Thursday, February 23, 2006

Cell Phones and Mailmen

First, I have to say that I am a lover of cell phones. They enhance our lives and communication. However, when they start to hinder your progress (such as driving) or the progress of others (driving again), then they become a pain. I was on the train yesterday headed home and a man next to me was on his phone. I assumed that he was a real estate agent by the bits of conversation I heard. It became a bother though when the conversation was carried on for more than ten minutes and a little louder than needed. At the end of his conversation, he summed it up by telling the other person that he would call someone and take care of something. At that point, however, he realized that the call had been disconnected when he received no answer from the other person. This made me wonder...how long was he talking to himself? Did the other person have such a small part of the conversation that he actually carried on with himself for a while? I found this quite amusing and a punishment in itself for the hinderance on those around him.

Now, for mailmen. I don't know if you've heard on the news recently, but the city is going to start issuing parking tickets to any car parked within ten feet of a mailbox. I don't know about other people, but my whole curb is only about fifteen feet long with a mailbox in the middle. We are also having repair work done on our house (see previous post about insurance). My brother-in-law has been hired to do the work and therefore, we are in need of an extra spot to park. Because of this, our mail is not being delivered everyday. When it does come, there is a message written on it that it had not been delivered previously because of a car by the box. I am confused by this. Isn't their motto like "in sleet, or snow, or storm of night..." or something like that? But they can't step out of their little truck, take two steps, and put my mail in the box? It seems that they become diva-like when they get promoted from walking the block to driving it. I see a mailman near my son's school that parks his truck and walks many blocks delivering the mail, dodging dogs, going through gates, and walking up driveways. Is my mailman defective? Has he forgotten how to walk? It's not that inconvenient either considering they are on the right side of the truck anyway. Next, they'll be wanting us to be waiting at the curb with our hand held out to catch the mail while they speed by. As a side note, the price of stamps has risen again...don't you think that would buy me a little walking from the mailman?! I do.

1 comment:

Something McSomethingkins said...

*Hehehe* That's awesome. I agree with the cell phones. Unfortunately some people have no sense of direction, thus need them while they're driving. Oh that I could see the mountains at night. Did you see me fly over that island driving home from Whitney's? I do think you got a defective mailman. At my work we had this seminar on being more friendly and helpful to clients, which was painfully boring beyond belief, and the beacon of an example they held up for us was this mailman who would deliver it to the door to make sure the person got it, and if people were out of town he would deliver it in a bundle on the back porch or something or wait till they got back, and they all knew and loved him and he got many Christmas presents. Obviously I didn't listen to the story as closely as I should have, but it was touching.