Paul's Comments

I got an e-mail either Thurdsday night (1/22) or Friday morning informing me that there was a 48-hour hold on my ticket number 9029743 to allow me to dig a hole to put in the new mailbox. I wasn't sure whether this was a confirmation of the 48-hour hold which you're supposed to give them or a notice that an additional 48 hours were required.

I got a second e-mail in which, of the five companies participating in Miss Utility, 4 issued a release with no problem, and the fifth - which was the water company, surprisingly enough - has come out and marked where its pipes are. Now, presuming no marks in blue, purple or green are present on the ground where my mailbox is to be, I should be able to put the post in Monday, or wait until I get someone to help and put it in.

The color coding system used for Miss Utility reminds me of the Homeland Security terror threat level index. White is what I would supposedly use to mark where I'm putting stuff down; Pink for temporary survey; Red for electric; Yellow for gas, oil and steam; [Update 2/25/2009] Orange for communications, alarm or signal lines and conduit; [End Update]. Blue for drinking ("potable") water; Purple for reclaimed and irrigation water; and Green for sewers.

It's now 12:25 in the morning, so I think that later today, probably after it's light, I'll go out and look around a little, and see if I notice where the marks are. Presumably - at least I hope it to be the case - they won't be where I want to put the mailbox. Well, if it becomes a problem I'll put it someplace else. I don't have any choice: I soon will be the only person here and if I want my mail I will have to go get it, and that means making the mailbox accessible to where I can get to it, as the current mailbox, in addition to looking like someone used it at least once for the target of Mailbox Baseball (and I will be damned if someone hadn't already created an article on the subject at Wikipedia!), is inaccessible to me.

[Update] I went out about 1:00 this afternoon and found nothing, so either the marks are on the far inside of the driveway or there's something else. But, in any event, it looks like I'm okay. [End Update].