A bit later in the evening than usual, I finished cooking dinner and was just ready to serve it...
Came the sound of the doorbell, and knocking-type knocking. Hm? Someone actually at the front door this time of evening? A late parcel delivery, maybe? (Unlikely, but plausible.)
The front door currently being obstructed, I exited through the garage. Looks like a sheriff's vehicle in the driveway. And someone shaped like a policeman on the front porch.
No cause to panic. He'd come to inform us that someone had hit our mailbox with a car, said car then having either disappeared down the road or (by one possible interpretation of the report he'd heard) run off the other side of the road and vanished into the woods.
Well, foo. Something to check on after dinner.
Turns out this wasn't another case of clipping the mailbox, bending it slightly, and leaving a side mirror behind. Oh, no. There were tire tracks veering off the road, proceeding along the neighbor's lawn, down the drainage ditch, and back onto the road. [FLASH - more info below.] The mailbox was on the other side of the road, its post broken in multiple places. Rocks from around the end of the culvert were scattered across the driveway.
So, this time we'll need a new mailbox for sure. And a new post. Too late in the day for a home-improvement-center run; have to do that in the morning.
Meanwhile, saw off the asymmetric tail of the old post, dig a suitable hole, and plunk it back in the ground - considerably below regulation mailbox height, but present.
MORE INFO: Just as I was typing that, I spotted two people walking up the driveway. One was the driver, and the other the driver's nephew's girlfriend or something. Seems the driver was heading home, missed a turn, fell asleep (she works graveyard shift or some such, and had a recent outbreak of family stress that hasn't done much for her sleep patterns), hit the mailbox, turned off on the next road, stopped, took a while to get her bearings, and called for help.
As I understand it, the car is in as bad shape as one would expect after such an event, and tow trucks are in short supply just now (labor shortage, Mother's Day, Sunday evening). Anyway, I accepted the apology and gave them back the fender that had been left behind.
Still gotta go box-and-post shopping on the morrow. And, before that, I should probably unload the mulch and whatnot currently occupying the bed of the truck.
"and game them back the fender" :-) No one was hurt and they did come back to explain... These things happen... Good story!
Posted by: Rob | Monday, 09 May 2022 at 09:32