Wait a minute, Mr. Postman! The Toronto postal workers are on strike at present. I was just over at the TTC site learning how to get my July Metropass (which, as I subscribe to it so as to get it at a reduced cost of $111, is normally mailed to me). →[More:]The TTC is telling subscribers to buy one at full price ($121) and they’ll refund the $10 to our bank accounts to compensate. I was just looking into whether I could use tickets for this one month to save some money, but it seems not. It costs $112.50 for 45 tickets, and I will need 42 just to get to work and back. Those remaining three tickets won’t even get me home from all my weekly grocery store visits, much less cover my trips to Home Depot or anywhere else I want to go.

It’s a relief in a way not to have to use the tickets. The pass is incredibly convenient. And I like being to go wherever I want, when I want, without having to feel like I should have saved the money the required tickets cost.

The only other things I am worried about not receiving are my credit card and hydro bills. I don’t want to get dinged for late payments. I do get other bills through the mail, but they are all automatically debited from my bank account so I know they'll be paid on time even if I don't know what I'm paying.

And it’ll soon be a non-issue. Sounds like Parliament is going to legislate the Canada Post workers back to work — the Conservative MPs are vowing to extend their session in order to do so, rather than going on summer break. Which I support. I'm not anti-union, but I am anti-strike. Strikes are just too hard on everyone and aren’t a productive way of solving problems. Arbitration is a better idea.

I do keep thinking of what a First World "problem" this is, especially when I reflect on how happy I am that all the stuff I ordered from Etsy earlier this month arrived before the strike began....