Totes and Trucks

You know you’ve been in the military too long when military life starts to creep into your personal life. This goes beyond giving Brian orders which he doesn’t follow or making my daughter do pushups when she took candy without asking. Brian recently purchased one of the Camp Ripley trucks which were on sale at KIA in Duluth. He claims it’s for using as a plow truck at the cabin and for bird hunting but when he mentioned that maybe I could use it as a runner until we purchased my car; I knew it had gone too far. I don’t think so!

Sunday, my roommate and I packed our totes and headed to the post office. Seems that we weren’t the only ones with this same plan since it took us 1 ½ hours to send off our stuff. So after packing my totes neatly so that everything fit, I placed my tote in front of the KBR contractor. He asked me the standard questions such as; do I have any ammunition or weapons of which I stated, “no.” So he starts pulling everything out of my one tote and comes across a stuffed bear that my Dad and Mary Lou gave me for Christmas. The bear is holding a replica of an M4. The contractor proceeds to tell me I shouldn’t send it home in the tote. He stated when the tote goes through the x-ray, it could mistakenly be taken as a real weapon….you have got to be kidding me.

Along with my warrior bear that had to come out, other items were: nail polish and hair spray. These items had been mailed to me but heavens no, I couldn’t mail them home.

There was a Soldier at the next table over having his tote gone through. This Soldier had a USED priority box inside of his tote. The contractor told him if he used the box, he would be charged for the box inside the tote. Another, you have got to be kidding me.

Even though I couldn’t believe the post office “rules”, it was great to know I’m that much closer to home.


The new truck!


The bear. For size reference, I placed my barrettes next to the bear.