Mail Blues

I'm sad...we don't get mail here like I want to. I'd even take credit card junk or flyers from wal-mart but we get nothing. It's so upsetting to open the mailbox and have it empty. Part of the problem is that we are considered a "rural route". We actually had to call the local post office on two different occasions to ask them to deliver our mail. I guess typically this is not a normal service and people just come pick it up from the post office. When the post office finally got the message (or when we finally got some mail to deliver), we got a form in our box that we had to fill out to give permission for them to put our mail in our mailbox...so strange. The form also let us know that we can use our postal carrier as a post office, we can order stamps, get things insured, and pretty much do what a post office would do through our carrier. When I called the 2nd time to find out why we had no mail I found out our carrier's name is "Billy", of course it is.
But here's the other problem, we aren't even getting the forwarded mail from our old house. I just don't get it, I feel so helpless, like our mail is just out there somewhere and no one knows what to do with it. It's a strange disconnected feeling. Another thing that's irking me mail-wise is that it seems to take forever, we opened the box yesterday and had one lonely postcard from my mom that she sent last Wednesday...4 days for a post card? Doesn't that seem odd. I know I'm just spoiled by my suburban life but I feel like my postal carrier, you know, Billy, just randomly decides when he is going to hop in his UNMARKED truck and put what he pleases in my box. My final mail-related rant is that we ordered DSL last Wednesday and still have not received the equipment. I'm going crazy not having quick, accessible at a moment's notice, Internet access. I can live without a lot of things: cable, a grocery store that carries unsalted butter (What's up with that? Do people in the country HAVE to have salt in their butter?!), a garbage disposal, etc. but I've quickly learned how much I rely on the Internet for access to information. Maybe it's my library/information science background, but it keeps me connected with the world, especially now that our cell phone service isn't so great and our home phone is long distance. Anyway, I'm sorry if you read this whole post because it was really just a place for me to vent, now let's see if dial-up can handle uploading all these words...I promise I'll post pictures (as soon as I find that damn battery charger) and positive fun stuff about our new home soon. We really do love it and have had an "adventure" (as *A* calls it) everyday.