Overalls, Lizards and Post Offices

This morning, after feeding the menagerie (goats, dog, cats), I was standing in the carport, talking with Joe about removing the back seats from the beater van I just purchased to schlep boxes from the "pond house" to the farm house.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something dart by.  Joe saw it too, and, as he made clear to me, the lizard was on my overalls pant leg.  I looked and saw nothing.  Joe told me to turn around, it was on the back of my leg.  I obliged and he tried to grab it, but it was too fast. "It's gone inside your overalls!" he told me, "take 'em off!"  LOL, I would normally not just start stripping out in the great outdoors, but this place is so secluded, it was not a problem.  "I don't feel any lizard in my overalls," I assured Joe, who was determined the interloper had, indeed, escaped in there.  With the overalls down below my knees and still no sign of Mr. L, I glanced at the back of my arm, and there he was...just looking at us!  Joe grabbed him and returned him to the lawn, while I proceeded to pull up my overalls!  It's always good to start the day with a little action!  No photos of the little guy, I'm afraid... the photographer in the crowd didn't have his camera ready!

I needed to ship a package to an eBay member, one who lives in Canada.  Since shipping internationally requires in-person presentation at the post office, I headed to the post office at 11:30, having completed my morning chores at the old farmhouse and having successfully banished Mr. L from my person.  I was testing my driving of the "beater" van.  The van was easy enough to drive, even with my right hand limitations, but Joe went with me, to make sure I had no trouble making the two mile drive.

We arrived at North Post Office at 11:45 AM.  It was closed and nowhere on the door or walls were the hours of operation posted.  A little bummed out, I returned to the van and told Joe what I'd discovered.  I knew the Gloucester Post Office was open until 12:00 PM, but knew also, it would take me longer than 15 minutes to drive the 12 miles.  Joe was confident he could get me there in time, so off we went....

The road from Mathews to Gloucester is a two-lane road with a double yellow line.  It doesn't widen until it crosses the county line.  Today, on that road, six cars ahead of our beater van, was a guy in a pick-up truck, pulling his trailered boat.  He was not quite achieving the speed limit but nobody could pass him.  Finally, we made it to the county line and the boat toting truck pulled into the slow lane....and so the speed in the other lane picked up and sure enough, we pulled into Gloucester Post Office at 11:59 and I headed in with my international package.  I got in line, as the clerks were both helping customers.  One of the clerks, who knows me well, because I ship packages there daily, asked me, "is that ready to go?"

I told her I needed to pay for it there (I usually print my postage on-line) because it was international.  She continued helping the customer as she declared, "Oh, because we are closed....it's 12 o'clock."  Well, I didn't know how to respond to that.  It was clear I was not going to be served today, and my package would require another day and another trip to the post office.  I would be lying if I said I was not miffed, but I decided it was not worth ruining my day over.

We decided that since we were already now in Gloucester, we would drive to the pond house and pick up another load of boxes, and do some more yard work.  For the next four hours, Joe worked outside and I worked inside and when the heat and humidity finally took its toll, we packed the boxes in the beater and drove back to the old farmhouse.  The 15 minute round trip to North Post Office had turned into a nearly five hour excursion.

On the positive side, we did get a lot accomplished at the pond house and we did manage to get back to the farmhouse before the thunder and black clouds developed into rain.  The dog and the goats were all happy to see us, and ready to be returned to their shelter...they are not happy campers in the rain! Benson, the "mouser" cat, is unperturbed by just about anything.  He just watches as the others go ballistic to get into shelter at the first rumble of thunder. And our third sunflower opened today....

After eating our first meal of the day, we are now just relaxing and editing photos to add to the listing for the pond house.  I think I'll take a nap and do some more work later this evening....