We have a post office box in Brattleboro now, partly because the mail doesn't get delivered to the place we're house-sitting. There are some rural mailboxes a mile down the road from the house, and we could probably put one up; but not knowing how long we'll be where we are or now many other places we'll be before we land somewhere permanently, getting a box in town seemed reasonable.

I walked to the post office from work to get the mail this afternoon, about two miles round-trip. On the way back, I walked past a hippie who said, "You look like a good hippie. Hip-peh! HIP-PEH!"

A few blocks later, an oveweight blonde woman passenger in a little maroon car leaned her head out the window and said something; "banana," I think. I checked my zipper.

In the meantime, somebody named Ootette commented, "WHO OOT? WHERE OOT?"