Beneath the Wraps

                Going to the mailbox lately has NOT been worth the trip as I had mentioned in an earlier post. The other day we received three pieces of mail addressed to Richard and one to “Current Resident” – that right there tells me it is probably not worth my time.  I would have just trashed it based on that, but handed it to Richard along with the other garbage (like his last opportunity to switch insurance or purchase a burial plot or apply for credit or something like that) and put the bill aside as I’ll need to pay it.            He opened the one from the CDC Foundation – the one addressed to resident.   A bribe enclosed to be part of an important national study.   An actual bribe with a promise of more to come if only you’ll participate.   Richard said he had done it before and it paid out.   He said I could have a turn and get paid 10 dollars for it.     ...

Like the Holderness Family ( here ), I have lost track of days.   It did not help matters to see the mail truck come down our street twice yesterday.   Usually the time drags and doesn’t move quickly enough that it would have really been the next day, but I questioned the day when we saw the mail truck the second time.             I don’t know that I have ever seen the mail truck repeat the route on the same day.   I like to think because I received a package that was so incredible large that there was not enough room in the box for the other three items.   But I think it had more to do with the ambulance across the street.             That was also a unique situation – not that we hadn’t seen the ambulance at that house before during pandemic but it was the first time we had seen a fire truck pull up behind it with a group of about 5 volunteers gather...

          I remember seeing mailboxes in my neighborhood and at different corners when I was growing up.  I remember getting two Dr. Seuss books to give to my siblings.  I remember walking from our house to the nearest mailbox and counting the steps that I took and recording the number in the book. I don’t actually remember the number, but I know it was less than 100. Well, in one of them it was.  I don’t think I did them at the same time and so they may have had two different numbers.           I have considered the mailbox an endangered species for some time.  Mailboxes started vanishing to very far and few between.  I used a mailbox I passed between transfers when I rode the bus to one of my places of employment.  The last time I walked passed said location – the mailbox wasn’t there.  It was gone!  I didn’t know where the next near...

          Jenna is always asking if there is any mail for her.  I suppose most children go through the stage of wanting to receive a card or letter that has been sent especially to them.  It doesn’t happen too often.  And the disappointments seem to weigh in even more.           Recently we were at a pool party hosted by my cousin.  Her daughter, Melody and Jenna are five months apart.  We had arrived at the party late and both Jenna and Melody were going through withdrawal for each other’s company.  Before we pulled Jenna away so that we could return to our house, Jenna and Melody promised that they would write to one another – though we only live about 20 minutes away from one another.  Postage is definitely less than the cost of gas.  Not to mention the commute itself (construction and heat account for far more than 20 minutes) and our current ca...

In honor of flag day, I thought I would share just a couple of amusing stories: Patriotic Show Up My mom and sister had gone out of town over the Independence Day Holiday the first year that Roland and I were married.  My mom had meant to put the flag out before they had gone out of town.  She called me (from wherever) and asked if I would do it and she would take it down when she returned. Roland and I had gone to her house and I went downstairs where the flag was kept – the only flag I knew about.  My grandfather had had a military funeral approximately 30 years before.  Mom took home the flag that had been draped over his casket.  It was actually a lot bigger than I had remembered.  Mom must have been talking about another flag. I took the huge flag upstairs and told Roland that I had no clue how to hang it.  Roland is a solution finder .  He came up with a brilliant idea for hanging it in the front window.  As ...