My Other Life Before I was a gardener/cleaner/organizer/heavy lifter/whatever needs doing-er, I worked for the Post Office for 25 years. I did just about everything, sorted the mail, delivered it, worked the window~~ ended up in training, teaching new hires the way of the PO world. That was my favorite job, I shared it with a woman who became one of my best friends. Management had no idea how much fun we had on the "training" trips they sent us on. HQ is in San Francisco, and we never went down without doing a whole lot of very fun stuff. That all said, the other best part of the job was delivering the mail. I didn't do it full time, only as needed, but there were several times I worked for weeks on one particular route. One summer day, I was walking a short loop, and managed to trip and scrape my knee. Nothing serious, but it was bleeding, so at the next stop, I knocked on the door and asked the sweet, elderly woman who lived there if she could just bring me a napkin or tissue so I could just kinda wipe it down. Instead of just doing that, she invited me in, took me to the kitchen and had me sit. She then got a small cloth, ran it under warm water and proceeded to clean the scrape. It was such a sweet thing, she was so kind, and her touch was so gentle, I nearly fell asleep. She put a bandaid on it, gave me something to drink, and made sure I was ok. I'd been there a while and needed to be on my way, but as I was heading out the door, I saw this great old upright piano and asked her if she played. Well, SHE played, and she sat down and knocked out the hottest, sharpest ragtime I've ever heard!!! I'd heard music coming from her house before, but had NO idea it was she who was playing. Just as I was about to walk out the door, I saw a beautiful, pearl inlaid accordion sitting next to the piano. I asked her about that, and she burst into tears. She told me her husband of over 70 years had died just a few weeks earlier, and she missed him so terribly. They played music together, shared it with their family and friends. As I made my way down the street, I thought of this wonderful, kind woman and her life. She was with this man for most of her life, and was lost without him. I thought how tremendous that really is, and what an incredibly beautiful love story it had been. My career with the Post Office gave me the chance to meet people I never would have met before, connect with them on a very personal level. When you see people's mail, you learn EVERYTHING about them, know who they are, what they do, who they know. You find out when someone's birthday comes, you get to bring happy news, and sometimes, news that's not so happy. You find out who might be having financial trouble, who gets mail from someone in prison; you know intimate details of their lives. You also get first shot at all the garage sales, the best drinks at kids' lemonade stands, and you get bitten by dogs. The good comes with a bit of bad sometimes. More than once, I'd be walking down the street on a warm summer day, marveling at the thought I was being PAID to do this. Course, the flip side of that, those days when it was pouring down rain, and I was walking in it, trying to keep the mail dry~~~on those days, all I could think was, "They can't pay me enough to do this %!%%$#@ job!!" When we were offered an early out three years ago, I jumped at the chance. Even though I loved what I did, 25 years was plenty. It was time to go, and the day I walked out the door for the last time was one of best days in my life. The door closed, literally and figuratively, on that part of my life and I never looked back. That door closed~~ and it opened another one I never expected, the one to this new life, the one I live now and am enjoying so completely!! So, there you have it, a little snippet of a different time for me. Took up a big chunk of my life, but gave me the freedom to do what I do now. I have lots of stories about those days, stay tuned and I'll probably tell you a few more!!! 7/10/08