The Bay Area welcomed autumn with the year’s first rain on Saturday. When I looked out at my front porch the following day, I noticed a tendril of the morning glory my former housemate planted along the sidewalk earlier this spring had reached up into the mailbox. Happy to see it growing, I tried to gently prod it free of the post box with my fingertip. But it wouldn’t budge.


Today (Monday), I opened the mailbox and found the plant’s tendril had not only wormed its way through the tight crack beneath the lid, but had extended itself a good two inches into the pitch black of the letter box and wrapped itself around the lock cylinder.
