Mailbox Madness!

When we moved into our home late last year (sounds weird to say late last year, but it is officially 09 now, no more 08), we started to take great pleasure in the little things because this was, after all, our very first home after nearly 6 years of marriage and 6 rental places. If we had noticed when we signed out contract that there was no mailbox, we would have made the builder put one in for us. Being that we missed that detail, we became responsible for putting up a home for our mail. Thomas was pretty pumped about this task. He was meticulous and made sure he bought or borrowed all the needed equipment. After breaking through a bunch of rock and using a whole bag of quickrete, our very first mailbox was secure. In a manly fashion, Thomas was very proud of the work of his hands, albeit just a mailbox......but it was our mailbox, so to us the pride was warranted. Anyway, I say all this to let you know it was more than just some silly black things across the street from our house. (He has a picture of the finished product on his phone. I am not sure if he can get it off, but I will post it if it is possible)

After moving into our home and living there one glorious week, I went out the retrieve the mail, only to find that the mailbox had been hit by a car. I called Thomas right away, knowing he would be pretty sad. Alas, he was, but at least the box was still standing, just a little mauled. At first we excused this mailbox injury to be the aftereffect of a concrete truck on our narrow road, for they were finishing up construction on a home nearby. And, if your vehicle is as wide as a concrete truck, it would be challenging to navigate our road. Plus, we considered the fact that if you did by chance hit something, it would be hard to even notice in a loud truck of the like. Hence, we shrugged off the experience. Little did we know this was about to become a near weekly experience.
 

Thomas has since learned to bend the lid as necessary to still get it to at least close, but the seal is not complete, and on rainy days (which we have been having more than our fair share of recently) our letters, bills, and

magazines, etc. get damp and sometimes downright soggy. We're pretty certain that if Thomas had not used a whole bag of concrete to set our post, the whole things would have been knocked over by now. After the dents and dings became more frequent, and no one ever stopped to tell us our mailbox had been hit, we began to think that perhaps these were just "love taps" of sorts, from which the driver was not completely sure something had been hit. That theory worked for a while.....until we began to see bits and pieces of side-view mirrors on the road next to our box. When we saw a portion that contained parts of the words "Objects in mirrors are closer than they appear," we couldn't help but laugh a little.

Soon, other houses along the street began to see their own share of these hit-and-runs. The one that is completely off belongs to a vacant house, so I guess that explains why it is still on the ground. Other homeowners have gone to extreme measures to help keep their boxes intact: duct tape.

Still, to this day, after all the hits and broken mirrors, not a single person has stopped to tell us sorry, left a note, sent anonymous gift cards or apologies. Instead, they just leave us busy trying to figure out a new way to bend our lid to make sure it still closes.....and we've lost count of the official, obvious number of dings, but I would have to say it is around 9 or 10 by now. So, if you are reading this and you are by chance responsible for hitting my mailbox: Thomas likes Logan's and I enjoy Olive Garden. We assume a $30 dollar gift card will help us cope. And we know you know where we live, for you hit our mailbox.