Mailbox

 I steer clear of any religious topics on the blog, but Ole Johnny Cash might be onto something here. The way things are going not only in our country, but worldwide, The Man might be coming around before long.

I pulled the garbage can carrier out of the hitch on the truck the other day so I could load up the Go-Go carrier. As long as I had it out of the hitch, I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint, oil the mechanism and grease up the tube and pin so it'll come out of the hitch easily. I've been called upon to help get ball mounts out of receiver hitches that have rusted in. Removing them once in a while and giving them a coating of grease can eliminate a problem when you need to remove it.

The appliance dolly fix is going as planned - maybe even a little better. I was just finishing up the first side when the Missus summoned me. 

I'm not sure what prompted it, but she wanted me to go get the mailbox that was in front of her grandparents' house. The house suffered from neglect after her grandparents passed away to the point it was finally condemned. We went to take a look at it after the previous owner moved thinking we might buy the place and move there. Small house, but there's just the two of us. Not a huge lot, but out in the country and there was a nice place to build a shop in back. Unfortunately, we were too late and it was scheduled for demolition.  

To make a long story longer, the house had a partial basement under it that Grandpa dug by hand. When the Missus and I started dating she was living with her grandparents. Grandpa and I hit it off right away. The old man was born in 1896 and the Missus to be and I started dating in 1967, so he was up in the years by then and had emphysema. He couldn't do much of anything physical, so I cut his grass for him and afterwards we'd sit and he'd tell me stories about what used to be. He was a tough old bird in his younger days - you'd have to be to dig your own basement by hand after the house was already built.

Anyway, back to the mailbox. The Missus got a hold of the current owner who told her to come get the mailbox. She told me I need a saw and a shovel, but having pulled a few posts in my time, I loaded up a "C" clamp, a long bar and some blocking as well. The box was leaning back at about a 30-degree angle and didn't seem like it would take much to get it out of the ground. I wiggled it around a bit but it didn't give any when I tried to pull it out, so I put the "C' clamp on the post, used the blocking as a fulcrum and put some weight on the 4' pinch bar and it started moving. I had to change my blocking a couple of times, but it came out with little difficulty. 

I put my girdle on before going to work to protect my chest and I already had a sore muscle on my side from working on the Go-Go carrier and using the lop shears the other day, but at my age I could have hurt myself sleeping. Regardless, pretty sore when I got done going two out of three falls with the mailbox.

I'm going to a boxing match today. One of the guys Coach Jen and I have been working with has a bout. Let's hope all the coaching pays off.