Pushing the Envelope

My good friend, David Savage, was part of an interesting group of men who gathered for lunch on Wednesdays at the Eastdale Mall food court for several years. It was a group that began as an early morning study/prayer group then became a midday prayer group and eventually a "lunch and share a small part of your week with brothers" social time. I miss all the guys who were part of that group but at least I see most of them occasionally at church. David, however, moved to North Carolina with his beautiful, tall wife to work at an actual job. While he was here, he mostly made fun of our jobs. He was particularly fond of saying about me (because I work at the Post Office) "that Roxy, every day he goes to work and pushes the envelope". I liked it even after it was old.
Now that I have traded the white shirt and tie for a blue collar it is easier for me to lampoon my workplace. Here is a sampling from the past week; 1) as I was walking from my bike to the office one morning last week a rental truck entered the employee parking area. Now, we regularly get safety briefings about mail and vehicle security. Ashley's terrorist neighbors would love to get their hands on a mail truck--they could drive right up to any government building and...well, you know. Our employee parking area is well fenced and clearly marked so it is rare that anybody "accidentally" rides through. Being the responsible employee, I hesitated to see what this person was up to. Turns out it was a young lady who is a substitute rural carrier. She and her husband are moving from Montgomery to Wetumpka. They had gotten up early, loaded the truck and she drove it to work, carried a route, then drove to the new house and unloaded. I am not making this up. Now, I am not making fun of her. I am really impressed. How many of your co-workers would ask for a week off to move and complain another week about how much work it was and how hot it is? This young lady (who has a toddler) and her husband moved in a little more than a day--with a full work day sandwiched in the middle. So, that vehicle is about as rare as you would ever see arriving at work at 7:00 a.m., right? Nope.

2) Monday (day before yesterday) as I made the same trek to the workroom, a firetruck turned into the parking lot and drove into the employee parking area blowing the air-horn at full tilt. Naturally, I looked at the roof of the building for smoke. All clear. Then I realized the driver of the firetruck was Chris, one of the city carriers. I am not making this up. See, Chris has served for some time as the fire-chief of the Buyck (pronounced bike) Volunteer Fire Department. During that time he was very instrumental in raising money for a new fire engine. Once they got the truck and were having final equipment installed, he wanted to come by (on his off-day) and show it off. It is a real beauty. Another first for me--sitting in a brand-spanking new firetruck.
3) Not all the interesting events at the Wetumpka Post Office involve unusual transportation. Yesterday afternoon someone walked into our break room to get a soft drink and saw a snake crawl under the table. There were no men in the building at the time, but this is a hardy group of women. Well, one of them got a little excited but leapt into action. She grabbed the fire extinguisher and blasted the snake with white foam. I don't know if you have ever experimented with a fire extinguisher (you really should before an emergency), but it makes a BIG mess. I didn't witness all the details but eventually a male rural carrier showed up and scooped the snake into a container and took him to the cow pasture next to our office and released him. Some of the ladies scrubbed the break room for about an hour. Today, there was much debate about what SHOULD have been done with the snake. It is a wonderful life.