Some More Mildly Interesting Mail Box Drama

In the last episode of The Rural Mailbox Drama, the mailbox had fallen into disrepair, taking a dramatic fall into the dust along a little-known country road.

It took several days and two trips to the hardware store before the mailbox was back in service. The cordless drill's rechargeable batteries, possibly ten years old, would no longer take a charge, necessitating purchase of new batteries - to the tune of $149 at the local hardware store! (People advised simply buying a new mailbox and I should have listened.) I am sure the batteries would have been less expensive at a big box store, but I would rather spend my money locally and deal with people who value me as a customer - people who will actually walk with me to the location of the needed items in their store - people who actually say thank you. Not to mention, I divided the cost by 10 (years) and decided they were worth $15 per year to have a very good cordless drill whenever I need it.

While the USPS mail receptacle was out of commission, the address numbers needed to be replaced. It was so much work to scrape off the old letters and numbers. They were reflective letters and the adhesive was excellent. It was space age adhesive, the best adhesive the world has ever known, apparently. It withstood the extreme Kansas weather for years and never peeled, cracked or loosened. The numbers just faded away. It took two days of dedicated effort and elbow grease plus the help of a solvent to remove them. It made an enormous mess. I replaced only the house number because eventually they will need to be scraped off, too. They are vinyl and I am guessing they will not last very long. They should be much easier to remove. Indeed, they will likely peel off in a year or two on their own.

The long and short of it is that I did not get any mail for almost a week. When I finally checked for incoming mail on Sunday night, someone had left an ambiguous and rather threatening handwritten note taped to the door. I am an opinionated and passionate anti-Trump person living smack in the middle of Trump country. My first thought was "They've found me!" I called the sheriff. I did not touch the note or the mailbox.

The note read: "NO Time for Games! Obey these Omni laws signed 3/23 by POTUS or Else! @SavepR.org"

While waiting for the sheriff, I researched the omnibus law referred to by date. It is essentially a bill Trump signed to prevent a shutdown of the government last year - ironically the one thing he has done that I certainly agree with. I also looked up the @savepr.org and found a web page. If that site is what the note refers to, I think it is a sketchy scam asking for donations for Puerto Rico. As I considered this information, I decided the note was likely not aimed at me personally, though I have only been able to confirm with one neighbor so far that they did not get a similar note. I told the sheriff he did not need to come out when he finally called. Just to be safe, I put a dog leash on the mailbox door, then took cover behind my SUV when I pulled it open, in case some nut job had rigged my restored mailbox to explode - or some noxious substance billowed out once the door was opened, both things have happened more than once in our country.

Something a bit curious on the note is that the tape was apparently in place before the note was written. Who puts a piece of tape on a scrap of paper first, then writes the note? Were they stopped on the road while they were writing? Would they have left the note on my door if my mailbox had been on the ground?

The note makes no sense to me whatsoever. What is it this anonymous person wants? What is going to happen if I/we do not obey the law? How the hell can I personally obey the law? I am not in control of Trump nor the Congress. No one is! I will be as angry over a government shut down (threatened by Trump, not me!) as the mysterious author will apparently be. I firmly believe we should be helping Puerto Rico instead of building a wall, holding a military parade, or creating a Space Force, or any number of other incredibly stupid things Donald Trump has proposed. I THINK I am on the same side as the person(s) who left the note, so hopefully I will not suffer whatever consequence the "OR ELSE" refers to.

Before this, the worst thing that ever appeared anonymously around here was Jehovah's Witnesses literature. I never considered calling the sheriff, though.