What else could possibly go wrong?
The postman left a large padded letter/envelope as well as a box leaning against our porch wall. Put the envelope behind the box.
Picking up the box caused the envelope to drop through a crack between our concrete porch and the brickwork, clear to the ground, because our porch is a massive, we think, hollow, block of concrete with steps, of a type common in this area of the city. It must have been set in place with a forklift, and it does not wholly touch the house on either of two sides.
Jane saw the envelope go, but did not get who it was from or what it was. It could be a check, it could be an advert, it could be a legal document, a contract, no knowing what.
It is now in there, possibly fallen over underneath the porch, since we think that area may be hollow.
Jane called the post office to complain and a postal official-person is coming by sometime today to survey the situation and see if he can think of a way to access the lost letter. We don’t think so. We tried a long engineering-type T square, we tried a hand-and-a-half sword, we tried a horse training whip, and no joy: due to irregularities in the brickwork meeting the foundation, it’s hard even to get these items down to the ground in the crack, let alone find anything. We have contemplated digging a hole next to the porch to see if it is hollow, and if we could possibly fish it out sideways.
I contacted people I could think of who might send us such envelopes, but they say nothing recent. Sigh. If it were ONLY a check from my agent, we could get it replaced. But not knowing what it is—leaves a lot of room for who-from.
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If you can see the envelope (or some part of it), you could try using a fishing pole with a band-aid stuck to the end, or something similar, to pull it closer. The great thing about using a band-aid on a pole with string is the fact that if you set it up correctly, you can save the sticky part of the bandage until you've got it positioned fairly close to whatever you're trying to grab.
Someone's played a lot of text/point-and-click adventures =P
Dave wrote: "Someone's played a lot of text/point-and-click adventures =P"Yes, I have. But I learned the sticky-thing on a string with a pole trick long before my first video game. It's a great technique for fishing cat toys out from small spaces, like under refrigerators and inside ventilation systems. The joys of long, boring summers far from a library...when even personal computers were rare, not to mention the interwebz. Thank goodness my feline overlords still loved me, and took pity on me by arranging for me to learn new tricks. ;-)
Know anyone who might have one of those small snaking cameras? Maybe then you could determine who its from.
