post office, it's care giving for two people. It is the mail carrier's job to deliver the mail.
Does our mail carrier really believe that a small inconvenience on a few occasions is so great that she can not deliver our mail? Doubtful, unless she is pathologically self-centered and lazy, which I also think is doubtful. So, what is the real reason she doesn't want to deliver our mail?
I can only guess. The post office sent out a survey to assess their service. At that time, we had more wrongly delivered mail here than in any of the other places we lived. The problem was well known in the neighborhood, as it was a fairly regular occurrence. Perhaps our mail carrier received fallout from the survey. The other possible reason is that our house is on a relatively steep hill. Our mail carrier would cut across our yard, instead of staying on the sidewalk, to mitigate the steepness and shorten her route. We never minded, even though we know she is suppose to stay on the sidewalk. We understood. After the construction, the yard is uneven, un-repaired, and more difficult to navigate. (As I said, we ran out of funds.) Perhaps the mail carrier became irritated that her shortcut hadn't been fixed. She now had to either navigate the rocky and uneven yard or climb the steep sidewalk and then slide something a child easily moves. Perhaps the mail carrier has other issues. Everyone has their own struggles... you never know.
So, here we are: a veteran career fighter pilot, wheelchair bound and completely disabled; our son, wheelchair bound and completely disabled; and myself, caregiver 24/7 until a month ago, now 18/5 and 24/2, with significant health and mobility problems myself. We have a carrier who won't deliver the mail, because she is inconvenienced on (now rare) occasion by an easily slid barrier. We don't need people feeling sorry or pity for us. We just don't need people deliberately making life more difficult than it already is.
In Apple Valley, our mail carrier cared about her customers. If we hadn't picked up our from our mail box in two days, she would knock on our door. If that failed, she would peek in windows, just to insure we were okay. She saved a neighbor man's life by finding him, after he had fallen on his garage floor and lay helpless for two days. In contrast, our current carrier leaves notes that we need a bigger mailbox, if the mail hasn't been picked up. It never seems to cross her mind that we might be ill or worse. Perhaps one day she will learn from the example set by good, caring individuals.
Update: I had been protesting for more than a week, calling and pleading for them to send a supervisor to look at the situation. There was no obstacle. Finally, our care giver loaded my wheelchair bound son up and took him to the post office. They explained the situation to the post office. Our mail, which mainly consisted of medical and insurance related issues was critical. Even some of our medicine is delivered by mail. Delivery began again. The mail Nazi lost this round.
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