Post makes me Postal

We bought a sofa. We still need to pay for said sofa. And ship said sofa. But I assure you it does exist and will one day materialize in all of its 'cactus' glory (that's a color) in our living room in 2 (ish) weeks.

Today we toiled with the Postal Service. Realizing that we'd have important things arrive in the mail, we went to the local post office and asked if we could have our mail put on vacation hold, so that our mail wouldn't arrive in our locked (we have no key) mailbox. We figured we could pick up the mail at the post office and avoid harassing our land lady about the mailbox key while she vacations for the majority of the month.

Our plan was flawless. We went to the post office this afternoon to pick up our first crop of mail (i.e. bills) and find that even though we filled out all the correct forms and turned them in, the vacation hold was never actually put on our box. But the postal worker assured us that if we caught our mail carrier, we could get our mail (for the day).

Discouraged, we decided to get into our mailbox no matter what it took. So I grabbed the hammer...

We went to the lock smith; made a copy of the car key (one is not enough). Asked if there was a way to open the mailbox without said hammer. For a hefty fee, we would come personally and open it. OR, we could wait for our mail carrier... and bust the lock out ourselves, bring it in, and he would replace it for $8.50.

Since it's already 4 pm, we feel a little defeated. We make plans to camp out next to the mail box all day tomorrow so that we can catch the carrier, get our mail, and bust out the lock. When we arrive back, just down the street is the mail carrier's truck, headed away. I jump out of the car and chase down the truck, flailing arms and all.

After catching up with the truck, our local mail carrier fixes the ails of the day. He comes back to the mailbox, and we get our mail, finally use the trusty hammer to remove the old lock, and say many thanks to the only helpful postal worker we've met thus far.

And of course, on our door is a note saying that we missed a package. But if we go back to yon friendly postal office!

So we go back to the post office...

And back to the locksmith...

We ran into the same guy working the counter at the post office that we had before.

Charles: We just had so much fun coming here the first time, we had to come again!

Me: Yeah! We'll be back here tomorrow!

In reality, hopefully we won't have to go back for a few days. Although we do need to remove the vacation hold.