While it is not the official creed of the United States Postal Service (USPS), everybody has heard the old saying: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

USPS has quoted from this saying itself in advertisements and other materials, so it would appear that they approve of the sentiment. Snow is the first poor climatic condition listed.

As such, I’m always a little surprised when USPS suspends service. They announced a suspension on Saturday due to the blizzard, and while I haven’t heard anything from them since I certainly didn’t get any mail yesterday. Will there be mail today?

I’m no fan of the Postal Service, and haven’t been for a long time, but lots of stubborn organizations—particularly doctors and other medical facilities—have not embraced the Internet age and still want bills paid by mailed-check (or even mailed-credit-card information). For the time being, this is still a public service.

Between USPS’s failure to obey their own [admittedly unofficial] creed, and VDOT’s failure to clear our roads, I’m starting to wonder if I can trust the government.

That was a joke.

Update 2/14/2010: For the record, mail was delivered to our house on Saturday, 2/13/2010…for the first time since Friday 2/5/2010. Yes, you read that right. Our incredibly reliable USPS decided to skip an entire week.