Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend?

Anyone who has lived in a small town probably has had a post office box that they visited daily. It's a place to meet and greet friends, neighbors and all manner of humanity who reside somewhere "out there." Lately the US Postal Service has been considering closing a number of post offices that only make $50 or less a day, are open on average two hours a day for actual services, and more often than not are within 5 miles of another postal facility. Click on the Title for a List of Idaho closures.

One of the post offices in Idaho prospectively on the chopping block is Johnny Montezuma's old favorite, Clayton. Clayton, Idaho, where 7 folks showed up with entries to last weekends Chile Cookoff. Clayton is known as a wolf-hating side show by the Salmon River. It's a place you drive through, not to. My former roommate had his pickup truck shot up in Clayton by some anonymous miners he had shut down for Clean Water Act violations. It's that kind of place. Probably not where I would personally want to hang out if someone is "going Postal" as they say.

I can’t say that I’d notice if the Post Office disappeared in Avery, Desmet, Tensed, or Harvard. I’ve been to all of them in North Idaho and I doubt they get much mail. Desmet and Tensed are associated with CDA Tribal lands so maybe the Tribe would miss it. Avery is up on the St Joe River and was an historic logging town about 100 years ago. Avery is also locally known as a haven of felons and incest--great spot, huh?Harvard has no claim to fame other than it’s on the Bovill run, a drinking and driving circuit made famous by Univ. of Idaho Vandal college students. There is a post office at Santa, also along the Bovill run; and that one is amazingly popular as you can imagine. Santa Claus sends letters stamped from there with a hand stamp every holiday. I lived outside Santa and it was where I got my mail. Santa is NOT on the list.

There's one slated for closure in Boise that I didn't even know existed. Same for Pocatello. Then there is tiny little Almo, a sleepy Mormon hamlet with beautiful Victorian brick homes that were once filled with a bazillion kids eating lime green jello with crushed pineapple and marshmallows in it. Almo is slated to close. I guess they'd get their mail in Albion, where the long closed state Teacher's college, Albion Normal remains borded up. Albion was my first home in Idaho and my first post office box address. PO Box 171. I wonder who has that box now?

Going to the post office was the most fun for me when I lived in the Wood River Valley from 1981 to 1984. I had my original PO Box in Ketchum, but got one in Hailey instead. How I loved to go to the Post Office. In Ketchum it was where you picked up eye candy and got asked on dates. Really! And since it was before the advent of email,texting and cell phones, it pretty much was the spot you made plans because everyone showed up to get their mail between 4 and 7 at night typically. Also, for dirt bag skiers it was a great place to sleep in an emergency in winter because there were heating vents on the floor. No cold nights out in a doorway. The place was never ever locked. Can't vouch for that now. It was quieter and cleaner than sleeping in the laundromat.

I don't know what I'll do if the do away with Saturday service, though. I have gotten accustomed to getting Netflix movies then. But now that they've raised their rates, and I have access to REDBOX, I'll probably cut back to one movie at a time and watch others they have on line. So maybe Saturday won't matter.

I don't get much mail anymore. Most of those bazillion credit card offers have gone by the wayside with the economic downturn. I've gotten myself off the catalogs, and most of my bills are payed on line. But I do still get magazines and the occassional snail mail letter, both of which I love. So maybe I should write you all a letter instead of blog. Now wouldn't that be nice for the postal service? But alas, I didn't check to see if Cornville or Camp Verde, AZ were on the closure list or not. Hope not for your sake. And mine.

Learning to Drive-Surviving with my Teen at the Wheel

When you live with a teenager, well, you live with a teenager. Summer is her time off from soccer. Sort of. We finished up State Cup the week after school ended in June. But then it was time for tryouts for soccer for next season. Then it was getting a new soccer uniform. And then there's soccer camp the last week of July. Competitive soccer is an obsession throughout the country. An unhealthy one, I might add.
But alas, during the month of June starting immediately after school ended she was enrolled in drivers education. Yes, folks, my daughter at 14 1/2 will be driving in Idaho. We pretend to be a farm state, which we're not. We're a little archipelago of urbanization with huge wilderness and roadless areas interpersed throughout. Illinois is more rural than Idaho by a long shot.
Drivers education lasted 4 weeks, of which she drove 12 times with her teacher and the rest was classroom time. She passed the written test with a 94. Now she's enjoying sleeping in till noon for a few weeks, since she's finished with drivers ed class. Now we get to teach her on her learners permit.
I let her drive me home from her dad's house last night. Whew we woo. Talk about trying to not show my panic. She's decent for only having driven maybe 12 times. Lots of work to be done in teaching her to multi task in watching what's going on around her and anticipating dogs, kids, bicyclists, people pulling out of driveways, and also not side swiping a vehicle on our right. Hay carumba.
Luckily for her my SUV is an automatic. Her dads Honda Van is also an automatic. But his Ford Focus wagon is a stick shift. And she's going to have to learn to drive that, too. Stick shifts were a required right of passage in my household before you could drive a car. And the same will be for my daughter.
So stay tuned for updates on how driving with my teen is going. Not only should texting be prohibited in a car driven by a teen, but so should eating, drinking anything, and listening to music. An none of their friends should be allowed in a car with them until they are 18. The distractions are amazing. Even she admitted it is the hardest thing she's ever done. And this comes from the queen of multi tasking--she can listen to music, watch TV or surf the internet and do her math homework (A's and B's, mind you); but drive--totally different altogether.
I know the grey hair I already have will be silver by the time this is over with.