Giggles

A friend hooked me up with the below comics from Pearls Before Swine.

Of Postage and Postcards

Every once in a while the United States Postal Service comes out with matching postage and postcards. In other countries you are allowed to put the postage on the front of a postcard, and these are called "maximum cards" (or maxi-cards), but in the US, we have to put them on the back, as this stamp was. I have so many postcards that would look so nice with some of my vintage postage on the front, but I fear the USPS would still want the full postage on the back and that's just too much overfranking for me.

This card was adopted by a gentleman in Colorado who is currently working on his own postcard project. He wants to receive one million postcards ! I've sent two, and at this writing he needs 999,812 more postcards. It took Postcrossing.com three years to hit a million postcards sent and that was with thousands and thousands of members. I think one person receiving so many is a huge challenge, but lots of fun!

I've Got Mail!

This picture is of my missing mail. It includes 31 PostCrossing postcards, 4 OPP returns, 2 letters, 5 postcards from friends, and my vintage postage order. One of the PostCrossing postcards is from Haiti, my first ever postcard from that country. This is only my home mailbox mail. I get lots more in my post office box in the city but I've been picking that up all week so I didn't put it aside for a photo. I am going to have a lovely evening reading and sorting all this mail, though. It will take a while just to register all the PostCrossing cards!

Beautiful Usefulness

The beautiful aqueduct of Segovia, Spain. Truly a perfect combination of function and style. And Yurena writes that it looks very much the same as it does in this vintage postcard, except there have been trees planted, and the area is pedestrian only. No more cars!

The scale of this photo is so very odd. Look at the cars in the lower right. I know European cars are small, but those look like toys! I guess the parking area above is much, much higher than it appears.

Missing Mail Not Missing

When I set my online hold mail, I set the date to next Monday, the 9th, not last Monday. Usually I note the confirmation number when I do online holds, but this time I was in a hurry and since I've never had any reason to use the confirmation, I didn't bother to note it. Figures. The one time I really could have used that confirmation number, I didn't have it. Lesson learned. And, yes, I ate crow for dinner.

Town With Cute Name

Such a charming vintage view of Bergen op Zoom in the south of Netherlands. It looks to be maybe 1940s, or perhaps 50s? I bet the town hasn't changed much, though. I love the name of the town. Zoom is the name of a nearby river so I think the name just means Bergen Near River Zoom, but it still sounds cute.

Maaike adopted this card and writes about her work with the elderly. She is in her final year of medical school and has picked the field of geriatrics. She feels like it is a good choice, though is often overwhelmed by the scope of her work. I can only imagine how tough this work would be and wish Maaike strength to go with her sincere desire to make others well and healthy.

No Mail!

I had my home mail put on hold while I was in Boston over the weekend. The Friday, Saturday and Monday mail was supposed to be delivered on Monday, when we returned. It has not arrived. No mail has arrived. I get at least 5 pieces, usually more, of mail a day in my home mailbox (PostCrossing.com ... I am one of the top senders, so I am also one of the top recipients), and it is extremely unlikely that I would not have any mail for five days. And, my monthly envelope from Errol, my vintage postage supplier, is due and among the missing.

I'm trying hard not to panic. I have called the customer care at USPS, twice, but no resolve. Just a "case number" and told to call my local post office (which has an unlisted number, but the USPS rep gave it to me). I'll call the post office tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I'm going to have another glass of wine, or two. Or three.

My post office box mail is all here, though. At least I have that.

In Food We Trust

This is one of a series of postcards I received, unwritten, from Latvia. Each has a bit of folk wisdom, in English (which I found fascinating), about the featured food. This one says "Eating curd cheese will ensure that your brain is in excellent order. That's why eating three spoons before important business meetings is a certain ticket to success." There is a disclaimer, too, that states "These national beliefs are not guaranteed to hold true in all cases. Still, even if they fail to come true every time, at least you'll have had a good meal!"

Cindy writes that when she was in second grade (about 7-8 years old in the US) a dairy farmer came to her school and brought different foods for them to try. She was the only one daring enough to try the cottage cheese, and she liked it so much, she ate all the other kids' servings. I bet her brain was in superkid mode that afternoon!

It is messages like this that bring a smile to the end of my workday. Greg picks my mail up at the box before picking me up at work. I spend the first half of the ride home sorting my mail and then reading it. I often read the best messages aloud and this was one of them. Thank you Cindy!

Such a Bargain!

Juli asks, "How do you spell the capital of Kentucky?" The answer is not L O U I S V I L L E, which would be a very common response. Louisville is the biggest city in Kentucky (and where Juli grew up) and lots more recognizable than the real capital, which is Frankfort. Featured here is the capitol, which the caption tells me was "completed in 1910 at a total cost of $1,820,000. This included land, construction and furnishings. It is considered one of the biggest bargains in a public building in the country." I love captions like that.

From the Top and the Bottom

North Rim

This vintage view features Grand Canyon's North Rim. I can't help wondering about the folk sitting there enjoying the view. Were they models? Did the photographer just happen to find these people gazing out at the view? They nuts to be sitting so close to the edge!

Bright Angel Trail

Karen writes that the Grand Canyon is one of the most magnificent places on earth. If I could get over my fear of edges, I might just visit one day. I'll be the one standing 300 yards away from the edge.



Greg's mom hiked down to the bottom of the trail, and then back up! She sent the view of Bright Angel Trail from the bottom of the Canyon. They hiked back up behind the mules that take tourists to the bottom. You can see the mules in the lower left of the above postcard, looking out over the edge. I don't think I could ever do that. I love the special stamp used for mail sent from the bottom.

My Voilà Moment

I really like this busy, colorful mapcard of my neighbor to the north. Ange writes that this is one of a series of mapcards with similar design.

Ange's father's family came from the New Brunswick region, which is on the Atlantic side, and her mother's family came from Saskatchewan (which is fun to say!) in the central, or maybe west central is better since the provinces are so big in Canada that they cover more than just one description. Ange has family all the places in between!

I've visited the two Canadian cities Ange recommends as must sees, Montreal and Halifax. However, I did not get a long enough stay in Montreal. I did, however, hear the word "voilà" used for the first time by a French speaking person, and was quite impressed because it was used by a waiter and it was indeed a voilà moment when he managed to understand my attempts to read the menu. When I got back to the hotel that night I wanted to write up the moment in my journal but couldn't figure out how to spell voilà. I wrote "wala." It wasn't until years later, when I was rereading that journal, that I realized how very silly that moment was, and even sillier that I thought a French word would be spelled as it sounded to my English ears.