shenandoah delight

in may 2005, we decided to move away from the hustle and bustle of washington dc and back to something more tranquil and relaxing. our little 5-acre plot on the western slope of the shenandoah mountains is all that we could have wanted. life is good in the hills.

like most blogs, mine will mostly be a way to share random thoughts, perspectives, peeves, and prognostications with friends, family, and anyone else who decides to drop by. i hope you enjoy it as much as i do. . . ~ron

About Me

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Location: clear brook, northern va, United States

i was born a navy brat and joined the navy myself in 1979. after spending 20 years as a naval cryptologist, i retired in 1999. now i am a computer security engineer for a mid-size government contractor in reston, va. i am very lucky to be married to the love of my life - cherie'( a.k.a. lolita), and we have 7 terrific kids! plus 7 terrific grandkids!

i attended garner senior high school in garner, nc (just outside raleigh) and the university of maryland (bs in 2000 and ms in 2004).

now that the kids are all grown and out of the house, i fill my time trying to keep tabs on them, which ain't always easy. they tend to be very busy and socially active. life could probably be better, but honestly, i don't know how . . . except living closer to all the kids would be nice :-)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

a funny thing happened

a funny thing happened at the post office the other day. cherie was doing some running around and stopped by the post office to mail some packages (christmas presents actually). it was one of those days; you know the type; when nothing seems to go right and you're really not feeling that great either. so, of course, the post office was closed for lunch . . . things like that happen often in this neck of the woods. it was about 15 minutes 'til they were scheduled to reopen. cherie decided to call it a day and just head back home.


cherie was a little disappointed at not being able to get the presents in the mail, but like i said; things like that happen around here and you get used to it. she was just about to return to her car with the packages when the post office door opened and the lady inside said, "come on in". cherie politely told her that it was ok that they were closed and she would come back some other time.


the postal employee would have none of that and insisted that she come on in and mail her packages. cherie protested, "no, it's your lunch hour, i'll come back", but the lady insisted she had finished her lunch and didn't mind reopening early.


so cherie went in, mailed her packages and left in much better spirits than when she arrived. it's silly really, that one nice lady, who went just a little out of her way, could actually brighten an otherwise dreary day for a customer . . . i think they call that "customer service", yeah, that's what they used to call it. before coming to clear brook, i hadn't seen it in a very long time.


but here in the northern most parts of virginia, kindness, courtesy, respect, and yes, even customer service are bountiful. it's like a whole 'nother world.


and that my friends, is why life on the ridge is so wonderful . . .

posted by secretsquirrel | 9:41 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger scøüpe said...

i really didn't think post offices were supposesd to shut down for lunch. i mean, they get all the federal holidays and every sunday off; is it too much to ask that they have at least one employee working during business hours? and on april fifteenth,shouldn't every post office stay open until midnight instead of a few select outposts? seriously, would it kill them to stay open really late one day each year?

12:26 AM  
Blogger secretsquirrel said...

yeah, you would think the post office would be open during lunch, but the clear brook post office, which supports the community of 190 people, is probably a 1-person show for most of the day.

the inconvenience of stores, post offices, et al, not being open during all of the most convenient times is one of the things we have had to get used to. it's a small trade-off when you consider all of the benefits of living in a small town.

as to all post offices being open until midnight on april 15th - that's a brilliant idea!

8:05 PM  

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