Postcard #187: ItchyGu

 

text:

Stop me if I've told you this...

Throughout my life, when playing RPG's on console's I've had a few "go-to" names for characters. "Penshaw" has been used quite a bit. I've named characters after historical and mythological figures (Semiramis, Dante/Virgil/Crowley). Randomness: Neutroid, Ümlaut, Calamity. And who hasn't named a character Fart, Poop, or some other "bad" word? But to this day...the most common name I use for saves or main characters is "Itchygu" one day, back in the middle school formative years. My friend Juan P. and I started a new save game of Zelda 2 (I think). The Adventure of Link, the oft-maligned side-scrolling adventure game of the series. When it came time to name Link, my friend volunteered the name "Itchy" and the name of my chocolate lab "Gus". But the interface would only allow 7 characters. I still play ItchyGu even if I can enter the whole 8 characters. I need all the luck and nostalgia I can get during my formative 40 years.

-TM

Postcard #186: Uninauguration

Text:

Most people estimate the crowd size at your Jan 2016 inauguration an average attendance of 300k to 600k. Many health experts believe that by your Jan 2021 termination date that upwards of 410k people might be dead from Covid-19. Personally, I think it would be fitting if they filled the National Mall with four hundred and ten thousand coffins.  Each representing an American life that you failed. This way you will be able to see what a well-attended rally you made actually look like while simultaneously being able to show you what a complete and utter failure you are as a president and leader. 

-T.M.

Postcard #185: 242k to 248k

 

Text: 

Dear President Trump,

It's a week since you lost the election. I am writing to you to remind you that over 2428,000 (updated) people AMERICANS have died from Covid- 19 related illness. I wonder how many of us might be alive if you just pretended for a few moments that some people might be smarter than you.  If you just told the American people to wear masks and socially distance. All these deaths, I lay at your feet, you evil narcissist. -TM.

I wrote this card and haven't mailed it yet. 6 thousand people have died since I wrote this card.  Six fucking thousand people have died since I wrote this card.  SIX.  THOUSAND. PEOPLE.  Just in the United States alone...

Postcard #184: Common Sense

 Text:

The doctor was standing in front the nurses station having walked over from one end of the Covid patient block of rooms. She is still wearing her isolation gown, gloves, goggles, and mask. She announces that she just separated the dirty and clean isolation and prep tables outside the patient rooms. There is a silent pause among all the nurses sitting at the computers. "I separated the clean and dirty tables... they were right next to each other?" "Okay."  Someone muttered. "Thank you(?)." Another person said with the faintest hint of a Question mark. "They can't be so close together... the clean... the dirty tables." "Yes. Yes, doctor. Thank you." I looked at her and wondered if she changed her gloves after touching the table. I wish I had a Book of Gold star stickers to put next to the nurse's station or screening station... to award people when they ask for recognition when they do their jobs or simply use common sense. -TM www.minormumbles.com

This was sent via postcrossing to MonikaDvorakova.  She wanted a Unesco WHS card.  This is a postcards of Fountains Abbey I have plenty of those.  But I kinda like sending postcards of locations before the UN came around and thought it was worth saving.  

Postcard #183: Locals

 

text: 

So I voted pretty much straight down the ticket for democrats and progressive candidates. Trump is a lunatic. A racist, sexist, narcissist. I honestly don't care that he is a philander but he is a huge liar. Biden is not my first choice, neither is Kamala. The two-party system blows, I don't much care for our mayor, Ted Wheeler. But Iannarone comes off as a certified grade-A whack job. I cannot stand how incapable Chloe Eudaly, is at understanding the concerns of people with different points of view. Mingus Mapps got his ass thoroughly handed to him by her in the debate. So we are fucked regardless of who wins city Commissioner. All the measures are for increases in taxes, to which I have mixed feelings about ... part of me & feels... EAT THE RICH. But the other part feels like why must this state be soooo anticapitalist? Ehh... I voted for all the measures including legalizing psilocybin and taxing tobacco products' and e-cigarettes...I wish they could just tox the shit out of e-ciggs. There was also a measure to decriminalize low-level drug possession. Which is great Portland is stupidly defunding police while we are kinda turning into a lawless drug-addled angry "anarchist Jurisdiction."

I sent this via postcrossing to Poolata.  In hindsight, I would not have written about local politics in Portland OR on a card from Wyoming.  But the person wanted volcanos and landscape stuff.  So...I figured this was a good one.  This card is from my collection when  I drove across the country from the east to west coast.  Postage Be.  

Postcard #182: Vote.

 

Text: 
It's November 2nd. My wife and I just finished dinner. It feels... like how I felt the night before a hurricane was due to strike. I feel like I should be doing something but there is nothing to do until the new pandemonium begins. These past four years have been "stupid chaos" and there is a chance whole new starting "stupid chaos" that I am completely unfamiliar with. Maybe it's dangerous maybe it's more of the same... maybe it will be a glimpse of sanity. When people talk about the election and I am unsure of the political affiliation I just comment that it is wonderful that this election is on track to have the most voter participation since 1908... but that is only 65%. I will then ask people should it be our goal to make this # = 100? Tonight marks my last night in blissful ignorance of how bad it can actually be...It feels a whole lot like when Trump won against HRC.

I sent this to my friend KC/  This is kinda being posted after the fact.  But oh well. Since quite literally...no one reads my blog does it matter if I am backdating this card? I put a first-class stamp on this because last time I am pretty sure someone stole the postcard I sent my father.  I always have my doubts that these sorts of postcards will read their destinations.  I ran packing tape over the front of it to make it more "glossy postcard".  

Postcard #181: Security

 

Text:

I knelt down and my daughter climbed upon my knee. The mailbox key in one hand and pulled herself up with the other, "Why did they take it, daddy?" "I don't know why they took your step stool honey." (We had a step stool out there next to the mailbox to help her but it vanished.) "Why?" "Why what?" "Why?" she persisted as she struggled to put the key into the mailbox. And I said, "For the same reason we have a mailbox with a lock on it. People are selfish and take things that don't belong to them." "Oh...why?"I sighed. "Honey. Just get the mail." "Okay." She said as she turned the key and swung the door open. "Oooohh!" She exclaimed as she reached in to grab an assortment of junk mail and political flyers. "You like those, eh?" asked shifting on my knee with her weight. "YESS!" She said enthusiastically pulling them out one by one. "Okay, Please hand them me please." She complied. "And now, close it up." "Okay!" She closed the mailbox...locked it...and in one clean motion put the keys into the dropbox essentially locking the only set of mailbox keys  - inside the mailbox. "Why?" I asked.

Sent via postcrossing to StrawBerryBlossom.  She wanted strawberries.  I do not have strawberries.  Nor have I ever had a strawberry card.  But this card is from my personal collection.  I think I have had this one since well before Postcrossing.  Postage be!  This is a true story.  I had to dismantle my mailbox in order to turn the mailbox over to spill the keys out.  Then reattach the mailbox to make sure I can continue to get more dumb political flyers and junkmail.  It certainly did speak to the importance of getting a duplicate.  

Postcard 180: Max Challenge Attempt #1

 

Text:

Fall is setting into the Pacific Northwest. Here in Portland Oregon it is a cold drizzly morning 39°F. When I let my dog out this morning it was so foggy that I thought it was smoke. About a month ago we had some very bad fires here on the west coast. There were days the sky was orange and grey and you could not see more than 50 ft. I am sending you this card because you essentially asked for it. You wanted something for your kids but ultimately you wanted something colorful. You have a lot of rules. No art (is this card considered art?) No ad cards. (I guess I can understand that one) But no handmade cards. (This one rule... a lot of people have .... Why? Are they really that bad? How do you define handmade?) I was going to send this card to an American but I sent it to you. I don't know why. Maybe I will contemplate that when I write to the American.  I have 6-7 postcards I have to write today. I think I am more productive with Postcrossing when I am under pressure. So I will generate several addresses at once to fuel my creativity. Lately, it seems like card selection takes the most time. The text on this card is pretty much generated by your demand that I write as much as I can on the card. When I told my wife this... she laughed. She knows how small and bad my handwriting can be. This is my smallest pen... a Pigma micron 005.  This is the pen I normally postcard with a micron 02.  I usually write my drafts with this pen, a micron 03 or this... a micron PN. It's hard to write with the 005. Today is Halloween. I don't think we will get many trick or treaters because of Covid (we really shit the bed with that have in the states) it's important to carve out some normalcy where you can. -tm OCTOBER 31, 2020 (HALLOWEEN)

Sent via Postcrossing to Caddi. She said she wants colorful and something she could show her kids.  But she did say she wanted me to write as much as I can.  So I have been presented with a new challenge.  MAX WORDS! This card is 340 words.  I am pretty sure I can beat that.  Her birthday is Christmas eve!  Mine is the day after Christmas! I could have mentioned that!  That would have gotten me over 350 certainly.  Maybe next time.  

Postcard #179: Recent Dream

 

Text:

I had a dream last night my wife and I had to give up our child for adoption. Not explained. We simply had to give our child, Ursa, up. We had to interview people scores of people who I just don't remember aside from the thought there were many. But it was clear that no one could love or provide for her better than my wife and I. We had to settle for "less than" parents for our child. I woke up before the dream ended... I was hoping to speak to a judge to reverse the adoption.

Sent Via postcrossing to jannatpac.  She wanted foxes.  I had none.  But I did have this nifty little Oilette postcard of a fox hunt.  That has to count for something. It looks like someone else liked it at some point because there is a thumbtack hole in two corners.  

Another convert for the First Nonsecular Church of the Travelling Correspondance Card!  POSTAGE BE! Let us bow our heads and stamp.

Postcard #178: After Party

 

Text:

I was invited to a wedding in upstate NY by an ex-girlfriend... well a woman I went out with a few times... but nothing really ever happened. The wedding was far enough from my house I had to get a room. The wedding was nice enough. I remember her telling me it was very expensive. My date and I had a decent time... and I am pretty sure I was only invited to somehow be made jealous. But I did not care...the person I had taken as my date was infinitely more enjoyable than the bride ever was. The ceremony started late and the reception followed.  Suddenly it was 4 pm and everything was over... no after-parties... nothing. My date and I were stone sober, in a boring city. We went back to the hotel lied to them that we had an emergency we had to get back to and they refunded us half our room. We took that money and rented a room in Atlantic City...2-3 hours away. We sped there. My date looked Amazing. I looked pretty decent still too. We got drunk. Gambled all night, wandered around A.C. I had fun...more fun than I did at the wedding.  I don't think we ever went back.

Sent Via postcrossing to NikBab81.  

I freehanded this.  It's obvious.  Sorry Nikbab.  There are a few things I would have reworded or moved around.  Normally I write a draft.  But I was crunching 8 postcards this weekend. I am still sitting on one more. I hope I can get that one completed today.  I have the card picked out but I do not know what I am going to write.  Maybe I will tell him how I voted since the election is almost here.   I will freehand that...because...I need to get better at first drafting stuff.  I think I will go with that as a new tag.   

Postcard #177: Rodentia

 Text: 

My mother was denied pets while growing up so when she became a parent she answered any demands we had for pets. I had gerbils and hamsters growing up. I think I even had mice at one point.  I had habi-trail tubes that went all over the place. My room smelled of cedar chips and rodent urine...no matter how often I cleaned the cage... they would pee in the habi-trail tunnels. Rodents can be vicious things. I had a female hamster named Hillary... who I assume I named after Hillary Clinton. I remember she once ate her babies, (the hamster did I can not speak for HRC.) She also attacked "Andrew", her mate. I think I named him after the hurricane (1992). She cut his belly open and his intestines spilled out. He died. She was a very nice hamster to me... just not anyone else. I only had gerbils for a short time. They bit. All the time. I could never handle them. I once had a cage of gerbils escape. They chewed through the screen top and out to freedom. One of them crawled into an open electrical socket.  (Our house was always in a state of demolition/remodeling) and it chewed on a live wire and died. Another one I found dead in the front yard. I think it was killed by one of our cats. The third one vanished I assume it went on to live its best gerbil life free of the burdens of being a pet. -TM www.minormumbles.com 

Sent via postcrossing to DelilahCal.  

Postcard #176: Golden Years

Text:

I call my grandmother at least once a week since moving away from NJ to Or. She is 94. W talk about the weather. I tell her about her great grandchild Ursa, and what she has been up to. She asks when I will come to visit and I sadly tell her until there is a Coronavirus vaccine I can't risk coming to see her. Whenever I ask how she is doing she says one of 2 things. "I am doing pretty good for an old Broad." OR - "The golden years...the only thing Golden is your urine." God bless her. -TM.

Sent via Postcrossing to nkarnof.  And I will be completely frank...she has a better profile than a good chunk of the people on Postcrossing and she seems pretty cool. All business.  No demands.  Love it.  

Postcard #175: Inverted Speedbumps

 

TEXT: 

There are two cars parked in my front yard, front to front. one car was changing was a tire while the other illuminated the workspace with its headlights. I went outside with a flashlight to help/investigate. The "assistant" noticed my flashlight and looked over, "Everything okay? Need another light?" The bearded onlooker was shining the light into the wheel well of a wide-rimmed grey luxury sedan. It seemed shiny. The mechanic/driver said, "Thank you but I'm almost done." He tightened a lug nut and moved the tire iron to another nut. "This is the second flat I've gotten on this road. One day I am going to come out here and patch up these potholes myself!" I did not say: 'Well if you were going the 25 mph speed this might not have happened' or 'l purposely do not call these potholes in so they might damage speeding cars and your labor serves as a reminder to all those currently speeding to slow down.'  Instead, I said: "You are welcome to change your tires here anytime." -TM

Mailed directly to my friend Drew.  I was so excited to get this one out that I forgot to put the zip code down.  I guess we will see how determined the postal service is to get people their mail.  I told him if he doesn't get it I will get him another postcard.  But at least I scanned it before this card was placed in the proverbial circular mailbox.  I think I am going to start calling my potholes: inverted speedbumps.  

Postcard #174: Thank you Postcard

 

POSTMARK:

-----FIGHT-----

INFANTILE PARALYSIS:

JOIN MARCH OF DIMES

Postmarked: Miami, FLA

Jan 21st 1952

ORIGINAL TEXT:

Miami Mon. AM.

Hello Sister. Thanks for 

remembering my birthday but

you should forget all about birth-

days. We are leaving now to 

go back to P.G.[?] We have

been here a week. It was 

78 here today. Hasn't rained 

since we got down here.

Goo Bye

Ezy [?]

Text:

Mr. Pubillones,

I never thanked you for the book "Havana 1900's" sent to me by my Godmother Aimee Davis. The postcards in that book were beautiful. What a collection! So rich with stories and history. Thank you very much. Here is a postcard from my collection just in case you ever write a book about Miami postcards!  Stay safe. Stay healthy! Keep postcarding!

Thomas Minor

www.minormumbles.com

Not much to say here.  I received a book as a gift from my godmother Aimee.  I was looking through it a few days ago.  He wrote a very nice note on the inside which was pretty nifty.  I don't have many books signed by the authors. I've had this postcard for a while.  But...as they say "Kill your darlings." So off to a better place.  

Admittedly I really like the previous text on it. Goo Bye? and  "Thanks for remembering my birthday but you should forget all about birth....days." God, there is something beautiful about that.

Postcard #173: OrPDX #1

Text:

Of the 150 cities sampled by US News and World reports Portland Oregon ranked #9 as one of the best places to live. (To retire only 64th go figure. I guess I' better go find a different place to die.) So... you want to visit Portland? Did you want truth or deceit? Come in the late Spring/Early Summer or Early winter/Late fall. Go to Voodoo Doughnut in Old Town or Delicious Doughnuts. Drive your car or use TriMet. Go to the PDX Saturday market on the weekend or a Tuesday. Check out the Pearl district/Old town Boutique shops or go to a Hoarder House estate sale. Go to a craft bar or get a distillery row passport and cut out the middleman. Stay in a hotel or rent a teepee or a tent from some hipster asshole on AirBNB for 2-3 times the cost. Either way, look me up if you are ever in town or don't.- TM

Sent via postcrossing to Luzi-Zuzi.  While reading the transcription I think I sound like an asshole.  Which is not what I was going for...I just wanted to present them with alternatives and choices.  Luzi-Zuzi if you are reading this...seriously look me up if you are ever in town.  I can give you a place to stay and steer you to a few places.  Even after sending this I have more "or" ideas.  Maybe I will make a whole series of them?  

I also need to work on my spelling and grammar before sending these out.  They are atrocious.  Maybe I should transcribe and draft them them before mailing them so I can proof them a little more.  Because.  Whoa.  These are bad and I sound like an asshole and an idiot.  

And yes you can seriously rent a Teepee in someones backyard on AirbnB and pay as much as you would or more if you were staying in a hotel room.  I saw several of them when I was looking for a place to stay as a travel nurse.  

Postcard #172: Review: Expanse and RPT

 

Text: 

I made the mistake of re-reading "Ready Player One." I think with one reading you spend time waxing nostalgic about Ernest Cline 80's pop culture referencing that you do not realize how cringy, it actually is... class, women, minorities, what dumb shit Cline finds interesting. Eventually, you realize the only character he nails perfectly is the white male privilege. A solid case of white savior syndrome, with a touch of Deus ex Machina. I stupidly pre-ordered "Ready Player Two." because I am a self-loathing, masochist. BUT! I am also waiting for the last book of the Expanse series to come out. James SA Corey created a very deep, realistic, sci-fi universe. I can easily say that I thoroughly enjoy these books. The authors create antagonists so irritating that it makes you want to put the book in a closet and forget about it. Yet he also creates characters (read: grey protagonists) that you become very attached to and puts them in situations that make it impossible to put down.

My favorite book...

Goodnight moon... or Candide by Voltaire.

www.minormumbles.com

US-7052471

-TM

 Sent via postcrossing to Linderoos.  She requested my favorite book.  I should just put my favorite book down in my profile.  I think I will just mail a book review whenever someone requests to know my favorite book.  She also requested a card that had "sewing themes" in it.  I don't know if I have ever seen a sewing themed card...BUT did have a card that had sewn stuff in it.  I have some doubts she will receive it.  I feel like its going to get stuck in some conveyer belt or something.  We will see.  

Postcard #171: You forgot Snowflake.

Text:  

"Hmm. "Meaningful Dialogue." Am I even capable of that any more? My departure from Facebook was over something pretty innocuous. Politics. As usual. Deep down I do not think it was a particular event. This was just the trigger. Someone was posting for us to put aside the anger and hate in light of the president's recent Covid diagnosis. I mentioned he has gone golfing 24 times while 200k people died. How much vacationing have you done during this crisis? A commenter said. "These comments about the president are disgusting". He was the former head of surgery for a hospital I work at. And it got me thinking I could get fired for speaking ill of the president if that person has the whim and the power to do it. I think Facebook has stolen more from me than anything else on the internets, so I deactivated my Facebook.  I guess I am nothing more than a privileged white European cisgender male left-leaning progressive married heterosexual libtard."

I sent aerobear a direct swap.  True story the up above.  There was a little more to me leaving AGAIN. I was was little blown away the guy said anything.  He had the privilege of retiring just before the pandemic.  He was a nice enough guy when I worked with him.  But the paranoid me...could picture this guy calling up the hospital and complaining about me FOR THINKING IT'S WRONG THAT A PRESIDENT PLAYS GOLF WHILE AMERICANS DIE OF RECORD NUMBERS. WTF?!? Oddly enough, I have not been back to that hospital since that post.  I wonder if there is any correlation? (On a side note I am so paranoid that I went back and edited out my address on this card so people do not come to my house...Fucking deranged.)

This postcard commemorated the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson the 28th president of the US.  This card is probably over 100 years old and I ruined it with my whining.  I think this card is his second inauguration. Holy crap! This is from his first inauguration in 1913.  (The wreaths on the podium are different in the second inauguration). I wonder if to make these historical postcard defacements I could find old stamps and mail them that way.  

Woodrow Wilson oversaw the segregation of the United States federal government and he thought the KKK and the confederacy were a great group of guys.  He turned a blind eye to the oppression of blacks through violence and the squelching of free speech. He was in office when the US signed the 18th Amendment (booo!) and the 19th Amendment (yay!).  He got us in and out of WW1.  He presided over the US during the Spanish Flu.  Which he eventually got this flu...had a stroke...and sort of stewed in the White House for a little while.  During this time his wife Edith did a little Weekend with Bernie's with him to keep up appearances.  

I have a few of these Woodrow Inauguration postcards.  I think I am going to send one to Pennsylvania Avenue and gently remind the current president that he is a sack of human excrement.  That's legal right? That is covered under free speech because I am not threatening to turn him into a sack of shit since he already is one.  I would merely be pointing that out.  I will probably have to used as few words as possible and use graphs and charts or something though.  

Postcard #170: Infector in Chief

 

Text:

Trump held what looked like a Twitter conference alone in a board room somewhere in Walter Reed medical center. There are images of him signing blank pieces of paper with Sharpie markers like he is hard at work... with Covid-19 serving like he should have been before the pandemic hit. He is maskless. Positive.  Outside his hospital room maskless. The work that had to be done to clean that room by environmental services after a patient with a positive airborne virus pretended to be president for a photo op is astounding.

I fucking hate that manchild. - TM

Sent via direct to my friend Erika Davis

Postcard #169: "When I was 28..."

 

Sent via Postcrossing to Henna168 who requested a Unesco Word Heritage Site postcard.  So she got Independence Hall and a card that I think is actually older than UNESCO itself.   But she also had a whole list of writing ideas including:

4.If you are older than 27 years old:
What is the most important things you did when you were 28 years old?

This is the first time as long as I can remember that I have actually liked the suggested prompts that people give.  So kudos and a hats off to her.  

Text:

28 year old me was 12 years ago. 2008. I had a beard for a good part of it but at some point, I thought it would be a good idea to grow out a mustache. I was living in a house with my brother on the New Jersey shore. I was working as a med/surgical nurse overnights 40-60 hrs a week at an understaffed community hospital. I had a patient death that year that really shook me up. I was drinking quite a bit. I was not sleeping well. I was depressed. By fall my life was a lot different. I took a certification course in operating room medicine... a month or two later I quit my job and got a job working in the operating room. I started dating someone in an official capacity, (she eventually would be my wife) Did a little bit of traveling...We went to NYC, Philly, and Chicago. Since 2008... The house got destroyed, I've moved to the west coast of the US. I've married, had a kid, and grew my beard back.  -TM. www.minormumbles.com

Postcard #168: Birdfood

 

Text: 

I could sense she was waiting for me to move. She wasn't tapping her foot or clearing her throat.. but I saw in the corner of my eye that She rolled her head on her neck and gently inched her grocery cart toward me and casually "revving" the handle. I turned toward her and apologized. "Oh don't worry! Take your time!"  She said contraindicatively. I finished tying off my bag of raisins from the bulk dry good section. She quickly took my spot and opened the raisin bin and started scooping as I fumbled with another produce bag. ''I get these for my birds... " She said as she took another ample scoop. "Oh?" I said while scooping some dried cherries. "Yeah. They love them!", "Are they outside birds or caged birds?" I asked. Hoping to ascertain if I was essentially eating the same meals as wild or domesticated animals. She explained, "Oh, I don't keep my birds in cages." "Ah." I replied. And we both finished our scooping in a mixed blend of amusement and confusion for entirely different reasons. 

-TM.

Sent via Postcrossing to werewegian.  So in making this card I was reminded of an episode of the Simpsons.

Because I technically ruined two postcards:

Some Bear cage one from Milwaukee Wis...

And this old "Wampole's Creo-Terpin Ad Card" which advertised a cough medicine that had as its ingredients Chloroform and Creosote.  Which kinda feels dangerous but is probably not as poisonous as it sounds.  But the back of the card was a soft sort of construction paper that apparently was used to absorb excess ink from fountain pens back in "the day".  The funny thing is this is a pretty neat ad card and by definition, many people on Postcrossing would not want it because it's an ad card.  Stupidly cleverly, I cut it to ribbons before checking about this card.  On eBay, in pretty incredibly crappy condition this card is being sold by someone for 17 fucking bucks.  My card WAS in perfect condition. Whoops. I guess I should have checked that out before destroying it.  I hope he likes it.  He says he has so many cards that I should not worry he will get doubles.  There is no way he has this card now.  

Postcard #167: Poor-nithologist

 Text:

I once took a road trip with a friend of mine to help him move. I asked my girlfriend at the time, Amber to watch my finches. I had a large flight cage with about 10 birds. A few days into the trip I remember calling her from a gas station to see how things were. She said she and the finches were fine. Later I would get a frantic call from her telling me that a bunch of my finches had died. She was convinced something had gotten in the cage and killed them. Confused and concerned, I asked her: what could have done it? Was the cage open? 'No." Was there blood? Are the finches in parts or just dead in the cage? "No blood. Just finches and feathers all over." Is there food and water? There was a slight pause. "Yes, I gave them food and water?" I asked: Today? Did you give a cage full of dead finches food and water this morning? But instead what came out was: "When?" "Today," she reported. How about the last time before that? "I don't know."  Needless to say, we did not work out and I never forgave her. 

-TM

Sent via Postcrossing to Natalia0502.  She wants Owls.  Which I do not have.  I ought to take a picture of my workspace to show people what a fucking mess my room is right now searching for cards that will fulfill people's postcard wishes. The room is a fucking mess. Period. It is NOT her fault.  I am messy and I have a lot of cards.  So messy happens.  But explicit requests for things do not help me stay organized.   But she did say she would like animal birds and nature.  So a picture of a peacock and a story about animal and human nature.  True story. 

Postcard #166: Free as a Bird

Text:

I've always liked the sweetness and simplicity of finches. They can be a little messy but they have some personality and make sweet songs. When they pass on there usually is not much ceremony of fanfare or crying. Just before the pandemic started my last finch past away. I started with 4 when I moved to the West Coast from New Jersey. As time wore on the numbers dwindled. My wife and I shopped for finches several times but never found any we liked. We had a penchant for finches with ill-formed feather formations or a friar's tonsure. The last night I went to feed them the cage was silent. Up in the nest was the tiny bird. Cold, Fragile. Weightless. I tucked the little thing into a cardboard paper towel tube along with some nest bedding, some food, and a tiny bell. Then folded the ends of the tube and buried it outside my property along the fence. It seemed weird to bury it within the cage of my own property.

Sent Via postcrossing to MissMureena.  She said she was cool with homemade cards.  

Postcard #165: Cafe

Text:

People generally "tolerate" the coffee they serve at my work. It's Kobos brand which used a Portland brand but it got bought out by some company in Cali. I feel like it's easier to escape Starbucks on the west coast than it was on the east coast. I prefer light or medium roasts. At one time I had convinced myself I liked dark roasts. The same way I once convinced myself that IPA beers don't taste like cat piss. They do. I like regular drip coffee, or maybe a pour-over or americano. A little half and half or creamer. That's it. I spent a stupid amount of time broke in New Jersey Diners. So crappy / Burned coffee was common. And now that is my threshold. Is it watered down? Is it Starbucks? Is it burned? NO? Perfect! Do you have any creamer?

www.minormumbles.com

Sent via Postcrossing to YasmineBeiBei who wanted airline and transportation cards and said she liked coffee.  I made another coffee ring on a card.