When I went to the Post Office on Monday, the lovely ladies who are filling in between the retirement of our old postmaster, darling neighbor Steve, and the eventual hiring of the new postmaster, were up to their necks in sheer chaos.  Though you might think that the Babb post office would be a sleepy, rural post office threatened by the deficit chopping block, you would be wrong.  Babb’s proximity to the border means that legions of Canadians keep post office boxes in Babb, to enjoy cheap shipping from Amazon.com and the like.  The Babb post office can be an insanely busy place, and Monday was no exception.

The credit card machine was down and the lovely ladies were trying to install and learn to run the new retail system, which I imagine everyone reading this blog has been used to for years, i.e. the computerized post office where all packages are scanned and you get an itemized receipt at the end of your exchange.  We have not had this until recently.  Anyway, pandemonium, and here I come staggering in the door with four 35# buckets of honey, along with three 12# buckets and about 15 boxes for Priority Flat Rate shipment.  I needed insurance, I needed delivery confirmation, I needed a roll of regular stamps, I needed postcard stamps, I needed a second window. Long story short: I was in there for about 45 minutes, as the line of Canadians snaked ever further out the door.

At the end of my visit, I headed for the door, and the sweet interim postmaster suddenly yelled out, “Honey lady, wait!  You’ve got a package.”  And so I once again returned to the head of the very long line of Canadians already irate with me for having such a prolonged, complicated transaction.  And the nice postmaster handed me a mysterious package, with a return address I did not recognize.

Returning to my car, I immediately began ripping into this package, and unearthed four of the most beautiful jars of hot pepper sauce I have ever seen.

Turns out, a blog reader who once was Brother Dear’s youth soccer coach, is a gourmand who puts up his own pepper sauce, and he read of my infatuation with the peppy condiment, and sent me a treat in the mail.

Kevin Reed, thank you so very much.  You made my day, along with reason #1,234,567 I love the internets.

Now, y’all better gitchu some pepper sauce, too.  But I bet it won’t be nearly as pretty – or tasty – as the sauce currently serving as the fall centerpiece for my dining room table!  Thanks again, Kevin!

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