Happy New Year! I am finally getting around to celebrating 2023. Last year is over - it was rough. I'm looking ahead to this coming year and have decided it is going to be better. It has to be.
It is time to present the annual awards for the most exciting mailboxes I have driven past this year. We weren't able to travel but still managed to discover a few more. It makes me wonder if the word has spread about this competition and so now everyone is building a new mailbox to vie for first place.
The first award is for the most creative use of materials that happen to be on hand. It takes real imagination to look at a pile of rusted junk dumped behind the barn and see a mailbox.
It was impossible to know which side was the front and which was the back. Both were equally...impressive?
The next category is, "What possessed them to make that into a mailbox?" This is a wheel barrel holding a mailbox that is precariously balanced on top of the I-beam concrete footing which supports the powerline. Why do that? If lightning strikes the tower, will everything become electrified? Hopefully, these people know to not get their mail during a storm.
The next award will be presented to the world's worst driver. This homeowner obviously can't back out of their driveway without hitting their mailbox. Now they can bump it all they want and no one will know the difference.
Honorable mentions.
The "are you serious?" award goes to this lazy homeowner who bolted the mailbox to the trunk of the tree. Will the mailbox grow taller along with the tree?
Pigs do fly!
If a mailbox could be considered inhospitable and unwelcoming, this one would be it. It wins the most threatening award. If a storm blows the mail out of the box and it lands in the middle of the cactus, retrieving it would be difficult.
Honorable mentions.
This year's winner of the most exciting mailbox was a surprise. It was discovered in the middle of nowhere on a rarely traveled country backroad. Being uninhabited didn't matter to this artist. She painted a museum-quality piece of art to lift the spirits of the few passerbyers. It is a bright spot surrounded by isolation. After seeing it, I felt inspired to improve my world.
This year I will go out on a limb, take a risk and make two New Year's Resolutions. First, we hope to be able to travel somewhere, anywhere, and hopefully, stumble across more exciting mailboxes. Second, I am going to make my home more beautiful and welcoming. It doesn't matter if the whole world doesn't see, if someone is cheered, it is momentous.
Previous year's exciting mailboxes.
Happy New Year! (2021)
That most exciting mailbox just makes me happy! Now I wonder if the mailbox will go up with the tree as well. Maybe a yearly report? I love your goals. We need the same ones. We have a vacation house but we always go there so it needs to be somewhere new.
ReplyDeleteSince we have the same New Year's Resolutions, lets work together. We can trade. You can come to my house and I can go to your vacation house! Win, win!
DeleteWe would actually be open to a swap! But, I have a genetic disease that makes stairs impossible for me. Would your home work for us? (We have a stair lift in our two story house at home.)
DeleteWow Lana! You called me on my bluff! I was joking about swapping. Our health keeps us from traveling and our house is two stories plus a basement. All we do is go up and down stairs - it is killing us. We need to move to a one-level that we can handle but haven't been able to face moving because of all the other disasters in our lives. Whenever we start house hunting something happens so we take it as a sign it isn't time to go.
DeleteYou are sweet to offer a swap.
LOL! The stair lift was expensive but much easier and cheaper than moving!
DeleteI agree, it would be cheaper than moving. We have looked into a stair lift but we would need to get two, one in the basement because we park our car in the garage, and a second one upstairs. It would not solve the problem of the front porch steps, the two flights of back deck steps nor the huge yard which requires mowing. We are getting old and are falling apart but our house was designed as a homestead for a young couple with children - that is what we were when we bought it! We never dreamed we would get old, such is the folly of youth.
DeleteOh, those are creative! I can't pick a favorite...I'm going to go back and view them again. Fun! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these. They always give me a smile. Here's to good things in 2023!
ReplyDeleteThose resolutions are all well and good, Mother, but when are you going to join into the competition? I sure you too can make whacky mail box. You could even give me the shock of a life time next time I come visit.
ReplyDeleteWhat a good idea! I can go through the "stuff" you left here when you moved out and use it for mailbox supplies. You would REALLY be shocked when you visit.
DeleteSure, sure, you could do that, but can you tell my stuff from my brothers?
DeleteYou dare to ask a mother that question? I can tell the differences between you and your brothers voices, breathing, and footsteps. I know who is behind me without looking because I can feel your presence. I can hug each one with my eyes closed and know who it is by the touch and the smell. I even know the difference in everyone's breathing when you are asleep. I can tell your body's temperature with the touch of the back of my hand to your forehead. Each one has been carried inside my body for nine months and I have held each one of you in my arms for years. Telling apart each one's pile of junk that was left here for storage is easy.
DeleteTest me the next time you visit.
Love you.
Mom
But you still manage to forget whos name is whos?
DeleteWhos is spelled "whose". I also homeschooled you.
DeleteI love that painted mailbox!
ReplyDeleteRE: The "home" mailbox -- it's probably not junkmail, so much that the homeowners make frequent trips out of town. That style of box lets two or three weeks worth of mail accumulate, without it being a problem. (Not to mention having to put in a public notice that you are out of town.) Also, most boxes can fit in this style of box..so no trips to the post office are needed.
(I substituted for our local mail carrier for a few months -- and that was what I was told.)
Mystery solved! So there is a logical reason for the huge mailbox!
DeleteI love those mailboxes! That big ugly one is probably to deter mailbox destroying, bat wielding kids....around here, that's a thing--they drive along and hit each one with a baseball bat. But, who knows? Maybe that's just around here.
ReplyDeleteWe have bat wielding kids around here also except ours are also drunk. Their beer bottles are thrown in the ditches. However, that's about all the damage they can do since most homes are well armed. I know because right before hunting season you can hear the men for miles around target practicing.
Delete