So it rained a lot the past few days. We know this because water is leaking in our walls around our flue pipe. At least we won't have to pay for it because it should be covered with our condo fees.
But the rain altered Kelly and Kaelyn's daily routine of getting the mail from the mailbox.
I'm the man, I should get wet.
My neighbors were out by the mailbox and I started to explain to them our condo leakage, encouraging them to check their chimney area. As I stood their talking with them, I struggled to open our mailbox. The key wouldn't go in.
This is interesting too because we had a new mailbox installed a couple of weeks ago. The local post office is dragging its feet getting us the brand new keys so we're still using the old box. The box where the keys don't work well.
So my neighbors want to check to see if their place has water leakage and don't want to wait for me to get my mail so they go inside.
Immediately after they go inside, I finally get the box opened and pull out our mail. Prominently displayed on the top of my mail is a magazine.
A Playboy Magazine.
[Quick Sidebar: I can imagine the perverts doing a Google search for "Playboy Magazine" ending up at this blog post and being severly disappointed. Sorry, guys, no nekked pics here].
Understand that I do not subscribe to said magazine. It must have been sent to me by someone getting my name/address on a mailing list. I bet it was those people at Biblical Archaeology Review [now there's a link for the perverts].
And understand that I did not look at the contents of the magazine. I did what a self-respecting man would've done.
I gave it to my wife.
And I told her it wasn't mine.
Come to find out, it wasn't really a magazine but a catalog. Who knew they even had a catalog [be careful how you answer that]? But, honestly, you couldn't tell that from the cover. It looked identically like a Playboy magazine . . . or at least the ones I've seen portrayed on television.***
All this had me thinking all night [and not about nekked chics].
I'm trying to show my neighbors [the ones who I talked to at the mailbox], who aren't Christian, that our faith can be relevant to a normal life. Additionally, I'd like to exemplify that we can also live up to a certain moral standard. Does me getting Playboy Magazine hurt my [moral] reputation with them? Probably. At the very worst, if they saw me pull that magazine from our box I'd have to stutter about how "it's not really mine" [doesn't everyone claim that?] and awkwardly explain why it was in our box in the first place. So maybe it doesn't hurt my cause in their eyes, but I can't imagine that it would help.
And that's when I trace this whole thing back to a string of little incidents.
It was raining so I went to get the mail instead of Kelly and Kaelyn. Imagine her shock if she had gotten the mail, while holding our daughter, especially in front of those neighbors. It would probably have been embarrassing. But it didn't happen.
Of course, Kel and Kaelyn didn't go out to get the mail because of all the rain. The same rain that caused the leak in our house. And the rain was the conversation piece that I used with my neighbors, leaving them wondering about the dryness of their own condo so that they went inside. Otherwise, they might have kept talking with me and have seen my retrieve a Playboy from my mailbox. But it didn't happen.
Another thing that prolonged me from getting the mail out of the box was because I was fumbling with the key. It's an old key and doesn't work that well. We were supposed to be using those new mailboxes now, which would've used new keys. A new key would've probably worked perfectly. If the key worked the first time, my neighbors would've definitely seen a Playboy in my daily mail. But it didn't happen.
I'm not saying all this happened because God was looking out for me.
Well, maybe I am.
I just thought it was interesting how all these little incidents, however troubling, made my day.
And all that without having to see nekked chics.
***Just in case you're wondering, Kelly looked at how to get taken off their mailing list and it told you to send a letter snail mail with your full information and your customer order code. If you never ordered anything with them, why do you have a customer code in the first place?