bats in the belfry?

noooo, not quite.

My daughter wrote a letter to mail today,

and I sent her to the mailbox to put it in and raise the flag.

all by herself.

this may not seem a big feat for an 8 year old,

but keep in mind, I live in the 'woods', our mailbox isn't exactly 4 feet from the door.

Its more like 50 - 60 yards.

also, keep in mind said daughter is deathly terrified of buzzing bugs,

bees, wasps, hornets, which often take up residence in our mailbox.

the sight of a buzzing bug will send her screaming like her hair is on fire.

So, off she goes to the mailbox.

I stand in the driveway near the house, and watch.

She opens the door from underneath, very cautiously,

so if there IS a buzzing bug in there it won't fly at her face.

smart kiddo.

she pulls the door down, and slowly peeks up into the box.

and SCREAMS bloody murder, and comes running, faster than I've ever seen her move!

MAMAAAAA!! theres a GREAT BIG HAIRY BEE in there!!!

what?!

oh really. fine, give me the letter, i'll take it.

I go up the driveway and look, expecting to see a wasp nest or carpenter bee.

no.

there are two BATS, in the mailbox.

I can see, why, at a fast, pre-panicked ,glance, these looked like big hairy bees.

Yup. there are bats in my mailbox. two of them.

I think either the light, or perhaps the ear -shattering pitch of my daughter's screams scared them silly. The one in the front was just shaking away. I felt sorry for it. After all, they rely on their hearing, high pitched sounds they make themselves. My daughter must have deafened them.

So, now the question of "what do we do now?" comes up.

Daughter wants to mail her letter.

I am NOT messing with the bats.

I called husband, who said he would take care of it when he gets home, just slide the letter in next to them.

um no thanks.

I think we'll be taking it to the post office.

Bats in the mailbox.

THERE'S something you don't see every day.