Eric Mayer has me thinking...

When Aaron dabbled with eBay a few years ago he was just selling a little incense. Our apartment and everything in it including a preschool Rachel lingered with patchouli, frankincense, jasmine, nag champa, a dozen other scents, and the combination of them all. We were hippies for profit.

While Aaron was off at his day job, a pregnant me stood in line at the post office a couple times a week carting 20 or so packages to be weighed and labeled with postage. The line I waited in was never anything compared to what I left it looking like. I always felt real bad and only saw feet on my way to the door. I did leave behind a waft of good smell, however, or so I'd like to think.

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Aaron's family was so pleased with him. His Jewish paternal relatives with generations of self-made men, his grandfather a salesmen in his community and his dad an Indian artifact collector and landscape designer, were hopeful and proud. His maternal grandparents of 80+, his grandfather a former Sears executive, believed Aaron was swell.

I was amused when the latter grandfather mentioned the post office's modern service of picking up packages at your door. I actually thought the old man was losing it. Of course, he was right. Not bad for a man who once sat behind his desk laughing at the prospect of Sears selling bundles of firewood.

There are still some problems because this is the post office we're talking about, but the mail person comes as scheduled, hassle-free, most packages make it to their destination in one piece, and the whole operation is incognito.

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Happy 2007 to all!