There is plenty of anger in the air over the sudden change in collection hours at the Post Office. The powers on high have decreed that the final pickup of the day in Hillsboro is now 12:30 p.m.

Businesses are probably most affected by this change because many notices and bills will have to be prepared much earlier. No more running down the street late in the afternoon with a handful of important information for customers, and even more important, bills for customers!

And, by the way, don’t take it out on the local postal employees. They probably are more hassled by the change than you. In addition to reorganizing the daily ritual of delivering and collecting mail, they have to put up with all the complaints!

The change has affected the newspaper business big time, especially rural weeklies. Most of the Sentry-Enterprise subscribers in the area were used to reading their paper the next day after it was printed. Kiss that goodbye. Now it’s lucky to be sent off to readers on the following day.

Our paper has always been printed early Wednesday morning by the parent company, Morris Newspapers of Wisconsin, at the state headquarters in Lancaster. It was sent to their printing operation on Tuesday afternoon, and returned by truck in time to be mailed from Hillsboro Wednesday afternoon.

With the efficient one-day delivery by the Postal Service, most readers received it on the “Day of Publication” Thursday.

Not only does the new deadline coincide with the printing, but postal trucks carrying the papers now roll right by La Crosse and travel all the way up to St. Paul for sorting and distribution.

Needless to say, the Sentry office has received many phone complaints, and I’m sure the Post Office is playing the same game. Neither of us, of course, had anything to do with the decision. My guess is that it all came down to economics! What doesn’t?

Hopefully, Morris will be able to alter its printing schedule to some degree. They have eight other papers to worry about in Wisconsin! Even one day earlier would eliminate regular coverage of School Board and City Council meetings. not to mention sports and other local news stories.

The decision is another of many challenges faced by the print media in today’s electronic jungle. You would think that the Postal Service, now being financially tossed around by the advent of strange sounding names like texting and Twitter, would do all it could to accommodate the few friendly businesses they have left.

We’ll do whatever it takes from this end to try to improve delivery.

And, meanwhile, here’s a salute to those of you who complain when you don’t get your paper on time. You are actually music to our ears because if you ever stop caring enough to let us know, we will be the big losers. We never forget that!

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On a much brighter note, we found a laugher that can qualify as either a medical joke or an old-timer story!

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor’s office.

“Is it true,” she wanted to know, “that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?”

After a pause, the doctor answered, “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

There was a moment of silence before the lady replied, “I’m wondering than, just how serious my condition is, because this prescription bottle is marked NO REFILLS!”