Rural Life

What an interesting day.

I had planned on joining some women for coffee this morning. That was the plan.

I run a home-based business. With such comes some unraveling of plans. I received a phone call yesterday from Fed Ex saying that they would be delivering a shipment sometime today which would require a signature. So, today I was grounded, stuck at home. Although disappointed, I have plenty to do around here at home base, and so I didn't spend the day sitting on the sofa eating bon-bons.

Mid-morning I spotted a car parked out in the road, just by our house. With all the work being done this month on our property, this was not unusual, but generally it is a pickup, a truck, a backhoe, or a tractor, or some other monster machine that I am not familiar with. And often, all of the above. But it hasn't been a young mother with a two year-old and a three month-old baby, and a flat tire on her car, until this morning. I offered to help her change it (which may or may not have taken us three hours, given my auto mechanic aptitude), but she said she had already called for roadside assistance.

Fast-forward an hour, and the "roadside assistance" company still had not sent anyone out. Yes, we are rural, but no, we are not in the Outer Hebrides. Throughout this hour several rancher-types (most of whom I know) stopped and offered to change the tire for her. And she declined. And during this hour I invited her to come into our yard so her kids could get out of their car seats. I showed them the ducks. The dogs. The cats. The fish. The flowers. The banana trees. The red wagon. (Two year-olds are curious and have the attention span of...a two year-old.) After an hour, my neighbor-rancher drove by a second time, and I think this time he just got out of his pickup without a word and proceeded to work on this young mother's car. Bless his heart.

He finished airing up the tire to get her to the nearest town. The three of us were standing in the road when a very large implement came around the corner, and as it passed, the young mother exclaimed to me, "DID YOU SEE WHAT HE DID?!? Good grief, no, I did not, but whatever it was he did, it got her attention. She continued, "He turned wide to miss my car AND HE TOOK DOWN YOUR MAILBOX!" She looked like she was going to cry. I looked at the mangle. And I laughed. That's it? My mailbox?

By now yet another pickup had stopped to offer his assistance, and this man, our local auto mechanic. He told the young mother to drive her car over to his shop (not even 1/2 mile down the way) and he would fix the tire. She was unsure about this. I caught her out of earshot of the men, and told her who both were, and that the former was our neighbor, and the latter was our go-to guy for cars. Both were good and kind, I assured her. And so she went off on her way.

I spotted my other neighbor driving down the road, and flagged her to stop. Could her husband, my mailman, please bring our mail home with him tonight, and I would drop by and get it?

After lunch I drove into town (Town #1, "our town") to acquire a new 4x4" post for my new mailbox setting. Upon return I stopped by the mailman's house for our mail. Well. It turns out he was on a different route today, and so he had no mail, nor had I. Home-based business lady was expecting some business in the mail this week, and so I drove to other town (Town #2) - our zip code, and picked up our mail. Yes - there were some things which needed attending to in the OTHER town (Town #1) now, and so I drove back to Town #1, attended, and then returned home tonight.

When I got home I began Mailbox repair. But wait: it is 80º outside and I started sweating.

So I stopped repairing.

So...stay tuned...