Tuesday, August 5, 2008. Sometimes I do things so stoopid I can't believe it. I drove to the post office this am and picked up the mail. I check the mail like three times a month. Because of these long intervals  there's lots of legitimate mail mixed in with a lot of junk, necessitating  a big plastic bag to put it all in.

I drove across the railroad tracks and parked under an old oak tree  (this tree is in the middle of town, between the bank and the liquor store.) Under the oak's dappled shade I sat and listened to the radio and plowed through the sack of mail. I wrote checks for the first of month bills; (the house note and water bill;) put stamps and address labels on the envelopes.

I crumpled up junk mail without my name on it into a ball and drove around the corner and threw it into the convenience store trash can. Then I drove toward  the post office in the next town to mail the bills and ask the postmaster there about some stamps I had ordered. But as I headed down  highway 98, I saw some mallow plants blooming by a side road. I turned around and went back to see if I could pick some.

I drove up as close as I could. The mallow plants are a wild hibiscus with chartreuse petals and a magenta throat--they look just like okra flowers, but are smaller. They were growing with Queen Anne's lace and yellow daisies. I itched to pick a few to make a bouquet. I opened the car door--Oh Oh. Between me and them was a weedy snaky looking ditch. Regretfully, I left them.

I get to the 2nd post office and reached for the house and water bills. The water bill was missing. I searched every piece of mail in the big bag three times. I got a flashlight and looked between the seats. I looked in my purse. I got out and looked under the seats back and front. I found a Popeye's fried chicken coupon and a Pizza Hut coupon, but no water bill. I went back to the side road--maybe the water bill had fallen out on the road somehow when I'd opened the door. Nope, wasn't there.

I drove back to convenience store. Maybe I had inadvertently crumpled the water bill up with the junk mail. I was searching through the trash can when my cousin Leroy walked by. "What are you doing in that trash can? Looking for a beer?" he joked. He helped me pull out beer bottles and cans and Skoal cups and other yukky stuff. Searched it all--no water bill.

Then I glanced between the car seats again, and there the envelope was, big as life. I swear to you, some poltergeist had taken it and put it back between searches. Leroy pulled it out for me and I got it mailed fast before it could disappear again. Now ain't that the stoopid-est thing you've heard in a while?  Susil

Comments:

You need to start paying your bills on-line. I love it!! Credit card, phone, energy, etc. all automatically taken out of my bank's checking account. Simple as pudding.

comment by solitaire on Aug 9, 2008 6:44 AM ()

I thought you said you WOULDN'T ever do that?

reply by catdancer on Aug 25, 2008 6:43 PM ()

Heaven's no, I like to look at and examine the paper billing
statements I get. I don't want my banking info out there in
cyberspace.

reply by susil on Aug 9, 2008 7:55 AM ()

You always find what you're looking for in the last place you look,

comment by shesaidwhat on Aug 7, 2008 11:47 AM ()

Hi she; That is so true--but I once lost a set of keys
I dropped in the grass somewhere from the car to the back
door--never found them despite many searches. I still wonder
what happened to them.

reply by susil on Aug 9, 2008 8:00 AM ()

I went looking for my glasses the other day...couldn't find them anywhere...I went to look one last time in the bathroom and looked in the mirror...they were on the top of my head..

comment by elfie33 on Aug 6, 2008 2:23 PM ()

elfie, glad you found those specs!

reply by susil on Aug 9, 2008 8:02 AM ()

When I was a latchkey kid, I used to lose my apartment key. My solution
was to borrow our neighbor's ladder, put it up against our dining
room window, push the window up, already open just 2 inches, and some-
how hoist myself up to the sill (remember I am still just under 5
feet), and then go back to the courtyard, climb the fench, grab
the ladder and return it to the neighbor. Then I would find the
key in my bag. I did this more than once.

comment by tealstar on Aug 6, 2008 11:01 AM ()

teal, you made me laugh, picturing you climbing the
ladder etc. (and you couldn't blame doing that on having
a senior moment!)Why didn't you wear that key on a cord
qround your neck? Your mom probably would've had a heart
attack if she knew her baby was climbing a ladder through
a window!

reply by susil on Aug 9, 2008 8:08 AM ()

Sometimes things just hide in plain sight.

comment by elderjane on Aug 6, 2008 10:21 AM ()

Hi Jeri; you are so right. but it's happening more
as the gray matter clogs up!

reply by susil on Aug 9, 2008 8:11 AM ()

comment by troutbend on Aug 5, 2008 1:33 PM ()

At least it was a cousin, who already knows I'm barmy!

reply by susil on Aug 6, 2008 3:55 AM ()

What the old saying? If it was a snake, it would have bit ya....
Been there, done that, too!

comment by marta on Aug 5, 2008 12:38 PM ()

Oh, believe me, Sue, sometimes I'm more zanny-headed than level-headed!

reply by marta on Aug 6, 2008 5:24 AM ()

marta, that envelope couldn't have escaped my first search--
it was very thorough. Maybe it went to another dimension for
a while, (Twilight Zone music here!)
You seem to level headed to lose something like that!

reply by susil on Aug 6, 2008 3:51 AM ()

comment by larryb on Aug 5, 2008 11:41 AM ()

Larry, sounds like you had a visit from that prankster
poltergeist that took my water bill!

reply by susil on Aug 6, 2008 3:47 AM ()