Jon put together a little party for the kids yesterday, it was great. He made cake and pizza and made all the invites. The snow caused a few cancellations, but the kids could have cared less. Our cousins are visiting from Washington state, and were able to come. I think all the kids had a good time.
When all our guests had left and the kids were tucked away in bed we cleaned up a little, but my major pregnancy melt down left little time for that. Lots of things have been testing my patients recently, and a number of non birthday related things just put me over the top yesterday. A big one was another little love note left by our mail carrier. Last year was the first year we had a lot of snow since we moved here, and having never had my mailbox on the street before, I no idea what the "rules" were. I spent a few days on the USPS website trying to get the guidelines on curbside mailboxes, but no such thing existed. A few days later, we got this nasty little hand written note on a piece of our mail from the carrier. Basically he threatened to stop delivery of our mail if we didn't clear the snow. What upset me was the fact that I had spent hours out there just the day before shoveling a path to the mail box. It was the best I could do considering that we don't have a snow blower and the rest of the bank was like ice. Needless to say, all the work was ignored and he plowed his stupid mail truck right through my path. I was livid. I called the post office and lodged a complaint... complaint about the lack of guidelines available to those of who never had a curbside mail box before, complaint about the nasty hand written notice which I took as a threat, a complaint about how we were doing our best, which clearly wasn't good enough.
One of our neighbors then took pity on us and plowed out the box and the snow slowly melted and it wasn't an issue anymore last year. In fact I never heard another word about the incident either.
Well early in the snow season this year a type written note was left in our box from the carrier. It was all lala I am so glad to be your carrier yata yata keep the snow free from the mailbox yata yata seasons greetings type thing. A few days later there was another note, and several days after that there was yet another note. To this point though, it was fairly generic, although it was clearly in response to my complaint last year at least about the guidelines.
Well Jon has been diligently out shoveling sometimes three or four times a day to keep the snow out of the driveway and mailbox area. Keep in mind that this man is also gone almost 12 hours a day to work... During the last big snow fall I caught another neighbor out side with his snow blower and asked if he would clear the area by the mailbox for us... and he did. During the week of Christmas, like everyone, we were pretty busy traveling here and there to visit family and just plain busy, and it snowed almost non stop the whole week. Over time, the snow built up in front of the mailbox again, and Jon went out to shovel it last Sunday. I remember thinking what a good job he had done as I drove in after work. Apparently it wasn't good enough. Yesterday another nasty hand written notice was in our mail box... One side is type written and says "It would help me immensely if you could keep the snow clear around your box (6ft before and 6ft after) Some of your neighbors have the right idea! THANK YOU FOR OUR HELP!" Hand written on the back says "I apologize for writing on your mail last year! I never denied delivery though! Getting stuck in front of a box is a serious problem! I need your help! JOHN"
So obviously my complaint last year was totally poo-pooed as a whinny nobody, and obviously the attempts that Jon has made this year have gone completely unnoticed. I just don't know what to do. We can't afford a snow blower (the initial cost nor the up keep) and the generosity of our neighbors has apparently run out. I can't reason with man and I am starting to feel like we are being harassed from our mail carrier. Are there rules about what they can leave in one's box? The whole thing just totally pushed me over the edge. Jon is trying so hard to do absolutely EVERYTHING around the house, you know, so that we don't end up in pre-term labor... and this ... oh I just can't even find words strong enough to describe how absolutely upset I am.
We're planning a very low key New Years celebration. Jon will be exhausted when he gets home from work (and shovels the mailbox to please the ******* fill in your own adjective here). I really hope you all have great day, and I hope 2009 will have some better days for us.
1 comment:
Why don't you ask your neighbor with the snow blower if he would be willing to plow it out for you if you paid him a little something? Or if he would be willing to 'rent' it to you for a little money so Jon can do it and not waste all his time?
And yeah, blowers are expensive. But if you get a 2 stage snow blower instead of a 1 stage snow thrower they are much easier to maintain and they don't break as often. The worst you have to do to them regularly is change the oil (about 2/3 a bottle of regular car oil) and maybe replace the spark plug now and again. We haven't had to do anything to ours except change the oil... but it is only the 2nd winter.
1 stage blowers chew and throw from only one blade, while 2 uses one to chop and another to throw it up and out. One stages, when they go... really pricey to fix and you should just get a new one. 2 stages are apparently easier and more cost effective to repair if needed.
Good luck and happy b-day tomorrow!
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