It's been a week with no mail.
The front sidewalk, it's under construction and the workers have peeled away the stairs from the porch, poured the new sidewalk and have spent the past few days sitting about and watching the concrete dry. I've asked them what's become of the mail, they don't know, go back to watching the concrete dry.
Now there's nothing I need, well, there's a few Blue Cross cheques that I'm expecting, there's the bills and fliers and other curiosities that arrive, and so there's no real urgency but I call Canada Post because I'd like to pick it up nonetheless. Phone: 1-800-267-1177. 10 minutes on hold. When finally I speak to someone they have no idea what's being done with my mail either, but they'll initiate a trace and it will take a week or two, and so I tell them not to bother. The stairs should be done by then.
The smell of the porta-potty on the front lawn grows daily, the breeze the wrong way and you can smell it in the rear of the house.Today, still no stairs up but the men are working on it, they're cursing and swearing and arguing about the possibility of getting the stairs back on again, trampling the flowerbed, the postman comes by, I hear her outside through asking about the construction, I interrupt my nap and dash outside, she hands up the mail, sure enough there's my Blue Cross and other mail, fliers, nothing worth getting too uptight about. But it's been a week and I'd like the porta-potty off the front lawn, would like to be able to climb the front steps again but the workmen, they're on a different schedule and it could well be another week before the job is finished.
This is what happens when you're paid by the hour.