We have had the most wonderful mailman on our route for quite a while. Gary is always happy and smiling, and nothing is ever too much trouble for him. Unfortunately for us, he is retiring at the end of the year. Meantime, he is using up some of his vacation time. He was off last Saturday.
I didn't see the mail truck come on Saturday, so I don't know which man was substituting for him. I do know that none of them are particu
larly wonderful. I did see the little yellow marker up, so I knew the mail was in the box. But I wasn't feeling all that well, so decided to leave it there. Rita would bring it in to me when she came over on Sunday.Kitty called me from California in the afternoon. She said she had mailed me a box, Priority Mail. I should have received it by now. I asked if it would fit in the mailbox, and she said oh, no, it was too big for that, so I told her no, it hadn't come yet. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I became. Gary would have brought a big box up to the door, but would the substitute do that? I decided it was worthwhile to make the trip out to the street.
The box was there. It was just about as big as my mailbox, and he must have hammered it in with his fist. I really didn't know how I was going to pry it out. I struggled with it for quite a while, and finally did manage to work it out. Then of course there was my regular mail which had been stuffed in first, all crumpled up in the back. I'm very glad there were no photos in one of the envelopes. They would have been destroyed for sure. By the time I had managed to get at all of this and got back into the house, I had one terrific angina attack.
Can't begin to tell you how much we are going to miss Gary when he leaves. I just hope whoever the substitute was on Saturday is NOT the one who takes over his route.
But the contents of the box more than made up for it. There was wonderful organic California fruit and veggies, chocolate-pomegranate clusters that were out of this world, and a poem and a note from Kit.
6 comments:
Don't you just love mailmen?
Sounds like a wonderful care package, even if it didn't receive very much care getting to you. Cheer up ;)
I will miss Gary dearly. I have tried to talk him out of retiring with no luck. Can't say I blame him. I had asked him if he knew who would be taking over his route, but he didn't know. The only thing he could tell me is that when the postman or women retire, they are not hiring anyone else, so the other's have to take up the slack. It could be 5:00 before we get our mail. Lisa
If that happens again, take a photo before fighting to get the mail out .. and then photograph any crumpled mail.. then send it to your local post office manager .. it might be a hassle but it will certainly stop whoever is so disrespectful of your mail.
Our route is the one they use to train new postmen, so we get a different one every two or three weeks and I don't think any of them really care about what they're doing. Last year because the dogs barked when he came up on the porch, he reported vicious dogs and we were told that there would be no mail delivery to us until we installed a mailbox next to the sidewalk. It took almost a year to get that straightened out. Adam is as stubborn as I am and he didn't want to put a mail box where they instructed. So while this battle raged on we had to rent a mailbox. It finally got taken care of and we do get mail here at the house in the original mail box. And that's good, although with the trainees you never know what time of day you'll receive mail.
Wish your Gary didn't have to retire, but I am glad you got your package full of wonderful goodies!!
Enjoy, Bobbie!
Sylvia
We had a mailman like that and there was nothing we could do. I complained and it got worse.. I am so sorry this is such a hassle for you especially with your health..
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