Our mailbox sits right next to our driveway - directly in the path of these off-road drivers. I have lost count of the number of times it has been hit. Sometimes it's a simple matter of putting the post back in the ground; sometimes the box looks more like a pancake and has to be replaced.
A few months ago, we replaced our scarred, bent and faded mailbox with a new one. The pole was a little wobbly, but the new box looked good. Within weeks, the pole was leaning backward, probably due to a glancing blow from a passing truck's mirror. It was still functional, so we left it alone. Evidently this was a good decision. Tire tracks in front of the box show that it's Leaning Tower of Pisa impression allowed it to survive another near miss the following week.
Last weekend, the mailbox took a more direct hit which bent the door and left the pole leaning at a 45 degree angle. The mailman deemed it unusable (meaning he could no longer reach it from his car) and refused to deliver our mail.
I asked my son to fix it (knowing there was little chance of this happening while there were video games to be played) and was pleasantly surprised when I got home from work to find the mailbox standing straight, the door looking less bent, and filled with mail. I hugged my son and thanked him... and got a blank stare. He didn't fix it. I asked my husband if he had fixed it. Nope.
It must have been the mailbox fairy. Thank you, mailbox fairy!
