i just can't win

my husband is out of town. since we live ten miles south of common sense whenever my husband travels for business an extra two days is tacked on to each trip. because no one flies into south bend. i can't say as i blame them. but it is so irritating. on many levels. so, my mom was nice enough to come down and visit for the week. and help out with the kids. i have had a cold for going on 3 weeks now. my dad has a cold. that's why he didn't come down with my mom. my mom was fine. now she has a cold. from my dad. i am waiting for the kids to now get sick. that will be a treat. yesterday, i was minding my own business when i saw our plow go down the road. i use the term plow loosely because in all actuality it is, afterall, a john deere tractor. seriously. although, i still chuckle to myself when i see it, it was relatively uneventful. or so i thought. until i saw a foreign object in our front lawn. that wasn't there the last time i looked out the window. sure enough, it's our effing mailbox. our seventy-five dollar mailbox. the seventy-five dollar mailbox that the flag won't stay up on. the seventy-five dollar mailbox that leaks water through the door. the seventy-five dollar mailbox we almost got a divorce over. twice. the first impending divorce was when we actually spent that much money on the mailbox. the second impending divorce was the task of securing it to the mailbox post. now, i go outside to retrieve the mailbox and the neighbor across the street, whom i hadn't met yet, flagged me down and told me she saw the plow come by and knock off our mailbox. sweet. a witness. we had a nice visit and she helped me bungy cord the box to the post until it climbs above freezing to see if we can re-attach it. i then call the county to report the hit and run and phone lady proceeds to tell me a superivsor will be out to assess the damage. i told her it was ripped completely off and it was a seventy-five dollar mailbox. end of story. she said the supervisor will have to determine whether they replace it or not. well, i can see where this going. impending divorce number three.