The Mail Service Must Go On

  Rosie and I have been making all of our visits to the various doctors, dentists, and other specialists that we normally see once or twice a year. We have everything bunched up now to occur in this part of the year, even Holly's veterinary visit, so we can find a town with services next year at this time to get all these check ups done again in a couple of days or so, in case we don't come back to St. Louis for a visit.
  While getting my yearly physical at my "Primary Care Physician" (I used to call him my doctor) I was explaining to the "Nurse Practitioner" (I guess plain ole "nurse" has lost its shine too) how it was that we were going to be living on our boat and that I wanted to find a way to get prescriptions for an ongoing condition that is never going to go away without needing a visit to a doctor I don't even know to get the script. In the midst of my story, she asked me how we were going to get our mail. Her question derailed my train of thought and I remarked with my regular straightforwardness that how we were going to get our mail was not the issue, but getting the medication I needed without going through a lengthy evaluation process with an unknown physician was the issue.
  She left the room and I got my physical and when Heather (Nurse) came back into the room, she rather apologetically said to me that earlier, "I wasn't trying to pry, I just was curious about how you were going to get your mail."
  Well, that changed everything. I said, "So you weren't trying to solve a problem, you were just interested in the process?"
  She said, "Yes, my uncle has a boat and is considering living aboard like you and your wife are going to do and I was just wondering how they were going to get mail."
  With that, I happily launched into my explanation of how we were going to use the mail forwarding service of St. Brendan's Isle. Sometimes I need to disregard the male portion of my brainpan when I talk with women.

  I've mention St. Brendan's Isle before, but I've gotten more information about the service since then and we've signed up for it. My story is a short synopsis of the service, a complete explanation of the service can be found on their website:   http://www.sbimailservice.com/index.html

  Last week I had called and discussed the process with them and I again called yesterday to sign up for the service. We will use their basic service for $11.99 per month and we added on the Mail Scan Pro for an extra $7.99 per month. With Mail Scan, they scan each piece of mail and we can decide whether to have them send it to us, or shred it, or open it and scan the contents, etc. There are lots of options that we can choose online. They will also help acquire our Florida residency, our boat registration, voter registration, and our drivers licenses, although the latter will require a visit in person at some point.
  We'll use our Missouri driver's license when we need them, as they don't expire for a couple more years, because St. Brendan's Isle is based in Green Cove Springs, FL, which is on the St. John's River between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. If we don't get around to that part of the state by the time we need to renew our driver's license, we'll rent a car and go there.
  We completed a necessary form for them to keep on file for the United States Postal Service and we will keep our account inactive until we actually move onto the boat in a few weeks. Once we leave Missouri, we'll go ahead and apply for Florida residency. I hope they'll have us.
  For our part, we have 35 people and places to contact to inform them of our change of address. Some of these can be done on line, others we will call. We'll fill out the mail forwarding forms with the USPS, so that any other mail addressed to us here will be forwarded to St. Brendan's Isle, but we are trying to keep those mailings to a minimum.
  We've directed St. Brendan's to not forward any bulk mail, no matter who from, and we also won't want any birthday, Christmas, Easter, or any other card or invitation. Everyone knows our email address, facebook name, or phone number. If anyone has an undying need to send cash, contact us and we'll find a way to make this happen. Otherwise, save your stamps.
  As we spend a few months cruising the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, our address will officially be 411 Walnut Street, in Green Cove Springs FL. The complete address won't be given out unless you are on that list of 35. Being St. Louisans all our lives, this will take some getting used to, but Florida will insist upon Swing Set having a registration sticker at some point.The lack of State Income Tax in Florida has its appeal too, but they do have an asset tax, one that we aren't too concerned with.
  The upcoming weekend promises to be a pleasant one, weather wise, but Swing Set will still be up on blocks, but we have an invitation to join our friends James and Marny aboard their Trojan "Rocinante" on Sunday and we get to be passengers for a change.
  Hold those cards and letters.