mail

Noel,
The fluidity comes and goes. Regular mail to the east coast takes about three days most of the time - five to six in bad times. Priority Mail is pretty consistent and Express Mail works well. The mail out is not the big problem. Mail coming in is slower than you expect but paying bills is not a biggie unless you wait until the last minute. If you give it a week before the past due date you are usually ok.

If you don't want to pay bills on'line (and even I have reservations about that) what you can do is check statements on'line. Most of your Visa/MC accounts have an option to check statements. Find out the cut date and send your payment early. Phone calls would work to. Call the day after your meters are read or statements are cut for your utility services to get the amount you owe and send payment than. You should have plenty of time to send payment that way, without having to worry about the bills arriving to late for you to send the payment.
Another option for utilities is to run credit a month in advance. I did that on our cottage that is out of town. Never had to worry that way.