.

Will you think I'm being whiny if I start today's post out by saying, "But my mailbox looks so much cuter in real life than it does in this photograph.  Really."  And, the note on the inside of our box says, "We are WILD about you and we're not lion."

Today is Day Four of Think Outside the Box Week and as you might remember from last week's announcement, it is an ode to postmen and postwomen everywhere.  The idea was to surprise your mail carrier by transforming your mailbox.

This year maybe only one or two mailboxes get transformed, but beginning next year I have high hopes.  Why can't the House of Shine be the place where we hatch the idea for National Postman Appreciation Day?  Imagine if all around the country the people who shined banned together and decorated their mailboxes in appreciation of the men and women who deliver our mail each day.

It would be every bit as interesting as piling in your car to look at Christmas lights or as thrilling as venturing out on Halloween to see how families have made their homes haunted.  Mail carriers are as universal as mom's who get a Mother's Day, dad's who have earned a Father's Day, and grandparents, teachers, and administrative assistants - all of whom have been sanctioned their very own day of appreciation.  Heck, there's even an Art Appreciation Day, Library Appreciation Day, Cheeze-it Appreciation Day, and a Squirrel Appreciation Day.  Surely we can eek out twenty-four piddly hours for the more than 343,300 hard working mail carriers in the U.S.

Even if you are pissed about the price of a postage stamp. 

The only thing still to be decided is which day we should claim as National Postman and Postwoman Appreciation Day.  Should it stay April 15 or do these hard working civil servants deserve a day as disassociated from the universally dreaded Tax Day as possible?  Visit us in the Community Forum labeled, Today's Post, and tell us what you think.

And remember, if you decided to play along and decorated your mailbox, send us a picture by 8:00 pm, CST.  We will try to compile into a slide show for Friday.

As for me... Gift #15 of the 29 Day Giving Challenge, Done!

Shining off until tomorrow...