["Let Inga Tell You," La Jolla Light, published May 11, 2026] 2026
Seriously, US Postal Service, you can do better. I know I have a quirky address but my house has been here for 79 years. You should be able to find it by now.
Now, I will concede that addresses in La Jolla can be problematical. They are basically permutations of the same ten Spanish words in an endless mix and match. I can see why those postal carriers confuse Vista Playa Bonita with Playa Bonita Vista.
That said, I have a file that is literally four inches thick of correspondence with the La Jolla Postal Service about their difficulties in finding my home in the decades I've lived here. Some of the post masters I have correspondence with have been dead for 25 years. (Yes, really.)
To be clear, the regular carriers who deliver five days a week have always been wonderful. The La Jolla Postmaster job, however, has a higher turnover than the swing shift at Jack in the Box.
It's the subs that deliver on that sixth day or during holidays and summer vacations that are the bane of my existence. It would really help if US Postal trucks had GPS systems in them which astonishingly - given that they are a delivery service - they do not. I don't know what the subs do with my mail but bringing it to my house is not on the list.
One of the USPS s admitted improvements is a feature you can sign up for called Informed Delivery. It emails you an alert of the mail (often including a photo of the envelope) that is due to be delivered to your house that day. So now, at least, I know in advance what mail I'm not getting.
The USPS problems were recently illustrated to me in a way that made me despair that they could ever stay in business. I ordered a clothing item a shirt - from a company in Los Angeles. They notified me the same day I ordered it April 23 that it was en route to San Diego (120 miles). This was great news until I noted that it was coming by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Here is the verbatim copy of the USPS tracking of my shirt's Journey Across America over the next nine days:
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item
LOS ANGELES, CA 90033
April 23, 2026, 4:32 pm
Accepted at USPS Origin Facility
LOS ANGELES, CA 90033
April 24, 2026, 7:04 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
LOS ANGELES CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 24, 2026, 8:19 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility
LOS ANGELES CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 25, 2026, 3:36 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
SAN DIEGO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 25, 2026, 6:05 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
DALLAS, TX 75211 [Huh?]
April 27, 2026, 12:42 am
Departed USPS Facility
DALLAS, TX 75211
April 27, 2026, 7:11 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
DALLAS TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 27, 2026, 7:23 am
In Transit to Next Facility
April 28, 2026
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
FRESNO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER [Gah! No!]
April 29, 2026, 2:35 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
FRESNO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 29, 2026, 7:49 pm
In Transit to Next Facility
April 29, 2026, 10:10 pm
Arrived at USPS Facility
HIGHLAND, CA 92346 [NEAR SAN BERNADINO - OK, right direction at least.]
April 30, 2026, 1:54 am
Departed USPS Facility
HIGHLAND, CA 92346
April 30, 2026, 4:35 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
SAN DIEGO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 30, 2026, 6:43 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
SAN DIEGO, CA 92122
April 30, 2026, 2:32 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility
SAN DIEGO CA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
April 30, 2026, 2:32 pm
Arrived at Post Office
SAN DIEGO, CA 92122
May 1, 2026, 12:49 am [that took 8 hours??]
Out for Delivery
LA JOLLA, CA 92037
May 1, 2026, 6:10 am
Delivered, Front Door/Porch
LA JOLLA, CA 92037
May 1, 2026, 12:19 pm
To summarize, this shirt was mailed the afternoon of April 23 and arrived in San Diego at 6 a.m. April 25th. I expected to see it later that day. But no! It was then routed to Dallas (why? why?) where it arrived on the 27th, made stops in various USPS facilities there, and was sent on to Fresno where it arrived on the 29th. After a nice visit there at their assorted facilities, it traveled on to Highland (near San Bernadino) where it arrived on April 30. It was trucked down from Highland to San Diego where it finally was delivered to my home on May 1.
This shirt has seen more of the North Central Plains area of Texas and the California Central Valley than most Americans. I wanted to ask it: did you have fun? Did you meet other nice shirts? Maybe some friendly handbags?
But even more I wanted to ask the US Postal Service: why, when this shirt had already traveled 120 miles from LA to its destination city (San Diego) on April 25 did you truck it an extra 3,138 additional miles on a deluxe sight-seeing tour to Dallas (1,183miles) then Fresno (1,558 miles), then San Bernadino (282 miles) then back to San Diego (115)? That doesn't even count its inner city transfers to different distribution centers. Hey, gas is expensive these days. I'm sure you guys get a discount, but really. Do you think this is why you could be losing money? Because it would have been so much less expensive for you to just deliver it on April 25 when it was already in town. In nine days, even walking from L.A. would have been faster.
Sadly, this shirt didn't fit so it is now en route back to L.A. I don t even have the heart to look at the tracking. I just hope it's having a good time.
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