Friday morning, I got a call from a desert bakery that had a delivery for me. I would discover that my partner gifted me a birthday cake to celebrate my birthday (11 December) — an act that is dope for many reasons including things the Internet can do and also also including a surprise tangible display of affection.
The phone call was from the delivery person who found out the hard way that my address is physically located on Redstone Arsenal military installation. Why wouldn’t they know that? Great question to answer in the next paragraph!
In the Spring of 2022 while moving onto Redstone Arsenal, my lease manager showed me that my mailing address would be number street name apartment number, Huntsville, AL 35808. Me being me, I thought that was weird, so I mentioned Redstone Arsenal was the first military base housing located on post where the address city name is the name of the surrounding city and not the name of the military installation. I don’t recall exactly how the rest of that conversation went, but I walked away with the understanding that I had to use Huntsville in my address.
During the months to follow, I would have an issue with securing an Uber ride and receiving a DoorDash order. In both situations, the drivers agreed to the trips without realizing that the destination address was on a military base.
By the way, the headache with getting an Uber or Lyft driver who has an ID card to freely drive on the base was a major motivating factor for me buying the electric unicycle. In order for someone who does not have an ID card to be able to drive on base, they have to be given a pass. A sponsor, someone with a valid ID card, goes with the driver to a visitor center at one of the military installations gates, and they both complete a form that gives the driver some amount of time that they can drive on base.
In Redstone Arsenal’s policy, the driver who is given a pass cannot be left alone on base. That means our brave sponsor has to escort the driver when the driver leaves the base. I get it, but it’s a MAJOR ass pain and neither cost-effective or time-efficient. Something to note is that the Uber ride continues adding on time while you and your driver are waiting to get a pass.
I can fix this
Here we are in December 2022, and I decide I want to initiate changing a broken system. The problem statement is straightforward: ride-share drivers, delivery drivers, and delivery service applications arrange deliveries to an address on a restricted military installation without knowing the address is on a military installation. Brainstorming a solution can be summed up by a single sentence: If my resident is on a military installation, then my mailing and physical address must include the name of the military installation. Solution: allow residence whose physical address is on a military installation to use for a city name the name of the military installation.
I immediately called my local USPS post office…central answering service…for the entire country…although the phone number uses a local area code and spoke with someone who opened a service request for me thinking I was in Philadelphia. Worlds were being shifted, and things were really moving along swiftly. Naturally, I corrected the customer service agent before disconnecting. I would get off that phone call feeling like the ball was definitely moved in the right direction.
Next, I forwarded an email of the service request confirmation to my resident manager at the Redstone Family Housing office. In the message, I asked, “Can I use Redstone Arsenal as a city name in my address and still get my mail?” an hour or two later, my guy at Family Housing call to tell me I can use Redstone Arsenal as my city name I still receive my mail. No Senator letter needed. No petition needed.
I rejoiced. I could’ve been using the name of the Base in my address all this time without any issues.
The birthday cake conclusion
I didn’t explain how the birthday cake delivery was resolved, but it was resolved as you probably could imagine. I had to drive off base and get my cake. Coincidentally Friday morning, I had both a Turo pick up and a Turo return scheduled within 30 minutes of the time the bakery delivery driver called me. I asked the driver to meet me at the Space & Rocket Center where I meet Turo Guests to pick up/return my vehicles. The driver was kind enough to agree.
Because my Turo Guest who was picking up a vehicle arrived earlier than my Turo Guest who was returning a vehicle, I got to hang out in the parking lot for a few minutes holding a deliciously decorated birthday cake.
By the way, I’m giving this the category Retirement because this is the kind of stuff you have time for now, apparently.
