It was Monday, Dec. 16, of this year. The mail usually comes late on Mondays due to the weekend glut, so I wasn’t surprised to see the flag still up at 1:00 in the afternoon. Ginnie had put a bundle of our Christmas letters in the mail box for Mike (Mike the Mailman) to post. From my recliner beside the picture window, if I strain real hard, I can see the little red flag sticking up. Sometimes I use the binoculars to make sure. I can also see when the mail arrives. Mike usually waves. That’s what you do when you’re old people– you sit around and wait for the mail to come. Being a columnist, we get the most newspapers of anyone on Mike’s route. He told us this.
BTW: we love Mike the Mailman. If we have a package that won’t fit in the mailbox, Mike brings it to our door, along with the mail. The substitute mail person will bring a package to our door also, but put the mail in the mail box for us to tramp out and retrieve. When we had COVID, Mike told us that if there was anything we needed, to be sure and let him know.
At 2, 3 and 4 p.m. the flag was still up. What is going on? Maybe Mike was here and forgot to put the flag down? (That’s never happened.) Ginnie was going to town, so when she was driving out, she jockeyed the car around to check the mail. I was watching, of course, and she texted, “Nope” and blew me a kiss…