Funny Farm at Our Little House

At the beginning of our Summer of Fun, we purchased an ATV. Yes, I wanted one to ride on nice evenings, which helps me relieve stress, but it has practical purposes too (more on another post about equipment one might need in the country).

For one, I use it to go up and get our mail. The digital miracle of direct deposit isn’t always offered self-employed contractors and I do sometimes receive paper checks. There are also days I am waiting for other packages and such.

Our mailbox is two miles up the road and Dale typically doesn’t make it home before businesses close that I might need to contact, especially on the east coast.

Truly, I’ve always loved motorized recreational vehicles. My older cousin, Mark, who was always staying with his dad, my uncle and my Aunt Kathy, during the summers we visited them in  rural Kentucky, always had a dirt bike or go-kart to ride.

My aunt, who now lives down the road from us, still tells the story of the time when I was about 10 and got on the go-kart and began riding.

Unbeknownst to me, the back tire went flat. I would come around the track and my mom, aunt, uncle and Mark were waving.

I thought they were just having as good of a time as I, so I smiled, waved and punched it faster.

My uncle finally stepped out on the track and made me stop. “Your tire is flat!” he yelled (he was just a tad upset the tire was now completely shredded).

Ah, family stories. Good times.

Every day when I go up to get the mail now, I call my aunt from the mailbox and tell her I’m on my way. She meets me at her gate and we have an “over the fence” conversation.

It’s nice to see her and have a chat once a day. She usually has something tasty from her garden to share, tomatoes, cucumbers and hot peppers.

I jokingly told her that those delicious gifts will be what keeps me from turning into the maniac mailperson, like in the 1988 Chevy Chase movie, Funny Farm.

Judging the way some people drive up and down our road, they must think they are the maniac mailman from the movie.

I hadn’t seen this movie in ages and when I looked the clip for this post, I had forgotten Chevy Chase’s line from this scene. After his wife tells him that the maniac driving the truck is their mailman, Chevy replies, “Well, I guess there’s a lot of things we’ll have to get used to around here. But, I bet those are just the things we come to love the most.”

I also forgot that Chevy is also a writer in the movie.

After years of adjusting to our own life in the country (and now being able to laugh at most of it), I think we’ll just have to rent this movie again and see how closely it really parallels our life now.

If you’ve moved to the country, what’s the biggest adjustment you’ve had to make?