Life as we know it (in our household anyway)

It has been a long but fun week here in our little neck of the woods. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures to post right now so you'll just have to take my word for it...lol. I have been training since last Thursday in the Post Office here on the college campus. My sister Sue is the Postmistress and she needed a backup to take her place when she would be gone. Since I'm not working and could spare the time, Sue asked me to take the job. The funny thing was we couldn't seem to get the board of the college to agree. They have funny ideas I'm here to tell ya!! They tried a couple of other people who didn't work out and finally when it came down to being an absolute necessity, they allowed me to do the job. Sue was leaving for Youth Challenge with her family and there was no replacement for the PO. She told me that she had prayed for God to work out a way for me to be in the PO for her. I think she was really sounding panicky because the Lord worked it out for me to train. I will be in there through Monday and then she will be back for Tuesday. I won't be in there for a while unless she is swamped and needs me. My next time scheduled is Christmas. We are staying here for Christmas this year and Tom's family will be here so I am able to help Sue out again while she goes North to her husband's family.

I really like the job. I was surprised at how quickly I picked up on the routine of the job. There are 333 boxes (which is nothing compared the the big PO) but I had to learn the names and corresponding numbers in a big hurry. That's a lot to put into such a small brain in that short of a time. I thank the Lord for helping me to learn as quickly as I did. Sue was bragging on me to her friends and our family. Kind of made my head swell. Not really. It really is not that hard and it is repetitive. That helps tremendously when you are looking up a name.

After I have gone in at 8:30 a.m. I sort all of the mail that has been put into the inbox. I get it all delivered to the correct box and then get any mail needing postage ready to go. About 9:15 I go to the big PO in Hobe Sound to pick up the mail. All of the mail (or the majority of it) goes into the big PO and then they sort it and have it ready for us to pick it up. This saves our Mail Carrier a lot of time. He doesn't have to deliver the mail himself to outside boxes.

Once I have delivered the mail to go out and collected the mail to go with me, I then check the box that we have rented there. Sometimes it's full and other times it's empty. I bring all of this mail back to our little PO and the sorting begins. Sometimes I may have 4-5 containers of mail and other times I may only have 2.

We have 4 sections of boxes. Mostly college students, faculty, staff and some of the older residents of campus are in the first section. When I say "older" I do not mean age. I mean all of the residents that have been here longer.The second section is college students and the third and fourth sections are campus residents and some staff. The church also gets their mail from us. We have about 12 larger boxes in the hallway for large packages. Since we only operate until 1:15 p.m. it's easier for people to get their large packages if they are in the outside box after we are closed. They then drop the key to the box back into the inbox and we get it the next day. They are able to enjoy their package without having to wait until the next day to get it.

To sort all of the mail I sit down at my desk and I start with the first class mail. Since I have 4 sections I have to separate the mail according to name and section. I have 4 piles when I'm done and then I can start putting the mail into the boxes. Sometimes I get the wrong mail in the wrong box. Hey I'm not perfect, only striving to be...heeheehee. Names can be really confusing when several people have the same first or middle name.

Then today just as I was closing up, the college Development office came in with a box of envelope's to be sent out. There were 238 of them. I of course did not have that many stamps in my drawer so tomorrow I get to take them all the the big PO and put 238 stamps on them while I am there. YEAH!!

All in all I like the job. I hope I can keep it as organized as Sue does. It's fun to visit with all of the students and staff and see my neighbors when they come to get their mail. It's a joy to see the excitement of a college student, who is so far from home, get a box full of goodies from their families. They get so homesick being so far from their families.

The best thing about doing this job is that Tricia is in school so I don't have to leave her at home with a sitter, and Katie loves to go to "brammas" to visit. When I go home my house is as clean as it was when I left. So I'm not stressed out all evening. That's a very good thing!!