When my mailbox moving became political.

So when we bought the house and moved in three years ago, we accepted the location of the mailbox. It's on the other side of our driveway and across some uneven ground. About 50 yards away from the door.

This wasn't a problem back then but since that point we've had a series of bad luck. Wife needed a new knee, I sprained an ankle and while it's healed enough to walk on and go back to work, anyone who has had one knows that it can take a while before it's back to 100%.

So it was decided that the mailbox ought to be moved to the end of our path to the street. Straight ahead, on a flat and smooth surface, and only about 30 feet away.

We asked the Post Office what we needed to do to move a mailbox, was told that all we needed to do was let the driver know that it being moved and to just move it making sure that it's numbered to match the house so there's no confusion. Went to the store to buy a new one since the old one was getting a little ratty from getting hit a couple of times and installed it this weekend.

Which to our amusement was the best time to install it since we actually caught the driver and were able to tell her that here was the new mailbox and that the other was going away. Great! Situation handled. Installation goes well and now we're onto part two. The removal of the other mailbox.

Here's where my moving the mailbox got political. The old mailbox was on the same post as my neighbor across the street and one house over so we shared it. During this past election I posted no signs supporting either of the Candidates. My neighbor John (not real name) had a half dozen signs, flags and a banner in his yard in support of a certain canidate.

John came over as I was removing the old box and complained that the only reason I was doing this was that I didn't support said candidate and this was my "petty-assed reason" and that I just didn't want to be associated with him.

In truth I didn't want to be associated with him. Largely before we knew he was a Supporter, he wasn't a very pleasant person. Walking my dog he'd yell at me to keep "that goddamned mutt off of my yard" even though I was on my side of the street. He'd also call animal control on me about my chickens running loose across his yard when in reality it was his neighbor to his right that had the chickens. I don't have any although I did buy a used chicken coop since it's also a very nice unit for keeping my wife's angora rabbits in...so I could see the confusion. We used to wave to him like we'd do for any of our neighbors we'd see outside and he never waved back, typically just ignoring us and making a point to look at something, anything else other than us. Unless we had the dog and he'd watch us like a hawk to make sure we didn't come near his lawn.

Honestly we disliked him long before we knew he was a supporter.

I explained the medical condition, the walk through uneven ground that I stated above but that wasn't enough for him. He threatened to call the HOA. We don't have an HOA we have a Neighborhood association that only concerns itself with collecting donations for snow removal and mosquito spraying.

I just finished removing the mailbox and went back inside and vowed to ignore him from here on out.