30 January 2002

I went home yesterday afternoon, and as I pulled carefully past the kids playing in the road, I saw a car in my driveway.

Damn I thought, the cleaning service is still here. I like the cleaning service to come and do their thing and go before I ever get home.

But I was running a little early, so I parked on the street (so as not to block their car in). What I noticed as I pulled up in front of the house was that the door to our mailbox was stuffed inside the mailbox.

Some kid, I assumed, had run into the mailbox with their bike, knocked the door off, and not bothered to fix it before going on their merry way. I was surprised they'd even picked it up.

This didn't upset me much; the door to the mailbox is slightly flexible plastic, and fits onto the mailbox with a hole-and-peg configuration - like the lid of a CD jewelbox. Not hard to fix. I pulled the door out of the mailbox (along with the mail that was in there), popped it onto one of the mailbox pegs, then pulled a little to stretch it over to the other peg.

The entire mailbox fell onto the ground.

I blinked at it stupidly for a minute before picking it up. I looked at the post to which it had been bolted. The holes in the post - the ones the screws had gone into - had been shredded. Whatever hit my mailbox had not only knocked the door off, but ripped it out of the wood.

Well, I have a drill and a very nice wratchet set. A few new holes, and everything is solved - it's just a matter of lining everything up.

Except it didn't work that way. The holes were lined up perfectly, but the screw insisted on going through the plastic of the mailbox at some oblique angle to the wood.

I struggled with the mess for a good fifteen minutes before finally stopping to think.

I hate the screws anyway. They're not flat - they're bolt-headed, and the head stick up and occasionally the mail gets caught on them when I pull it out. (Mailboxes are supposed to have this base - the base screws into the post from the top, and the box screws into the base from the side. We didn't buy the base, and jerry-rigged the whole get-up. But I wasn't about to drive to Lowes' and buy a new mailbox and base last night, either.)

So I went into the house and got my hammer and box of nails. There was just enough clearance inside the mailbox to work the hammer. After three flat-headed nails, I pulled my arms out of the mailbox and tentatively wiggled the mailbox, testing its stability.

It wobbled, but the base remained firmly attached to the post. I wiggled it harder, and harder yet. Still sound. I expect if I took hold of the mailbox and pulled on it, the nails would come free (or maybe the heads would break through the plastic; it's a pretty cheap mailbox) but otherwise, I think it's sound enough for everyday use.

By the time I'd finished all that, the cleaning service was done, too.

How can I make Lemon-Garlic Chicken for dinner and forget to put any garlic in it?

My Lemon Chicken tasted fine, though.

--Liz