Mail delivery (13 Jan, 2011)

When I visited mom back in October, I noticed that she would leave her mail and newspapers up in her box on the road for several days because it was just too much for her to walk up the hill to pick it up. ("And it's all junk anyway!" she would say.) Then when the snow came it occurred to me that I really didn't want her trying to climb the hill in the snow and ice, so I found out from the post office that if there is a medical necessity, they will deliver right to the door. It took a while to convince my hard-headed mom, because she didn't want to cause any inconvenience to her mail carrier. But finally I convinced her. I got a letter from her cardiologist, and I sent it to the KF Postmaster, and a few days later I got a call from a very nice woman at the post office, saying that they would be happy to do that, and asking if we would move the box down to the door so he would know where to leave the mail. It turned out that Bill had a spare mailbox, and he brought it down and installed it right outside mom's sliding glass door, and her mail carrier has been delivering her mail right to her door. Mom made an agreement with him that Monday and Thursday are the definite delivery days, and on other days he can skip coming down the hill unless there is something that looks important.

Today mom was puttering around when she saw someone go past the dining room window, and by the time she got to the sliding glass door to see who it was, her mail carrier had discovered that there was still mail in her mailbox from Monday (mom had forgotten to pick it up), and he was about to knock on the door to check on her to see if everything was all right! She was very touched that he would check on her. (And I was glad that there is one more safety net keeping an eye on her!)

Mom said that she had gotten a lot done today. She colored her hair, "So I don't look like such an OLD OLD lady--just an old lady." She did her laundry. She watched the otters playing out on the ice. She watched a bald eagle in the tree in front of her house. She had a visit from one of her neighbors who stopped by to see if she needed anything from town, and he will be coming back later to bring her a cup of soup from Safeway which these neighbors and mom all love.

I asked if she had built herself a fire, but she said that when she has a lot to do she doesn't usually build a fire "till I get things organized" because then she will have to keep stopping to put a log on the fire to keep it going. She said that on days like this she usually doesn't build a fire till later in the day when she is ready to sit down and relax.

Bill will be arriving this evening so he can take her into town tomorrow for the blood draw at the hospital and then the appointment with Dr. Kubac at the Heart Clinic.