Neither Rain, Nor Snow...

Quickly now-
What's the cost of a first class stamp?
Is it 39 Cents? 41 Cents?
Funny... I can't tell ya. I have a sheet of stamps lying on my desk downstairs.
Still, If I had to wager, I couldn't be sure what each stamp cost me.

How long has it been since you sat down and wrote a letter to someone, put that letter in an envelope, attached first-class postage, and posted that letter? That's another question I cannot answer... but in my case I know it's been years, and I used to write a lot of letters.
There's another blog-post to be written about my frustration with trying to communicate with my male friends, but I'll save that for a later individual post.

How much damage has email done to first-class letters? My guess is that it has decimated them. Email is instant, convenient, and ya don't have to give your "from then to now" history in email... just state your immediate thought, then push "send."
So easy, even my macho "cavemen" friends aren't threatened by it!

How do you pay your bills?
For a while now I have resisted paying my bills online... fearful of the safety of sending my financial information over the "ether". But I finally got tired of the process... physically writing the check, tearing off the payment stub, putting both into an envelope and attaching first-class postage.
Now I simply type in the Dollar amount I want to pay on the bill, designate the date I want it paid, and push the "submit" button.
Done.

The U.S. Postal service still brings the statement for those bills to my mailbox, and MAN, do I ever get a pot-load of junk mail and catalogs on a daily basis! But I find myself raising the flag on that box to indicate there's a letter needing to be picked up less and less.

Personal letters via email...
Business bein' conducted online.
Strike one and strike two?

Fedex and UPS are already the preferred carriers for parcels. With the continuing loss of revenue from First-class postage, what's the future hold for the U.S. Postal Service?
It's gonna be interesting to watch.