Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Mail in Question

Ten days ago, stumbling in at 3am, I knew I'd see a BIG mess of mail in my living room. My 20 boxes of rocks, the ones we'd mailed from Wisconsin? I thought they'd be outside, and when I didn't see them in the carport, I was concerned for a half-second or so.

Then I put my key in the door, opened it up, and saw this.


That there is a portion of my 4 1/2 months of mail.


I used to get a lot more mail than I do now. Business mail, mostly. And of course, back then, we had many more personal bank accounts and credit cards too.


Still, it's a pretty good haul for 4 1/2 months, don'tcha think?

It looks like my boxes of rocks morphed from 20 to 19. There were no *delivery confirmations* on them either, so the missing box is lost out in the ether, never to be seen again. Well, all things considered, losing one box of rocks out of 20 isn't so bad, I guess. The ones that arrived were pretty beat up. I really could have packed them a little better, not tried to cram so much into each box. I didn't realize they'd be machined.


After sorting through the mail, I have a lot of trash. Junk mail occupies the large PO tub in the upper left, and empty envelopes and stuff are in the red container below. *Real mail* is in the black tray to its right.

The red container in the upper right is nothing but solicitations from lawyers and so-called investors and consultants who want to save my house for me, or sell it for me, or whatever. That doesn't even include the real estate salesmen solicitations, which went into the junk mail box.

Anything to do with the Chase mortgage folks is in the other PO tub, in the upper middle of the pic.

Hmmm. Unconsciously, I've positioned Chase right between the *junk mail* and *we'll save your house* solicitations.

6 comments:

Northwoods Woman said...

I'm so glad the rocks made it! I was starting to wonder. I haven't gotten that lost box back, but if I do I'll let you know!

k said...

Thanks, Livey! I was wondering if it had showed up on your doorstep, looking all lost and lonesome.

But I bet instead it broke open and scattered everywhere, and the PO guys just kind of swept the rocks out the door.

That's karma. That's payback for every one I broke when I worked at the PO.

Cindi said...

Holy Schmoly! That is a lot of mail! This is a stupid question, but why couldn't you forward your mail to Livey's and this question has nothing at all to do with the whole house matter. I guess I'm wondering how you would pay your other bills if you weren't getting the mail from them. I'm embarrassed asking you such a nosey question but you have been so open in your posts and you have always been direct with answers to my other silly questions.

I am so relieved and thrilled that everything is calm on the home front! I can just *feel* your relief too as I read your post about getting the package from Chase and all.

k said...

That's not a silly question at all. Nope. And always, always, feel free to ask me anything at all. That never bothers me. If I'd rather not answer your question, then I'll let you know as politely as I know how. (Our whole family is pitifully Socially Challenged, so sometimes we say things we think are perfectly polite, but upset people by accident - usually because they thought we were offended when we weren't at all!)

As I tried to explain to my puzzled parents, I used to travel all the time. It's not that I don't know how to get my mail sent to me when out of town. I've done that any number of ways in the past. It's just that, for a lot of silly reasons, this time I didn't do it.

It started out because I never had any idea I'd be gone more than a few weeks maximum. But after that?

Nancy explained it perfectly in a post. I got carried away in this giddy sense of freedom, of vacationing, and wanted a sort of Mail Vacation too.

It's weird because I'm so careful with my budget and bills in every other way. That actually acted against me. See, I pay them by phone, with almost no exceptions. I have all their phone numbers and account numbers in my laptop. I have the amount and date due in my budget. Anything new, I called up and listened to the New Balance over the phone. Like that.

I didn't call Chase because I'd made my periodic phone call to the mortgage folks pretty recently.

Chase was the one and only truly important piece of mail in the whole 4 1/2 month pile.

Yeah, my sense of relief was so overpowering, it probably reverberated throughout the entire neighborhood!

Cindi said...

I'm so glad you were not offended by my question, k. After I clicked publish, I chastised myself. I guess I am forgetting that not everybody lives in antiquated areas like mine! If I went somewhere for a long while, there is no way that I could call up the water company, my car/house/life insurance companies, the trash pickup company, or even my credit union etc. and be able to get that info over the phone AND pay by phone. I am able to pay for my phone and Visa online and can call my bank to pay my mortgage. I can call places and find out balances but not able to pay by phone. We need to get with the program!

sue said...

HOLY COW!

Forgive me for laughing, but can you imagine someone finding your box of rocks and wondering, what the heck?...