Merry Christmas, Check Republic

Yesterday I went to the local post office to mail some Christmas cards and gifts to friends overseas. All went well until the flummoxed clerk tried to find "Check Republic" in her computer. She punched buttons, looked at the envelope on the scale, looked back at the screen, pushed more buttons, and furrowed her brow murmuring, "Ch . . ." Finally she said, "It's just not here." I told her, "It's probably the last of the 'C' countries." She said, "No, I don't see it." She then turned quickly, disappeared into the back and was gone a loooooong time. Since I was doing this "quick errand" on my lunch break, I greatly appreciated her snappy attention. After a while, she came back and immediately began rummaging around her desk, muttering that she was looking for "the manual." I told her it was OK, I had a postage scale at home and I'd take care of it there. Unwilling to accept defeat, she came back and proceeded to punch more buttons on the computer screen. Finally, she exclaimed, "There it is! I just didn't go down far enough." Well, duh. You'd think the address clearly printed on the envelope which read, "Czech Republic" might have been a clue about how the country name was spelled. But apparently not. She also charged me nearly $9 to mail an envelope of slams (small booklets of questions which have made the rounds of pen-pals) to Sweden, which I think was waaaay too much, but since she was actually able to find Sweden in her computer, I didn't have the energy to protest.

And we hear that company after company is laying off presumably competent employees. It would be funny if it weren't so depressing . . .