The dumb thing I did yesterday

I write about my big mistake in the hopes that you will not have need to repeat it. I sent out a book-swap book and a box of a few little goodies yesterday. The book was more than I thought it would be (almost $5 plus $1 for a tracking number -- ouch!), but the little box was really expensive. Normally throwing a few things in a box costs no more than $10-12; this one was a whopping $28. I almost had a heart attack. WTF? I questioned the guy at the post office, and he assured me it was the right price for that weight. All right. But damn, it didn't weigh that much. 2.1 kilos, as I recall... Esposo was at the bank around the corner, and I went over there and told him of my post office experience. He said no way in heck should that tiny little package have cost so much, so we went back to the post office afterwards to figure out what went on. The woman there weighed the package again, and yep, right price. The problem? It was that one-tenth of a kilo OVER 2 kilos, so that meant it went certified airmail instead of regular mail (which also goes by air, but never mind...). Which also meant it cost twice as much as a package weighing only 2 kilos. So I paid $14 to send .1 kilo to the U.S. I could have taken out one of the plastic bags I used as stuffing and dropped the weight down to 2 kilos. Ugh. Anyway, I told the woman that the man who waited on me (who spoke perfect English, by the way, so he must have figured I am made of money) should have let me know that if I repacked it to get the weight down by one-tenth of a kilo it would have cost half as much. She apologized, but unfortunately, they had already put the stamps all over the package and she couldn't take them off at that point. Lesson well learned. Always weigh packages at home first.