Dorothy, the trash went out last night sans the lamp, but I put a long piece of painters tape on it with information that it works but needs a new base and shade. I may put it out at the curb on Sunday and if it isn't taken by Monday morning I'll unscrew the post and drop it into the bin.

I volunteered to work with the Freecycle folks because they are so slow to approve posts I've given up trying over there. I'm hoping I won't regret this; I've read through their dos and don'ts and am going to learn soon if the reason there is so little posted here is because the group is fairly inactive, or if they post lots of nonsense that never sees light of day.

The combination house warming and holiday gift for my daughter is a new good-sized steel locking mailbox. It will be mounted on a 4x4 post that gets a steel sheath dropped over the top of that before the box is attached (and the post sheath is screwed onto the wood post to keep it all in place.) A determined thief with a lot of time could unscrew things and carry off the very heavy box, but the goal is to have a sturdy box where the several roommates at the new place can all receive their mail. The current standard sized box is a bit small and is vulnerable on a quiet county road. After reading lots of reviews the parts were ordered and are wending their way to her new property. I asked Amazon pretty please to drive the parcels all the way up to the house (they have a very long driveway on some acreage). It's the USPS that won't drive up the driveway. She agreed that they can buy the wood post and get the concrete for the footer, and they will do the installation.