The peppers have arrived...........
and it looks as though the USPS has made the finding that, as I remembered, they are considered HAZARDOUS MATERIAL!!!
Note: To those who have forgotten what they look like, go to page 28, post #279 of this thread.
I want to thank Wayne for sending me some of the "new crop" he mentions in his earlier post. When I stopped at the mail box at the end of my driveway yesterday morning, I should have known something unusual had been delivered. The silver paint on my USPS approved mail box was slightly brown as if it had been scortched. When I pulled the handle down, a small lizard which has made the box its home for the last few weeks was lying lifeless,belly up, where it had been seeking refuge during all the bad weather, rain, hail and tornado warnings the last month or so.. I thought that possibly that since the weather had turned very hot the last week or so, he had gotten trapped in the box and the sun beating down on the box had turned it into an oven during the day , and he had gotten too warm and perished.
I removed the lizard and also a small brown envelope that had the initials "WB" and a Sandia, Tx. address and wondered "what has Wayne sent me", as I don't know anyone else from that part of Texas who might write me a letter. I also noticed that there was an official USPS stamp on the envelope with the notation "Postage Due", with an amount that I was not able to make out written there as it had evidently been wet after the stamp and amount had been put on the envelope, and had smeared so as to be unreadable.
I did not want my mail carrier to be stuck with whatever amount of postage Wayne must have not gotten on it in error, so I caught the carrier this morning so as to pay her whatever I owed. She informed me the extra charge was not for not enough postage for weight, but for the envelope containing "hazardous material". She reminded me the box is not supposed to contain anything except US mail, and certainly not dead animals. As proof, she cited the expired lizard, still lying on the ground by the mailbox. Even the birds would not eat it after obvious exposure to the contents of the envelope. The contents were deadly to that lizard even though Wayne had put the chili's in a plastic bag inside the envelope. I was surprised he would be so careless, especially with his experience with hazardous waste earlier in his business career. Can't say it looked real appetizing to anything that might find lizards good to eat, as it looked as though it had been out in the sun all day without any protection at all. Almost the same color as the chili's.
Hope I survive the next batch of gumbo Eileen is going to make. She says she is going to use them as Baldy used to, putting them in the Gumbo while cooking and then making sure they are all removed before serving the gumbo out in individual servings. I sure don't want to be the same color as that poor lizard. Just to protect the environment in the area, I buried the lizard in a lead container by melting down some of the #8 lead shot I use for shotshell reloading and and placing the lizard and the molten lead in a tin breath mint box. Probably not as good as Yucca Mountain, but I probably won't be around for nearly as long as the lizard is contaminated, so good enough.
Thanks Wayne, for remembering how I felt about the chili's by sending me some fresh ones!! It has only been about 35 years, but I remember them like it was yesterday!!
Just so no one can suggest I am not grateful...........
for Wayne's generosity, we have already thanked him for the chili's, and do plan on using them in the first batch of gumbo we make from this time on. Just thought he might like to know that perhaps some packaging with a little "foil" might be proper the next time these are sent to anyone.
ADD:
At this time, approximately 48 hours after the burial, even with the precautions taken with the "little critters" remains, a patch of grass about 10 inches square above the site has turned brown. We will continue to monitor the site.