Praise Be

Alright Grandpa, they’re in the mail! At your very fine suggestion I sent Micah to the post office (Matt is way over taxed for such an endeavor).

Because endeavor it is. The Binghamton Post Office (not the main one downtown, but the southside one, here on Vestal, the nice little block of a box, with that good old hometown feeling) is no small undertaking. Even suppose you don’t take four children, or even one R, with you. You have to prepare your body, mind and soul to go in. Or at least I do. I’m not looking for that good old hometown feeling. I’m looking to mail my stuff and get out. However, once in, and in line, you can depend upon waiting many many many minutes while B- and M- ask you extensively about how you are, how your family is, if you would like stamps, what kind of stamps, if you want insurance, if you really want to send the package, all the available rates and speeds, in short, every possible question, not only of you but of every person ahead of you, so that, after standing and listening for 45 minutes, you want to run screaming from the building. It means seriously gearing up, for me, to event think about going in. I feel so strongly about not going to the post office, unfortunately, that I frequently fight with people on Sunday morning about it. Everybody here on the South Side pretty well loves B- and M- and feels dread about the long off day when the retire.

Anyway, it hadn’t occurred to me to muscle someone else into going. I can’t send Matt, like I mentioned before, because life is too short. And he gets combative and ends up bringing home notes about the proper way to collect or send mail. But then, just after posting, Micah presented himself and asked (undoubtedly foolishly-he called twice from the post office to make sure about what I was sending and some other wretched little forms he had to filled out) if there was anything I needed. Micah is a soothing and calm person, the kind of person who can calm the shattered postal worker and postal customer. So, I’m so grateful. It only took three months. Heaven preserve me when I have to mail something else.