Postcard #206: Boring

Sent via Postcrossing to culichi who had a pretty brilliant request.  She wanted only cards that I think are boring with the prompt asking me why I find it boring.  I should have written more.  I should have studied the card.  It looks kinda weird the more I look at it.  I focused on the church solely.  The parking lot it just a sea of grey.  What is up with that?  And a blue sky in Portland?  Come on.  What a fucking fabrication....all of it.  I should have sent her another boring pastoral church picture.  
 

Postcard 205: Ain't that a Fact?

 Sent via postcrossing to Annikazit.  I sent her one of my pecularium postcards.  She wanted a card from where I live and facts about my hometown.  Which begs the question...what do you consider your hometown?

Postcard #204: Matriarch

 

This stamp header is an AZO with four up arrows.  Its print date is likely between 1904 and 1918.  

Text:

Meemaw was so cross about this picture.  We took two of them.  At a great expense to her she told us over and over again.  In the first one she was angry we were all standing so close together.  Johnboy and Abby were actually holding hands! Meemaw said that was sinful and if they couldn't keep their lustful flesh apart perhaps they should just go and fornicate on the front porch like animals in heat or not be in the family picture at all.   Meemaw thought it was disrespectful that we stand with the rest of the grown-ups.  Then my sister and I got in trouble for getting grass stains on our communion dresses.  SHE TOLD US TO SIT IN THE GRASS! But poor Georgie.  Meemaw said he was smiling in BOTH pictures.  He said wasn't smiling and that was just how his mouth was.  His mouth is so small in the photo how could she see it?   But Meemaw knew he was.  She did not speak to him for weeks after she hung the photo.  Then, if she ever saw the picture hanging in the hallway before a family dinner she would not speak to him at all during the meal.  This went on for years until Meemaw passed away.  Georgie admitted to me secretly that he was smiling in that picture at her wake.  We both laughed with tears in our eyes.  

Sent via Postcrossing to j_daine. She wanted writing.  I honestly was pretty set on sending this to someone I knew would appreciate it instead of someone who I HOPED would appreciate it.  So.  We will see I guess.   It's still a card that was mailed at least 100 years from its print date.  Fucking amazing.  I put it in a an envelope because it would break my heart if it was lost or broken in half since it is so dry an old.  

On a separate note its is the first postcard I am putting up on my newly minted Instagram account...So Again. we will see.  Maybe I will have people on Instagram who will direct message me for postcards.  That might be neat.  

Postcard #203: Come Visit!

 

Sent via Postcrossing to asspirantus.  Did not give me a whole lot of guidance on what he wanted.  People seem to love stickers...so I found some stickers while working at a vaccine clinic out here.  

Interlude

Yeah, not much has happened since the last interlude but I still feel like I need to post something. 

 I actually got a homemade card that I could post on my blog where it would make sense.

So I received via Postcrossing from sallymo.  Hats off to her for managing to create homemade cards that are probably are not thrown in a rubbish bin by all the people who write "NO HOMEMADE CARDS" in their profiles. 

I actually wrote to Postcrossing to ask them when the first instance of "No Homemade" or "No Ad cards" first appeared on someone's profile.  I also asked what country what the person from.  If I knew they would tell me I would take bets on which country said it first.  I have my iDEas what country might have said it first.  [glares in postcrossing].  But how long had Postcrossing been running before the first INSTANCE of someone making a card request that denied certain types of cards like homemade or adcards?  The inception?  Weeks?  Months?  I am curious.  

As mentioned in a previous interlude, I have been going through my old posts and transcribing them so that can be cut and pasted as text.  Originally I did not want to even post the backs of the cards.  I felt like it was supposed to be something private and secret between me and the receiver.  But I kiboshed that pretty quick.  Because. Why?  What is the point of that?  Who wants to look at a bunch of postcard images without the backs?

Occasionally since then, I have had a few that I have not posted the reverse side only because I realized it was more of a first draft that I wanted to re-do for a future card.

Then I shifted to concern that people might stealing my writing.  But I realized, how will anything of mine get stolen if no one is reading it in the first place?  I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.    If I don't have the writing up why would people want to come to my blog anyway?  To look at the images of postcards?  They can do that on Ebay.  It would break my heart that people were MORE interested in the pictures than what I was writing.   I could accept that people were AS interested in the pictures than my writing. 

So I started to transcript the text...but I have a couple of years' worth of cards to do.  It sounds like it's a lot but I probably only did 50 or so cards a year.  I have gone back as far as 2016 or so. The idea was so that people could take the text and enter it into a translator.  I've had a few people write in their native language...but they did so in a cursive script which text grab does not work too well when pulling data.  I am sure the same bodes for my crappy handwriting.  

But the act of going back and pulling the stuff out of the cards is tedious and time-consuming and I became frequently annoyed with myself because of how long it took.  I could be actually writing cards.  Another issue is that this process is typically done on my desktop and with my 3-year-old...I can not accomplish much on it between the hours of 6am and 7am before she realizes I am no longer in bed.  I am on the computer and SHE TOO WANTS TO BE ON THE COMPUTER RIGHT NOW SITTING IN MY LAP AND SNEAKING TAPS ON THE KEYBOARD WHILE I AM ACTIVELY TYPING.  My hobby became frustrating and something I do not want to do.  

I had the brilliant idea to contact Fiverr.  And pay an awesome someone to transcribe the postcards...leave the transcriptions as comments...and I would simply move the comments into my blog later.  Depending on how this works out I might simply not transcribe any of the future ones. Hopefully actively "hobbying"...will be creating new cards and writing new things.  So right now...I have "hired" jjwood687 to do the work I am too lazy and distracted to do myself.  So in the coming weeks, I hope to have all the past cards punched up. Then I will get these posts up more regularly since I won't have to agonize over the transcriptions and stuff.  

I really hope this works out. 

Postcard #202: Morning in America

 

TEXT:

US-7284848

01/21/21 - Portland OR.  It's Fuckin raining.  44 F

Well after an armed insurrection attempt five dead people, a final tally of 400k covid deaths could we finally have a new president. Republicans want to find Unity...now. I am so god damned sick of being the ones who have to capitulate when outraged which is the problem nothing really outrages them. Nothing tangible. "Rights" "Religion." We have to always move on when something tragic happens. "What could have been done?" "This was a single, lone event." No. I am done. I want people held [accountable] for their actions. How we could not collectively called Q-Anon fucking assholes.  We could not collectively call white supremacists fucking dirtbag shitheads.  I want to ask how we got here...but we have always been here. -TM

Sent via Postcrossing to anicka22.  Probably one of my favorite profiles so far.  Completely blank.  The only way it could have been better would have been for them to have written one word in the profile so that it would appear that they did not simply overlook it.  I got this postcard in Spain.  I've had it for several years and from the looks of it someone else had it before me on display.  

I was obviously angry here.  I really suck at first draft postcarding.  I left out words.  I left out grammar and punctuation.  I was a lazy bastard for this card and it shows.  

Postcard #201: Special Delivery

 Text: 

Portland, OR,

US-7284847

44 It's friggen raining

but at least it's not snowing

I pulled up to the house pretty much the same time as my wife did. I pulled to give her room to pull her car into the driveway.  Looking towards the road I saw a plastic white garbage bag. The sort I have in my own kitchen with red drawstrings.  I parked my car and walked to the mailbox. Junk mail flyers. (But I did get one postcrossing card!) I figured I could use the junkmail to go and pick up the trash. As I got closer I noticed the bag was nearly empty... but there was something in the bag. Black. It stuck to the inside of bag and it carried enough mass that the wind did not move it. I picked it up. It was soft, wet. And started to move it to my garbage cans, my left hand like a tight pincer holding the bag within the protective burger king coupons as I crossed the yard. I smelled something foul. A smell known all too well from life... and work, I almost did want to recognize it. Once I admitted that I know the smell I knew it would make me gag. I then thought about how it does not make me gag at work when my patients... poop... shit Tom. It's Human feces. Human SHIT You ARE HOLDING HUMAN SHIT! I started to gag and wretch.  I still smell it every time I have to burp the garbage can.  Honestly, I smell it even when I look at the can. - TM

US-7284847

Sent via Postcrossing to Drey01.  Did not give me a whole lot of guidance no homemade or Ad cards. I really would like to send an ad card to the first person to ever put that in a profile.  I wonder if I could write to Postcrossing and ask them to look at their records to see when the first time "NO AD CARD" was placed in someone's profile.  

I am pretty late getting these up.  They are already arriving at their sites.  And I already have another interlude post coming.  

Postcard #200: GME Thingamajig...

Jan 24, 2021

US-7292676

CUTTY SARK

Nobody ever asks for ad cards. Here is one of mine I am not sure how long I have had it.  It's copywritten 1999.   It's Sunday, I have to go to work tomorrow like most people. I kind of want to call in sick for stupid reasons...I invested money in GameStop over the past few weeks. It's rumored that it is going to be hit by a major short squeeze over the coming days/weeks. I am existing in a state of nil-loss right now. Like Schrödinger's cat. The money is sort of down now. I have not lost anything. I don't know if it will make money and with work...I will not be able to check my phone for updates. I will have to work in a state where I could have made money or lost much of it.  I don't think I wanted to make dumb levels of money.  I heard that investors were betting on the failure of GameStop and that feels like a shitty thing to do.  I heard of an opportunity to catch a bunch of wealthy people doing something dumb with a lot of money and I wanted to be apart of history.  Fucking money-making assholes making stupid levels of money....while I work taking care of people with covid?  Seriously.  WTF? Then trying to bankrupt a videogame store that I am fond of? - TM.

I should probably start by saying my first ever disclaimer:  I AM NOT SOMEONE YOU SHOULD TAKE INVESTMENT ADVICE FROM...I am an amateur investor and I mess around with some extra money I make with extra shifts.  I think the stock market is a big gamble and I am investing in companies I believe in...That being said...

Sent via postcrossing to alexaufdembetzenberg.  He wanted an AD card.  I don't much care for scots whisky.  I even stuck a little sticker on it too.  He wrote back...kinda weird reply:

Alexander wrote you a message:

“Cheers for your card. That GameStop thingmajig didn't end too well, did it? Best Wishes and Stay Healthy!”

Which just sort of feels like a weird reply.  Like...people playing long stocks on GME have already lost?  Maybe Alexander works in finance?  Maybe he is a short-seller? Maybe he hates GameStop?  I don't think the GameStop thingAmajig has ended yet.  Until they pry the stock out of my cold fucking dead diamond hands, right?  I like the stock.  I like the message it sends.  I like GameStop.  And I fucking hate corporate greed. 

His reply... It soooooort of reads like: gloating? But being married to someone for all intents and purposes is from Europe.  I know I am sometimes too sensitive to subtle things from non-americans.  Like getting a False-Positive uhh Negative?  I want to say something is getting lost in translation.  

Postcrossing says of the 111 cards I have received...19 of them are from Germans.  So if I have three piles of postcards that I can say are positive, neutral, or negative... I think am going to file this one under a negative experience. So of all my negative experiences, I have had through Postcrossing of which I count 3.  Two of them are German.  I just need a few more data points.  

I need to start filing my positive experiences.  Maybe that is what I am going to do from now.  I am going to start favoriting cards based on the experience I had in receiving or sending them not based on if I like the postcard image they sent.  It will make my wall a bit confusing.  Oh well.

Let me close by saying if you are reading this and do not want to get involved in the stock market or anything...go here...and become a proplayer.  Stick your finger in some hedge-funders eye.

Postcard #199: Pen-nsylvania...

 

* US-7292678

Portland, OR 39% Rainy.

This Space For Writing Messages

I bought a bunch of Sharpie S. Gel pens. I'll be honest I saw a reaction video to them. And I bought in... They suck. Here is my struggling .038 s...-s Gel pen. What a joke! Pigma Micron! All the way! Anyway, I saw you live in Phill.  My wife and I got married in Philly. It was called Romano's.  Now it's The Felt Factory. Sounds better IMO. Like the called Electric Factory.     My wife and I stood in the fountain in the lobby for pictures.  I think we broke it. Because it leaked downstairs where the reception was.  Oh Well. YOLO! -TM

Sent via Postcrossing to CelesteDolores.  She wrote back! 

Celeste wrote you a message:

“Thanks for the postcard. I've never seen that post office in Philly, but then I live "downtown" in Center City. I'm wondering where it was. I had to look on the map to find the Felt Factory--in North Philadelphia. The Sharpie Ultra Fine Permanent Marker is good for postcards. I also bought the Sharpie gel pens but not to use on postcards. I think I used them up already. Interest idea the "Vault."”

Postcard #198: "It's All Your Fault"

 The front reads "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT."

Text:

I've only given about 100 vaccines and for the & most part those I've vaccinated are pretty excited about it. I have had conversations with people reluctant with getting it though. I think part of the problem is the foundation for explaining the vaccine to people. Too many people liken this vaccine to something out of a horror movie or apocalypse movie instead of its true genre relation. That of science fiction, this vaccine is an incredible feat of Science. A virus, our bodies have not really combated before... getting tagged" by a protein taught to our immune system... so that our body can identify the interlopers. It is something out of god damned Star Trek and it's fucking amazing and should be respected and admired. Not likened to walking dead. T.M.

US-1289849

This was sent via Postcrossing to afcbird1.  I've had this card for a while.  It was one of my personal favorites.  The look on her face is just awesome.  Like "you're goddamned right it's all my fault!" And I guess I wanted to make sure it would go to someone who would appreciate it.  But doing that is hard.  Assuming appreciation.  She gave off a progressive vibe and wanted COVID cards.  I did not even think such a thing existed.  She has not logged on in 4 days.  So right now in my head... it exists in a quantum state that she liked it AND thought it was just another card she got from Postcrossing.  And if you are reading this...don't act like you don't get card that you are completely unimpressed with.  Eh.  I need sleep.  Or coffee.  

interlude

So...for the first time in forever...[groan] I have generated 11 postcard destinations...and have all of them in transit together right now. Also for the first time I put several of them in envelopes. I kinda left many of the post cards address destinations blank...so...in theory one of the recipients could put an address on them and essentially remail it and get credit. Which would be cool if one of them thought to do that.  

So, younger naive Tom used to think, foolishly, that i work best underpressure. If I can generate 11 addresses....pull AND HOLD the trigger and fire the whole damn clip at once. Because the pressure of one is a distraction. The pressure of 11 has to be a like breaking atoms. Right?

No. It just made me hate the process. I had people I was nearly 45 days late...to even get something in the mailbox. Wtf Tom. Having 11 people I had to write to all at once was a dumb idea. ...I don't really feel like it made me a better writer. Instead of a pressure cooker of ideas i sent several postcards that were different iterations of the main thing on my mind. Which is living in a world where I am yet another person living and dealing with being in a shitty world. Oh. And covid. And Trump.

So. There are a couple of people who are interested in direct mailing. I think I am going to reconnect with them and some friends and family. And just give the random address generator a rest for a few weeks. Maybe until I have a full clip again.

-tm

Postcard #197: "Ana"

Card Flavor text:

US-7244918

SCENIC OREGON COAST

Arch Rock from Maxwell Point and the beautiful Cape Mears Light House in the background.

"ANA"

I looked up. "What?" "This place, you know I'm really going to miss it." I put my drink down and took in the humid NY City night and scene. I glanced at my sweaty glass and wondered if my confusion was alcohol-induced.  I counted back drinks and applied sobering metrics to all my food. Then calculated my probability that I was drunk or something was off. I looked over my shoulder then looked back at her. "Are you talking to me?" "Yeah! "She laughed and shifted her drink and pushed her hair out of her eyes.  Was she flirting? Did I miss something? She continued. "This town, New York, you know. There really isn't anything like it in the world?" "No, I guess not." Quickly deciding New York isn't all that great. I took a sip of my drink. Who the fuck talks like that? Like speaking dialogue from a film...within

reality. It was confusing, it wrecked my buzz and it was the weirdest conversation I have ever had with an Ana. 

www.minormumbles.com.

Sent via postcrossing to relvita.  This is a true story.  There is a little part of me that wonders if this is the same Ana.  Which would just be HILLLLLAAAAARIOUS. This Ana from what I remember had decided she was going to move to the UK for work.  My friends and I had met up with her in NYC in what was to be one of her last few weekends before moving to the UK. We were sitting at a bar with outdoor seating.  I think she was taken by the bustle and energy of the city.  Something I never really fell for...

Postcard #196: Words/Phrases/Idioms

Postcard Flavor Text

US-7244887

01/02/2021 Words/Phrases / idioms. -TM www.minormumbles.com

US-7244887

Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad Passenger Train on Tanglefoot Curve between Chama, New Mexico, and Antonito, Colorado.

It is hard for me you have an opinion of Hong Kong. I am pro-democracy, but my Country really should not be judging your country since we in the US are doing a pretty "BANG UP "job doing it right now- "Bang-Up"-normally means excellent but in this case, I am being, sarcastic in that we are doing a shitty job. (Bad job) Right now I am trying to teach my 3 yo. daughter the word "self-deprecating".  It is important to make jokes at your own expense. It's humbling and keeps you grounded. Before I start driving I will text my wife OMW. "On my way" in that I am heading home and it should take me about a half-hour." If it were "Raining Cats & dogs" that would mean it was raining a lot and very heavy.  I am a nurse in the operating room. Often times we get people with bad skin infections that we have to give "I and D's" to which means irrigate (washout) and debride (remove dead tissue). Look up the word Nec FAS.

Sent via Postcrossing to Harry2019.  He mentioned wanting postcards of transportation.  This is the Steam Locomotive 483 and it is currently at a museum and there is some grassroots operation to get it repaired.  I really wanted to get into the word "NEC FASC" (commonly pronounced "Neck Fash") is short for necrotizing fasciitis. He had a few requests.  Date.  Word or phrases in my language.  My opinion of Hong Kong.  Which I have never been asked before.  Tell me your feelings about where I live.  I am tempted to ask people in the states their opinion of Portland Oregon right now because I have a feeling it will be pretty disconnected from the real thing.  

Postcard #195: "Glasses"

 

ID: US-7218930

POST CARD

While I truly believe the year of 2020 has been filled with countless tragedies. Let us not forget the one final tragedy in that people will no longer be wearing the most ideal novelty "2020" New Years Eve celebratory glasses. Now even with the hope of mass vaccinations the best glasses, we can hope for are the glasses to 2026. Heck. Even the glasses for 2019 were better, Happy New Year! Stay Safe! Stay Healthy.

- T.M.

www.minormumbles.com

Sent via postcrossing to Restu_Amalia.  They had a few requests.  Movie posters for one.  But, again my entire collection is a mess right now.   As much of a mess as this card is...I really need to work on being able to first draft a postcard.  But I can not do that until I figure stuff out.  I need to clear my docket, organize, then generate codes again.  

Postcard #194: "Putter"

Postcard Flavor Text: 

Oberammergau

"Putter" US-7244890

I am sick of post-crossing again. I just see it as work right now and I know it should not be. It is supposed to be a distraction or hobby but I think when life gets tough or busy the first casualty is that the freetime to do distractions. I must sacrifice for the mill stone of life are hobbies, and the feeling that its okay to take time for myself I saw an article that American Megalomaniac and eventual Earth  technodespot Jeff Bezos puts time aside each day, to (and I feel its absolutely necessary for me to write this out) QUOTE/UNQUOTE -->"putter".<--  And people put this dumb shit in an article for people like me to read and wonder what the fuck is wrong with me? He also prioritizes sleep. Fuck. This. Guy. and his "freetime."

-Tm.

Sent Via postcrossing to mpv.  This fucking article has been pissing me off for over a week.  Eat the rich man.

Postcard #193: "Birth day"

 

THIS SPACE FOR ADDRESS ONLY.

www.minormumbles.com

THIS SPACE IS RESERVED FOR MESSAGE.

-T.M.

I was offered extra money to take a shift last weekend December 26. Otherwise known as... my birthday.  I worked my last birthday, my 40th.  I was depressed. I figured it was just another day.  2020 proved that I should never think like that. So for my 41st Birthday I worked Labor & delivery. Helping women have babies or not. It felt like going full circle. It felt poetic. - ID: US-7218929

Sent Via postcrossing to Jojka.  This is the first time I have ever written a postcard like this.  It feels unnatural.  It did not help to scan it any better.  After careful consideration, I am going to have my birthday in July or something next after more people I know (and myself) get the vaccine.  I have not celebrated my birthday in the summer since I was 12.  I would like to do something outside with friends.  If you are reading this, let me know.  I will send you an invite.  

Postcard #192: "essential"

 

Postcard flavor text:

HOWARD HUGHES SPRUCE GOOSE gathers  speed prior to take-off November 2, 1947. The giant aircraft is now on display in its new dome in the Port of Long Beach, California.

ID: US-7153947

"essential" www.minormumbles.com

I am considered an essential worker (nurse). I never have used that word to describe myself. Essential. It's a dumb word that means I have to work, and others can't regardless if they can / should/ or not.  I am happy/proud as it is a nice distraction from the insanity of national politics and dissociative delusions of certain political party whims.  Opinions carry more weight than science somehow. Oregon has some of the most restrictive social distancing laws, we have some of the Lowest death/incidence rates of Covid... But people are still dying here. People are being hospitalized in intensive care regularly. So then a disconnect somewhere. Pretending "this will never happen to me" feeling.  When I drive home I see plenty of people at bars together without masks so god knows how many people are at home "pretending" together.

I had to trim this card to get it in the envelope. Sorry.

Sent via postcrossing to Lario.  They wanted postcards of fighter places.  I feel like I had postcards of stealth fighters or at least a blackbird.  But I am in the midst of reorganizing my cards.  Only now do I regret starting this task because now I can not find anything.  I need to take all my cards and throw them into three piles.  

1. Postcards that might actually see the inside of a mailbox.  

2) Interesting Postcards that are too damaged to mail unless given some TLC.  

3) Postcards that need to see the inside of a wastebasket.  

So I sent a spruce goose postcard...I think this is the second one this season.  Hughes failed attempt at a wooden bomber because of the availability of wood over metal.  

Postcard #191: "Empty Postcard"

Postcard flavor Text:

GR.2-SENTINEL IN SILHOUETTE

From a position in front of Our Lady's Grotto, one has a most impressive view of the statue of Mary Our Mother, silhouetted against the distant sky. There on the Sanctuary's upper level She stands in regal prominence- Mary, the world's Queenly Sentinel.

SANCTUARY OF OUR SORROWFUL MOTHER

PORTLAND, OREGON

"...if your profile is empty or only consists of wishlist you'll unfortunately receive an empty card."

 ID: US-7218927

I guess I understand why someone might do that. Postcrossing is a strange mix of fun and excitement and annoyance and boredom. I don't think I would want to get away with sending an empty Card. It seems like a cop-out. It's easy to send "Happy Postcrossing" I never really thought of how aggravating it might be to receive a completely BLANK card. Isn't the objective then introduce yourself or get to know others?  If wishlist profiles get your knickers in a twist I suppose you could report the accounts and then they would get pulled and they could not receive postcards until they fixed their accounts?  ... It's 5 days until Christmas. I am late getting my postcards out [over] 30 days. I am late wrapping gifts for my wife and child.  

Happy Holidays!

-TM.

Sent via postcrossing to Eichhoernchen.  I hope they do not think I was being too critical.  I still consider myself a pretty green/young postcrossing person. I will come across some account with a strange request that the sender do not do.  Some people have strong issues about getting enveloped cards or unpoststamped postcards.  I recently saw someone who said they do not want their address entered into any sort of database if their name comes up on a draw.  I did not even know that was a thing.  And I think every 10 or so draws I get an account that has all of their landmark cards highlighted (i.e. 500th card sent or received.  1000th sent or received card Etc).  I am trying to imagine what I would be like when I have transcended to someone who has sent out 500 postcards or the previous person who has over 3000 postcards sent or received.  I feel like I would be some zerofucks given type of person vs someone who had a new arrangement of requests or demands.  Time will tell.

Postcard #190: "Stuff" Patients Say #1

 

ID: US-7154721

THIS SPACE FOR WRITING MESSAGES

"Stuff" patients say... #1

me: So you are not allergic to shrimp?

patient: I just don't like it. What's the difference?

me: A lot.

Patient: When I was younger I had a bad reaction to some shrimp.

me: What sort of "reaction"? Like you could not breathe? Throat or facial swelling?

Patient : No. I threw up. A lot. For like the whole day. Oh! And diarrhea!

me: So, food poisoning?

Patent:  No. It was reaction to the food.  Because now whenever I see shrimp I gag.

me: That's still not an allergy

- TM.

minormumbles.com

Sent via postcrossing to ethan1740.  He wanted Benedict Cumberbatch, Lotso, and bunch of other things I sadly do not have.  Disappointment, thy name is Minormumbles.  So, I picked a card.  And wrote a card.  But I did send it with one of my happy new year cards in an envelop like I have been doing for this most recent bunch.  

Postcard #190: "Extra Space"

 

Post card flavor text:

11/20/20

THE NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE

This spectacular display is presented each year on the Elipse between the White House and the Washington Monument.

Fifty small trees represent the states of the Union. The trees are lighted from the White House by the President in a ceremony officially starting the Christmas season.

POST CARD

The hospital system work for has 5 hospitals attached to it. This week two of these hospitals are parking refrigerated morgue semitruck trailers in their parking lots.

This is to prepare for the next few weeks. We broke 1000 deaths this week. Happy Holidays! What a time to "alive". Happy New Year from Portland Oregon. 

-TM

www.minormumbles.com.

ID: US-7151855

Sent via postcrossing to Macel. I was supposed to mail this...BEFORE thanksgiving.  But Yeah. Life.  The holidays.  Getting Sick.  The sad thing is we are on the verge of breaking 1,500.  In 2020, there were 1,490 Oregonians that died of Covid.  So between thanksgiving and the new year nearly 500 more people died.  What a damn tragedy.  They should be tearing down confederate memorials and erecting memorials to the pointless lives lost to the illness.

Postcard #189: "Dalinspiration"

 

Text:

ID: US-7153111

LONDON BRIDGE

During Construction in 1970

The McCulloch Corporation purchased the bridge for $2,460,000.00 and moved it rock by rock, from the River Thames to its present location at Lake Havasu City where it was reassembled and dedicated Oct. 10, 1971.

POST CARD

My wife and I visited my mother in Tarpon Springs, Fl. To the south is St. Petersburg where there is a Salvador Dali museum.  I learned that one of the things he would do was spend hours staring a blank canvas until the work appeared in his mind. I wonder if I stared a blank postcard long enough the same thing could work for me and postcrossing?

So this was sent via postcrossing to Olgamif who wanted anything London related and is an english teacher residing in Russia.  I am fucked.  Good thing I did not write a whole lot on her card so she can not grade me too much.    I was going through my cards looking for England related stuff.  I found a bunch of stuff.  Old family images of the Royal Family.  Old images of horse drawn carriages in Piccadilly.  But then I found this card which I hope she does not have because of the degree of tackiness.  But I would imagine if someone in Lake Havasu City or Arizona at large drew her name on postcrossing they might have sent it to her.    An image of an American London Bridge being built over a portion of a reservoir  on the Colorado River.  

Postcard #188: "Typhoid Tommy"

FRONT TEXT: 

When sickness knocks a person out

Then every thing looks blue,

The brightest colors 'neath the sun

All take a darker hue.

But don't you care, the sun still shines,

And with its strengthening rays

You'll soon be back to health, we trust,

And to more joyous days.

Reverse:

HELEN A. CASTERLINE, Publisher

EDEN, N. Y.

Pandemic 2.0. I was redeployed from being an operating room nurse to help staff related Covid 19 items...infections, hotline, training and of Covid vaccines. So on Saturday [this would be Dec 12th?] I started to feel... off. By

that night I was making an appointment for a clinic visit. I had nightmare of being some asymptomatic Typhoid Mary, infecting the entire Employee health department just before vaccine rollout.  I was wearing

mask at home, sleeping and using a bathroom separate from my wife and child.  By Sunday night I had a 103.2 F fever. Coughing Fits. Thick globs of coughed agony brought headaches. Headaches/ fever that felt as though my eyeballs were being cooked in their sockets.  Loss of appetite with insomnia.

And 2 rapid swabs and I PCR test later apparently it was not Covid.  I am not among the chosen few to receive the vaccine. They hope to have all those who handle patients, vaccinated by February. We will see...

www.Minormumbles.com

US-7244881

I sent this card to ojninni who is a wonderful human being who says she will be happy with whatever card I sent and whatever I write.  Blessed are the few!  I sent her this card...which after writing it realized with all the demands that people make no one is going to want an antique card with a poem on the front that essentially amounts to a get well card.  This card was picked up in a recent ebay lot.  I kept the word "Sample" written there in what looks like old black fountain pen.  I kinda liked it.  Especially since it mentions feeling like all you could see was blue.  One time (and I think I wrote a postcard about this) I got so sick with such a high fever that I felt I could only see in blue.  Everything was in blue hues.  I thought I broke myself with how sick I had become.   

So in after game analysis I think I had a combination Tonsilitis and viral bronchitis maybe even bordering on pneumonia.  My tonsils and throat were swollen and sore.  It would explain the fever and difficulty breathing.  I am still coughing occasionally.  Weeks later.  It scared the shit out of me.  I think the fear of it being Covid it worse (stress, cortisol, immune function blunting) This is merely fear based in that I could hurt someone else if I had it and think its a morally justified fear as a parent, nurse, and empathetic human being.  This pandemic has broken me.  

I mailed this card and the next few cards out with my family holiday card.  Which is essentially a Happy new Year card.  So what if its a little late?  I will end up putting a one cent stamp on them even though they are all going to be mailed in an envelope.  I still destroyed them by writing stories directly on them and they are still going to travel.  But there is a reluctance on my end of mailing a card INSIDE an envelope.  Like I am not being true to the reality of my mission or my blog since it will not actually get postmarked.  MY GOD TOM.  FUCKING STOP.  JUST MAIL THE FUCKING CARD ALREADY.