Wrong Side of the Street

When we first moved to the Boggy Thicket, 40 plus years ago, I stopped by the Post Office in Huffman to ask about an address.  We knew we were going to be living on Conners Road, but had no idea what street number to use.  

"Just pick a number." they said, "We'll find you."

The local utility company was no help at all, and the number on our utility pole ran to about ten digits, too big to be convenient.  Using it as an address might actually have required bigger envelopes.

So, like several others in our neighborhood, we decided to use the tract number from our property survey.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The only problem was that we owned tract 109.  

We didn't think of it at the time, but traditionally streets are numbered going out from a central location like a Post Office or City Hall, with even numbers on the right and odd numbers on the left side of the street.  That worked fine for our neighbors - the address across the street is 117, and our next-door neighbor's address is 90.  

Our address puts an odd number on the even side of the street.

Even so, it has been our address for over 40 years with very few problems.  Over the years, FedEx has occasionally delivered our packages to neighbors across the road, but generally everything has worked out OK.

 I was waiting for a delivery (the starter for my tractor) yesterday, and when it hadn't arrived by four thirty, I contacted UPS.  Tracking software showed an attempted delivery but no such address.  

What the heck do they mean, no such address!  

It's been our address for over 40 years! 

Our name and the number are on our mailbox, for Pete's sake!

It took a while to actually talk to a real person, and she had to contact the local UPS depot and have them call me back, but they are supposed to try to deliver it again today.