UPS Mail Call
Got an interesting email this morning from our neighborhood mailing list:
This is a notice to all neighborhood residents about problems the UPS delivery lady (Dawn) is having reaching our neighborhood.
She has over 200 packages for our neighborhood that she can’t deliver because she can’t get her truck up the hills. However, she can make it to 45th St.
She would like me to tell you all that she will wait in the truck tomorrow between 11:30 and 12:30 pm at 8850 Paisley Drive, which is in front of the Morse’s house. (She asks that you be patient with her as she will need to search through them to get your packages). If anyone is expecting a package that they absolutely cannot retrieve tomorrow at that time, perhaps you can notify me and my boys can collect them and deliver them to your house, or at least bring them down to our garage, if you wish.
Let me know… And enjoy your holidays!
[neighborly neighbor]
I thought this had a certain end-of-the-world ring to it, and even though we weren’t expecting any packages, I figured it would be worth getting out of the house for (having been snowed in for the past week).
Figuring I might be able to stage a photo for the Times, I brought Willo’s point & shoot (not wanting to risk my D300 on the snowy downhill walk) and a red Santa hat for the UPS driver.
The truck was not at the expected location. In fact there was nobody at the expected location. We decided to keep walking – perhaps they were further down the road. After a couple more blocks I saw our next door neighbor Kate walking back my way with a load of packages. Turns out the driver decided to play it safe and stop about 7 blocks earlier than originally planned.
When we arrived we found a group of perhaps 30 area residents clustered around the big brown truck. Here’s my mother in law Janet approaching the scene:
I established myself on the bank at left and tossed the hat down to one of the people waiting for their packages. She handed it to the driver who put it on. In the photo below she’s at the left:
Dawn’s voice was a little wimpy, but neighborhood board president Joe was there to make sure the names got heard (that’s Joe in the center):
It felt like a UN mission unloading supplies for the poor stranded refugees. Except for the kids playing, dogs chasing each other and general sense of festivity.
With half the street blocked off and the other half covered with ice, I kept waiting for one of the frequent cars squeezing through the slippery slot to slide and take out a few bystanders, but that didn’t happen.
We didn’t end up getting any packages, but we did collect a couple for some neighbors. And had a little adventure to break up being snowbound.