Community Service

[bjarvis]

Earlier this week, my civic association contacted me by e-mail to warn me in advance that a stack of newsletters would arrive chez nous soon. Could I please ensure the ones for my area were distributed before next Monday's meeting?

Sure enough, there were 50+ newsletters on my front porch when I returned from work yesterday.

Faithful public servant that I am, all newsletters were delivered in my route by 12:30 PM today. I do however have a few notes...

1. 2213 Westview: Of all the houses on our street, yours needs the most work. OK, 2130 is worse but the ugliness is hidden behind a lot of shrubs so it doesn't present as badly as yours. At least replace the broken glass in your windows instead of taping cardboard on the inside. The screen door should be either fully connected to the house or removed entirely: this half-on/half-off thing just isn't working for you.
   
2. Who astroturfs their front step? You know who you are.
   
3. It's January 20. Time for the xmas decorations to come down. All you need to do is remove the wreath from your front door... how hard can it be? I'll help if you like: I'm free 2-4 AM most weeknights.
   
4. I need some etiquette help. When a house has a mail slot on the door, a letter on the wall beside the front door and a full-sized mailbox on the opposite side of the door, which should one use for delivering newsletters and/or mail? I'm defaulting to whichever one is easiest for me because it's all about me anyway because I assume the residents would make their preferences known in some fashion if they cared in the slightest. What would Ms Manners do?
   

Comments

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

Astroturf: the apartment where I lived in London ON in -oh, you were 9 and 10, Brian - had astroturf on the balcony. I made withering remarks about it during a family visit and my bro-in-law (who is a garage sale addict and has a pack-rat complex) happily took it back to their house in Mississauga. My sister glared at me over the top of her glasses, but hey, I got rid of it.

Decorations and lights: I've lived in houses (not my own) where the lights are permanently strung (to the eaves of the porch, etc); but they're only turned on at the appropriate time of year. (appropriate = mid-December to January 5, the twelfth day of christmas). That's OK in my book. But either turning the lights on, or having a wreath on the door after January 5 (or the weekend after) is Not On.

(actually, now I think of it, the lights were also turned on if they were throwing a party in, say, May or October. "You can't miss our house, it's the one on the corner with the christmas lights". But that was a one-night deal.)

Which mailslot?: Gentle Reader: if you have enough, all three. If not, through the door. That way you know they'll see it. Or carry a spool of masking tape and affix the newsletter to the door with a small slip of stickytape. That way you really know they'll see it. It's polite, it's discreet, and you're fulfilling your civic duty in getting the newsletters to your neighbours.

Community Service: have a housepoint. very good of you.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Here is an obscure argument for the mailslot in the door.

There is a regulation that the US Postal Service sometimes enforces that says the mail box is only to be used for incoming and outcoming mail and that nothing else can be placed in it. Once a while you read about some newspaper delivery kid being harrassed/arrested because he put the newpaper in the mailbox.