The Trashed Mailbox

On Wednesday night, sometime during the night, when most normal people were sleeping, someone trashed our mailbox. I don't think they intended to do so, considering that they probably also trashed their vehicle at the same time, but nonetheless, they did. The mail box post, a 4x4 piece of solid wood, was broken off like a matchstick, and the mailbox lay on its side, a little bit the worse for wear.

Being the observant person I am, I didn't even notice this until Jazzman pointed it out. I drove by it twice, but failed to compute that it was lying on its side, battered and bruised. In order to do this, a person had to be going very fast and just slam into the box, which would have (I think) caused them to stop rather quickly. I suppose someone could have been driving a farm implement and knocked it over, since we do live on a country road and all sorts of dirt digging, plowing, and other large machines move up and down our road. Whatever the case may be, it was Thursday evening and "we" needed to fix the mailbox.

I was not going to get out the chains and truck and pull the post, nor was I in the mood to do any digging. It was evening, I was hot, and I just didn't feel like doing that kind of physical work. Jazzman, on the other hand, insisted that we "fix" the mailbox, so we could get our mail the next day. Now, our mailman is a really great guy, and he probably would have just put the mail on our porch, but Jazzman insisted the box needed to be upright for mail delivery.

I suggested putting it on a sawhorse, and setting it along side the old broken post. Jazzman felt that someone would steal the sawhorse, and/or perhaps the mailbox with it. Besides, he reminded me, there are about 27 screws in the mailbox to hold it on the post, and he wasn't in the mood to remove them.

So, he proposed a plan B, which, if I do say so myself, was pretty creative. We dragged an old trash can out to the post, placed the broken off post, with the mailbox on it, down in the trash can, then filled the can with rocks to hold it steady. This took about 20 minutes and was a great quick solution. Of course with this solution comes the "look" too. I mean most people have these lovely posts, and nice mailboxes, and here's ours....a trash can full of rocks. I have no idea what the neighbors will say, and I'm sure they wonder why we've done this, but for now...it works.

So, if you drive by and see the mailbox sticking out of a trash can, well you know you're in our neighborhood. We're nothing if not inventive!