Getting things done moves slowly in our house. To give you an idea of how slowly - we have been in the house over 25 years and still have not had a house warming party. Most things do not take that long, but we tend to be over cautions and take our time. We shopped for 3 years before buying a new snowblower - our old one not having been used in decades and was no longer working.
Now some background. For over two decades we had a great Post Office where we live. The mail was delivered with no problem. When we went away for summer vacation and had our mail held, when we picked it up there was no problem and mail delivery was immediately restarted. About 3 years ago we started having problems with our mail delivery - in the past 2 years, when I started keeping track, three items for my accounting business from IRS - with all my personal and business identification information in all three - went astray and never made it here. Two credit card statements - from two different banks - ditto. A few bank statements from assorted banks - ditto. Several pieces of mail - mostly ads, but still they could have been important mail, has shown up having been opened by someone else and then taped closed again - obviously delivered to someone else and opened in error by them, taped closed and dropped back in the mail. We have gotten a number of items addressed to other people and delivered to us. Now, I don’t mean the neighbor next door or down the street - these are addressed to people on streets we have never heard of and we have lived in the immediate area for almost 40 years and husband grew up for another 15 or more years, so these are not streets in the nearby area either. We have been working on switching our mailing address to our Post Office box, which is at a different Post Office than the one our house mail goes through. When we mail items out they go through the Post Office with our box. (Due to the design of the different Post Offices’ coverage areas by community our Post Office is further away from us than two other Post Offices as we live at the far northern end of the coverage area, so we have always used one or the other of these two nearer Post Offices to send out mail.)
When we used to travel by car and stay at hotels we would take several weekend trips during the year and a longer summer vacation (up to 3 weeks when husband was working). We would not have our mail held for the weekend trips - we would leave after Friday’s mail was delivered and take it in before we left and then just Saturday’s and possibly Monday’s mail would be delivered depending on whether we came home Sunday or Monday night. We would have the mail held by the Post Office for summer vacation and then go in, pick up the mail, and restart delivery. (We would not notify the other Post Office to hold the Box mail either, except for the summer as they automatically set aside in the back any excess mail over the size of our box.)
We now tend to travel in the middle of the week instead of the weekends for our short trips - and there are fewer of them. It is easier to get a space at a RV park midweek - a reservation at an RV park generally cannot be canceled close to the date so we tend not to make reservations for short trips until we know for sure that we are going. Also the place we normally go for short trips is a heavy tourist area with a lot of weekend visitors which crowd many of the places we go and annoy husband, so we go midweek instead. Now when we go away the mail three to four days of mail ends up sitting in the box in front of our house. (We tend to leave earlier in the day on the trip as some local main roads are under construction and we have to get to a certain point after the worst of rush hour and before construction starts for the day, so the first day of the trip’s mail is now in the box where before we took it in before we left.) So we now feel more uncomfortable leaving the mail in the box in front of the house while we are away. We don’t want to have the mail held as this has become a problem with our Post Office. The solution? We decided last year that we need to have a locking mailbox for the front of the house.
We have a post mail box, meaning we have the type of box that sits on top of a post, similar to those in more rural areas where the boxes sit along the side of the road so that the postal delivery person (who used to be the “mailman”) can put the mail into the box without leaving his vehicle. However, we have our post and mailbox adjacent to our front door not at the street - just a bit more secure than having the mailbox at the street.
On and off since the beginning of 2016's travel season we have been looking at replacement mail boxes. We picked out one that we liked - it is shaped like a regular post mail box (round top), but locks closed. Somehow that idea got set aside for the winter and nothing was done - not unusual as I mentioned at the start of the post - for us.
About a month or so we again went out looking at mail boxes. This time we decided that box was too small and we were looking at larger rectangular boxes. We have a choice of buying a mail box at Home Depot or Lowes. I guess Ace has them too, but they are more expensive. We made our choice.
Last week husband brings up the subject again - we go to Home Depot and Lowes and compare what they have and the prices. Looking at the box we were planning to get, we started thinking - “Hmmm, does that make it look like there something really exciting in the mail box as it is so large and locked. Will it make it more attractive to someone to break into it?” We decide to get the first mail box which looks more like a regular mail box and might not be more attractive.
Sunday we buy the mail box. Now remember, we are not morning people and our normal Sunday is a trip to Costco, BJs, and a different Walmart than usual in the next county, with lunch at the Costco. So by the time we buy the mail box and head home it around 4 pm. (Can you see where this is going?)
We take the mail box into the garage (and climb over the snow blower which we still have not bought a shed for it to live in and over the leaf blower we used 2 years ago, etc. plus all the power tools set up in this with all in disarray as husband always says “I really have to clean up in here” but we never do). We open the box and check the mail box and it looks fine. It come with 2 matching sets of 2 keys (four keys which each fit both the front and back locks on the box). The keys are there and of course get taken out of the envelope they came in. Logic would say to put one set of keys in one of our pockets and leave the other set of keys in the envelope, but both sets are taken out of the envelope.
First thing to do is remove the old mailbox from the post. We do this very easily - four small screws, two in each of the left and right sides of the mailbox. The old mailbox is set aside in the backyard - just in case this all does not work out.
We had to buy a piece for the mail box which allows it to be on the post, on a different type of post or on a wooden arm (in choice of 2 different directions). So the second thing to do is attach this piece to our post. We open the piece and take out the instructions and find the hardware needed to put it on the type of post we have. This involves putting four LONG screws into the wood of the post - two in the front and two in the back. Now understand, husband has a major assortment of power and hand tools. Problem - the hole in the piece is slightly larger than our post - it will not affect the piece sitting around the post, but the piece has to be level with the top of the post, but slides down it. We both have the same idea - he screws a scrap piece of wood diagonally over the hole and now it sits on the top of the post. We place the piece in position on top of the post. He takes out a battery operated screwdriver and starts screwing one of the back screws through the piece and into the post. It stops about half way in and will not go further. Husband goes and gets a plug in drill and tries - same problem. “I guess I should have drilled a pilot hole.” He unscrews the screw and gets a thin drill bit. The drill bit goes partway in and breaks. So now there is a drill bit in the wood where the screw needs to go. We decide to ignore this screw for now.
He goes to the front and, with a larger drill bit, drills a pilot hole and with the combination of battery operated screwdriver, plug in drill, and hand screwdriver - he finally gets the screw in. Yay! This is repeated on the other front and the other rear screw - these having their own problem as he stand on the flattened (for this purpose) branches of a shrub.. Along the way he looks at his watch and says “so much for dinner” - it will be too late to go out for dinner, as we do on Sunday evenings, when we are done. We can’t stop as it will be too dark to finish later and we won’t have a box for Monday’s mail delivery.
We test the piece and it rocks as it is missing the first screw which we were unable to put in. What to do? I came up with the idea of using the four small screws that we took out of the old mail box and post. The side of the piece to hold the mail box has holes in the side for a different assembly - but that assembly is for the piece to be raised up so the sides overlap the holes. We manage to get these screws into the side holes and the piece no longer rocks.
Third step - putting the mailbox in place. We need a key for this as the bolt heads go inside the mail box. I go back to the garage - I can only find one set of keys. Rather than waste time I figure husband has the other set and this set is plenty to work with. Putting the mailbox in place actually goes rather well. (It does bother me that a security mail box has nuts on the bottom of it connecting it to the connecting piece, which itself is screwed on by accessible screws - so either set of screws can be removed - but that is how it is.) We try the doors and they work - there is room to open the back of the box from the house door (we were worried it was too close to the house).
I then mention the missing keys. He does not have them. We go back into the garage and find them. We go into the house. I immediately take one of the keys and put it onto my key ring - just in case. We have dinner and the evening passes.
Husband suggests that we put up a “decorative” hook in the front hall for a mailbox key to be hung from - “we will look for one”. Oh yes, more time wasted shopping and juggling the key in the interim and how long will that take? Then I remember something which I did not donate when I thought to do so. A nice, small brass plate with a double hook at the bottom. I think we got it as a gift from his sister - that is in the back of my head. It was a bit “Victorian” for our “Georgian” style decor so we did not buy it. But there it is - in the bottom drawer of my desk - wow I even found it exactly where I thought it would be. He likes it and rushes to put it up.
Now we have to put a key on a piece of yarn to hang it up - here’s the single key on a ring - where is the other ring with two keys? (How can I be able to find something I haven’t seen in years on the first try, but a set of keys for something we bought the same day keeps disappearing?) We find them and I put in them with the instructions, etc. to put away. He puts the key on a piece of yarn and hangs it up.
The mail box works! We have taken in mail from it for three days now. It is not a problem to open with the key. Now we can go on a trip and not worry about the mail sitting at home snug in its locking box.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Find something you keep putting off doing - one thing. And do it! Every step forward is something done.
Epilogue -
We had to take the old mail box into the garage due to a MAJOR rain and wind storm Monday. I plan to clean it up a bit and take it to Goodwill on my next trip to same with items to donate. This will keep it out of the garbage and help someone who can use the mail box as its only problem is that we wanted a locking one - the box itself has much life left in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment