Brian vs. The Mailbox

My mailbox looked like it had been whacked a couple of times before I ever bought my house. One weekend I got tired of looking at it and decided to get a new one. It would be an inexpensive DIY project that I could handle myself. Or so I thought.

I got a nicer, bigger mailbox at Home Depot and went out to the curb to remove the old one and replace it with the shiny new one. Ha. It wasn't happening. Between the rusted-on hardware and my lack of proper tools I was ill equipped to get the old mailbox off of the mounting bracket, to say nothing of installing the new one. I don't know how I could let something that should have been so simple kick my butt like that, but it did and the new mailbox has been sitting in my garage since early Spring.

A couple of guys said they'd fix it for me but never made good on their word. Though that might have been indicative of their character in general it was the least of the problems with them. Angela couldn't believe I'd neither managed to replace it nor talk anyone else into doing it for me; she threatened to do it (which would make me look even wimpier) but still it sat in the garage. When Cherie and Kelly came out to visit in July I was still grumbling about it. I think in a way it came to symbolize my love life. Yikes.

So here comes Brian. You might remember him as my partner in crime for the Craftsman house trespassing adventure. Anyway, we were going out on our first date-date: the kind where the guy comes and picks the girl up at her house and everything. We'd gone a couple of places together and talked on the phone a lot before this point so I wasn't really nervous, and he didn't seem to be, either, when he arrived. I grabbed my stuff and we got into his car to head out for our date. He threw it into reverse and promptly backed into that damn mailbox!

I could not stop laughing. If he wasn't feeling nervous and dorky before, he probably was now. Poor guy. I'm not sure he believed me when I reassured him that I had a vendetta against that mailbox and felt no ill will toward him for backing into it. Actually, it was only his side view mirror that clobbered it. Still, the impact made the post lean like the Tower of Pisa. He felt bad about running over my mailbox the first time he came to pick me up. I know this because he said so repeatedly. Then he said he was going to fix it. I thought to myself "I've heard this before," and wasn't going to hold my breath.

I know Brian well enough now that I can bring up the mailbox and tease him about it. It's still not fixed, either, a fact that came up in conversation again while we were on the phone last night. He said, "I'm going to fix your mailbox this weekend." I said, "Can I have that in writing?"



UPDATE: Brian conquers the mailbox!

Says Brian: "I vanquished my foe."

Look at my shiny new mailbox!