TILTS: You’ve got snail mail!

The days that I put an outgoing letter in my mailbox are some of my favorites. Why? Because I get to put the little red flag up to tell the mail carrier to pick up the mail. And when the mail carrier does pick up the mail, he or she puts the little red flag back down.

It's not the little red flag that excites me. It's knowing when the mail has been delivered without having to walk down the driveway to the mailbox to check. Call me lazy but I hate wasted trips only to find out the mail hasn't been delivered yet. Which brings me to today's technology I'd like to see.

What if there was a way to know every day when the mail was delivered, even if you didn't have any outgoing mail? Here's how I envision it. A timer is attached to the little red flag on the mailbox. At 12:01 a.m., the little red flag automatically lowers. The following morning when the mail is delivered, the mail carrier raises the flag to indicate the mail has been delivered. When you go to retrieve your mail, you can lower the flag by hand or just wait for the automatic lowering again at 12:01 a.m.

Up is down and down is up

You may have noticed that I reversed the meaning of the flag in my scenario. A raised flag means you have mail in the mailbox. A lowered flag means there is nothing in the mailbox.

The beauty of this is that it even works on Sundays and holidays where there is no mail delivery because the mail carrier never raises the flag on those days.

The technology could even be taken a step further by putting a weight sensor in the mailbox to eliminate the reliance on the mail carrier to remember to raise the flag. Or including wi-fi or mobile technology that can automatically email or send me a text message when the mail has been delivered.

Yes, I have really thought about it this much.

Could be tricky in winter

Of course, all new technologies are bound to have a few flaws. Like dealing with frozen little red flags in the midwest or the east coast during one of those nasty snow or ice storms.

Any other flaws or improvements I may have missed? Leave a comment below and let your voice be heard.

Disclaimer: Technologies presented in the TILTS series are based on my original (and sometimes delirious) thoughts. I present them here to the public only because I can not afford to implement any of them myself. If you steal borrow one of my ideas and end up filthy rich because of it, please remember where you got the idea and throw a little love my way. Something like a BMW or a big fat check would do just fine.