I was pleasantly surprised to see a great new innovation at the post office. Service there has been getting worse and worse over the years, and lines longer and longer, so this came as a shock.

They put in a neat self-service machine (that provides insurance too) that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That means that at 3 AM in the morning I could park right in front of the post office, walk right in (with a guard on duty), and use the machine, paying with a credit card. You place your letter or package on scale. There is a screen like at an ATM. You approve the weight shown, type in the zip code it is going to, pick the service and extras you want (including insurance up to $200, certified mail, etc.), insert your credit card, approve the payment, and out pops a receipt (see mine, shown below) and a postage label.
You have to have written your address and return address on the package. You put the self-adhesive postage label on the face of the package (if there is not enough room, you can affix it around the edge of the box). Finally, you put the package in the large mail shoot.

Wow! Great! Includes insurance! No more waiting in lines! Open 24/7!

(These labels can also be printed on a home computer, but some sites charge a monthly fee. Others seems to require PC only (no Mac's.) and special browsers (Netscape or IE). Then you have to go to the post office (or mail box) to deposit the package anyway.)

Robert