Got an email response to my inquiry.
And I quote:
"The package was delivered to the address on the package. The barcode on the label was not printed properly causing the package to be processed manually due to being unable to be ran by machine. I would recommend contacting your neighbor that shares the same porch to see if they had mistakenly taken your package."
Well, of course I asked all the neighbors sharing the porch, before I even began this whole USPS inquiry. That was the very least I could do. Now, must I canvas the neighborhood? I responded to their email asking if they knew for a fact it was _my_ porch.
But OK, I am working up to this! I will go to the medford post office tomorrow, because I have to mail something (to a BF member!!) first-class-with-tracking, anyhow, and you can't do that online. Normally I go to the Cambridge PO and use the automatic kiosk, but here we go. Wish me luck. It is a beautiful building inside (was, last time I was in there, before covid, maybe it's changed). I recall a historic WPA mural in there as well. Not sure if it's still there. 2020 taught us that a lot of those murals were widely objected-to.
Drillium Dude I actually considered a long time whether to mention my difficulties with the culture here. All the MA bikeforums members I have met have, of course, been amazing!
If I might venture a guess, I'd say that there is simmering discontent below the surface here in massachusetts due to a variety of factors. Too much focus on big money, the root of all evil! We saw how they pulled out all the stops trying to woo the amazon hq here, but they don't properly fix the gas or sewer. Cities change policy in "public" meetings, without really trying for public engagement, so most policy changes hit renters (normally our lowest-income citizens) unexpectedly, in the middle of a lease cycle. Nobody can handle it, but it's being dished out nonetheless. The towns have thus made it clear they don't really care about the working people who actually have to live there. Makes everbody angry, or at least the bottom 90%. But that's just one way to look at it, and I don't want to get into politics. Whether I like it or not, I am a (harvard student ID) card-carrying member of the elite, in spite of my humble roots. So, I am an easy target for resentment with the situation, no matter whose side I am actually on.