YOU'VE GOT MAIL

Main post office in Glendale, CA

The arrival of the mail each day is something I anticipate eagerly and I don't know why, since 99.99% of the time it consists of bills and what we all call junk mail. The catalogs are fun to look through until one realizes there is not enough money for what one wants and a lot of duplication of the stuff no one in my acquaintance would yearn to possess. The announcement that the post office may discontinue delivery on Saturdays is alarming, but why? What would it actually matter, in the whole scheme of things? Not many of you will remember when we had 2 deliveries each day and in December, there was so much mail that the postman fulfilled his rounds on Sundays. We became used to those cutbacks and we'll do the same with this one.

The present-day postal situation doesn't lessen my interest in mailboxes. I have a whole collection of photos of individual mailboxes. The"progress" evident in my new laptop computer doesn't allow me to access all of the mailbox pictures, but I came across a few of them which will give you an idea of what I'm after:

It's yet another area in which a person can express uniqueness.... that's probably why the subject interests me.

The older one gets and the more rates increase,  decreed by the postal service, the more postage stamps one collects in various denominations. Mine fill up a large envelope. I refer to them as bastard stamps and Mr. Bob refuses to use them when he's paying his bills. Too much of a mathematical challenge, I guess. When I write a letter or send a card, I do numerical story problems......not only calculating the proper amount needed, but getting the collection of stamps to fit on the envelope is tricky. And now there's going to be another increase in the near future.

Postcards are a good way to keep in touch, even without leaving home. On every trip, I buy more than I send and once home, always have to look up how much it costs to send one these days. No need to put it to memory, because the amount will change. Anyway, Albert Einstein advised that it is unnecessary to memorize anything you can look up.

When our children were little, we had a generous postman who would leave, along with the letters and magazines, sticks of gum for the youngsters. It was a different world. The milkman delivered our milk, butter and cream, sometimes adding a little bouquet of carnations. 

Letter writing used to be one of my hobbies, but it's gone by the wayside in favor of email and blogging. There's that fur ball word again. Excuse me, I need to go check my mailbox.