TRUCKIN': The area right behind the Kennett Post Office isn't a parking lot

"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." The U.S. Postal Service motto doesn't mention a car blocking the parking lot, though.
The area directly behind the Kennett Square Post Office is designated as a no-parking zone because the trucks that pick up and deliver the mail need access to the loading dock. There's not a no-parking sign, though (it was knocked down by a tractor-trailer), so on Friday afternoon an unaware motorist parked in the lot.
When the mail trucks couldn't get to the loading dock, the drivers started complaining to the postal employees. The employees ran around to local stores, searching for the driver. They then called the borough police, who ran the license plate and found it belonged to a woman who lives at a local retirement community. It seems she had come into town to visit her accountant -- but the poor woman fell and had to be taken to the Premier Urgent Care clinic to be checked out. That's why her car was sitting in the lot for nearly two hours. Finally her grandson arrived and moved it.
Because of the car, the truck picking up the outgoing express mail was delayed in leaving the post office, possibly jeopardizing the guaranteed next-day delivery. The employees -- though they feel bad for the injured woman -- are bracing for complaints on Monday.

 

KENNETT Y: A rare evening for the grown-ups only

For the past few weeks many parents' calendars have been chock-full of end-of-the-year concerts, recitals and other school shows.
The other night we had a substitute teacher for our Kennett Y class because our usual instructor was on a Friday-evening date with her husband (minus the kids) to see Martin Sexton at the Queen in Wilmington. I explained this to a fellow class member.
"You mean . . . a real concert?" she asked, incredulously. "Not a kid concert?"
She looked off into the distance, wistfully, as if remembering those long-ago days.

FINANCIAL AID: Filling out FAFSA is a full-time job

It's not enough that your new graduate got accepted into the college of his or her choice: oh, no. A Chatham mom was telling me that she spent two hours -- on her day off, no less! -- trying to navigate through FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Under the new rules, not only the parent but also each student needs to create a unique login to fill out the forms, import financial documentation and so forth. Don't even think about using the same household email address for parent and child; it'll come up with an error message.
In the words of the "login help page":
"The FSA ID, which consists of a user-created username and password, replaced the PIN effective May, 2015.  It allows users to electronically access personal information on Federal Student Aid Web sites as well as electronically sign a FAFSA.
On the “Login” page:
Select Enter your (the student’s) FSA ID to enter your username and password.  Only the student should log in with an FSA ID.
Or
Select Enter the student’s information to enter the student's name, Social Security Number and date of birth. (You may have to enter your FSA ID later in the process)."

CLASS OF 75: "Old friends" celebrate their 40th reunion

Unionville High School's class of 1975 will be celebrating its 40th reunion this summer. There's a get-together at the Half Moon Saloon at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, and then a buffet dinner at the Radley Run Country Club from 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8. "Come catch up with old friends! (no pun intended)" reads the invitation. For more information contact Wendy (Redifer) Neel at wendyeneel@gmail.com.

BTML: The library's Home & Garden Day Tour is June 6

Saturday, June 6, is the annual Home & Garden Day fundraiser for the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library/Kennett Public Library. As a volunteer I got a sneak preview of this year's houses and gardens, which are in the Landenberg, New London, West Grove and Avondale area, and they're wonderful.
Tickets are available at the library or online (www.bayardtaylor.org), and at $35 they are a bargain. The tour is run by the library's Special Events Committee, who are a wonderfully creative and hardworking group of folks.
One of the organizers wrote in an email to me: "With all the controversies concerning the library this year, we are hoping that people will not associate those issues with the purpose of the Tour. It is really about the children and the excellent programming available to them. As you well know most of the funds raised goes to these programs and services."
I couldn't have said it better.

AT THE Y: Jogging and the argument from first cause

Yesterday I was copyediting a series of PowerPoint slides for an introductory philosophy book (no college text is marketable these days without accompanying lecture guides, reading summaries and sample tests, it seems). In one section the author was explaining the classical arguments for the existence of God, at one point using the term "infinite regression of creators."
I was reminded of that phrase later that day when I stepped onto the indoor track at the Y. As regulars know, you're supposed to run clockwise on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and counterclockwise the other days (to equalize wear on the track surface).
Well, it was Wednesday. But everyone was running counterclockwise.
What to do?
I joined 'em. It would have been pedantic to jog the "correct" way and disturb everybody else just for the sake of the rule. I decided to wait until everybody else on the track had finished running; then I would turn around and run the correct way, and everybody who came after me would follow my lead and do the same.
It didn't happen that way. More people kept coming in, and running the wrong direction, so I just gave up. I suppose the pattern had been established earlier in the day.

PICNIC: Great food and great company

We went to a wonderful, relaxed picnic on Memorial Day afternoon. The hosts have a knack for inviting a mix of friendly, smart people who tell funny anecdotes and then enjoy yours in return.
Unexpectedly, the party split into a ladies' table (on the deck) and a guys' table (in the A/C). At the former, we discussed horses (of course; it was in Unionville, after all), the progress of our gardens, and new restaurants.
At the guys' table, I learned later, they were a little more philosophical. They talked about the changes they've experienced with age, categorizing them into "things you can still do," "things you can still do, but much slower" and "things you can't do anymore" (hanging drywall was an example). The host added a fourth subset: things you can still do -- but you forget why you're doing them.

SUN TEA: The squirrels rise to the challenge

I plunked three tea bags into a Mason jar of water and set it on the porch railing to brew, even though I was warned that it was a precarious spot to make sun tea.
"Oh, please," I scoffed.
Apparently one of my backyard squirrels took that as a challenge. When I went out to retrieve my tea later that afternoon, the jar was lying on the deck, completely empty. The edge of a nearby plastic pot was cracked off, as if by, say, a falling beaker. The saucer that had been covering the jar was under the deck by some ferns, and the tea bags were strewn about and perfectly dry.
Only one of the many squirrel victories in my backyard.

TYCOONS: A high-tech success story at a young age

We are enormously proud of the business tycoon in our family. During his freshman year in college, he started a business for a class project. Seeing the potential in it (it's an app offering businesses instant feedback from customers), he applied to the YCombinator program in California and was selected to participate in the intensive, high-profile venture capital incubator. He promoted his company, sold it, and then went to work for the new owner. And he's still graduating from Harvard University, on time, this week. He'll take the summer off to travel before starting a lucrative job in Manhattan (where, he says thankfully, rents are much lower than in Silicon Valley).
Most importantly, he's a good, nice young man.
We were discussing this lad's success story at dinner last night, and the Young Relative, only in middle school but already with his father's and grandfather's taste for expensive vehicles, wonders how he might learn from his cousin's example. What math classes did his cousin take in middle and high school, and are they offered at Unionville? How many college credits did he accumulate before graduating from high school? Watch out, guidance counselors.
By the way, the Young Relative reports that the school year, extended thanks to snow days, is winding down, much to the relief of students and teachers alike. He is looking forward to a class trip to Dorney Park, where he and his classmates will do some hands-on investigations into the physics of roller coasters.