By Brian
In the aftermath of the tornado, I was reminded of the old adage, “if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?”. For us, it was more like “if bills don’t ever get delivered, and there is no mailbox to receive them, are they still due?” The answer sadly is yes.
Other than some necessary building and property repairs, thankfully there were no known injuries from Mother Nature acting up. We did find it interesting that our apartment neighbors moved quickly from relief that no one was hurt to extreme frustration with the resulting absence of a usable mailbox.
During what would be a several-month rebuild of our mailbox bank, residents were required to go to the main post office (not the location right down the street) and wait in line to get their mail. This new duty given to us by the USPS ultimately fell to Dylan (and Bobbie as the transportation and retriever for our mail). Dylan had actually become quite good at getting their mail onsite nearly every day, though he was none too happy about this new offsite effort.
As a first step, we were encouraged to get him his REAL ID (if like me you were not aware of this pending change, feel free to look up the details for Illinois at https://realid.ilsos.gov). In retrospect, this was actually a nice milestone to update his existing state ID with the REAL ID that contained his new address on it. The situation also provided the opportunity to practice patience and understanding on a regular basis as the post office was neither efficient nor particularly skilled at finding our mail during each visit.
These inconveniences at the post office created another challenge for Dylan. As a creature of habit, Dylan was gaining confidence tracking and paying his bills as they came in the mail. Now the bills were not guaranteed to arrive on time or at all. As mentioned in the adage at the beginning, Dylan really did struggle with understanding why he had to pay a bill he did not receive. It took some work to help him schedule when bills should be due and how to find the information online when necessary.
Even as our mailboxes are now safely back within walking distance, we are all now working to minimize the mail we actually need to get. I feel confident we are better off and can live without the weekly Kohls and Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons. On a similar note, I have now also blocked certain “urgent” phone calls that I receive as I feel very confident that I will be able to find an extended warranty for my car if and when the need ever arises. In many ways, I think simplification and minimizing the noise can add value to our lives.