Thursday, February 28, 2019

Small Town Fun

I live in a town of just over 6,000 people, and my home town is just under half that size.  I know there are towns that are smaller, but both my hometown and my current home are really close knit communities.  That's what makes my story for today so much fun.

When I got home yesterday the mailman had left me one of those "Sorry I Missed You" notes on my door.  It was to let me know that I had a letter from City Hall that required a signature. Those are never fun. 

My guess was it was one of four things:

  1. My building permit for the garage enclosure is coming up on it's one year anniversary and was about to expire;
  2. The pickup in my side yard with the expired tags had been complained about by a neighbor. (You can't see the tags from the street, so what the hell were they doing in my yard?);
  3. The disassembled parts truck in the back yard; or
  4. My car hauling trailer needs to be moved off of the street. 

The note also said that the party who was to sign for it had to be 21 years of age or older.  Well, everyone in my house that qualifies works M-F when the mail runs, and neither of us want to sit at home and wait for the mail to run on Saturday.  That left me with the option of designating someone else to sign for it or go down to the Post Office and pick it up.  I chose the latter option, and that's when it went kinda left.

I was waiting eagerly in the lobby at 7:25 this morning. Waiting for those blinds to go up and the door to open, so I could get my letter and get on my way to work.

The very lovely lady who works the counter there opened the door and met me with a smile (something you really only see in small towns...a smiling postal employee). I handed her my notice of attempted delivery, and she set about tracking down my letter. Her search was diligent and thorough, but alas she could not locate a registered letter for me. It had up and vanished. She took my name and phone number with a promise to call when the letter was located.

As I dejectedly walked back to the car, I decided the only course of action left for me was to call City Hall (cue ominous music) at 8:30 when they opened.

Turns out it was the trailer, which is the easiest of all of the things to do.

Now, here's the funny bit. Remember how I said it is a close knit community? I know most of the folks who work at City Hall. In all honesty they could have just called me on my cell phone and said, "Hey Tole...could ya do the thing?", and I would have done the thing.

Oh well, it is a little comforting to know that bureaucracy is alive and well and functioning as intended...even in small town Texas. 

Y'all have a great weekend.

-Tole


2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Ah yes, small towns... :-) And it only took you ONE phone call to get the right person...LOL

Wayne said...

Yup. No computer maze. Phone was answered by an actual human being who could actually just holler down the hall and ask who sent me the letter. It's a very stress free existence most of the time. I've spent a year or seven in big cities, and I will take small town every damned time.

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