Postcard #219: the Expendables

I sent this card to a friend of mine who has been under the weather. I am not posting the text of this card because...well yeah. HIPAA? IDFK. 

I'll probably borrow the themes of it and send it to someone else in the future.

Postcard #218: Bad Kitty

Text:

I lived in Miami, Florida for what I would define as my "formative years." My parent's house had a screen porch. Cats and dogs would be able to access it through a special "doggy" door. Having a lot of animals and food outside have the added "bonus" of attracting other animals. Possums. Raccoons. And of course, other cats. There was this BIG orange cat who spent months terrorizing my cats. One night the cat had come onto the porch and cornered my cats and was simply beating the hell out of them. Biting. Scratching. The commotion was terrible. My father went outside with a broom and cornered this massive Orange cat. My young childhood memories remember my father with a Marlboro cigarette in his mouth chasing this cat and all the vet bills he caused to my other cats. He lined up a shot and swung the back end of the broomstick so hard that when it came in contact it snapped in half. He missed. He hit the screen, ripped it, and broke the broom on the ledge. The cat never returned.

Sent via postcrossing to LauBrice.  She wanted cats.  I hope this cat will suffice.  I get the feeling she might not like the story.  Oh well.  

Postcard #217: Dumb

Text: 

I had to run some errands with my daughter. Oregon has a mask mandate. As you pull further out from Portland proper… people get more… "red." Science becomes more of an opinion or a feeling. So it is amazing how quickly I get distracted when I see people maskless. They are looking for confrontation it seems. They make eye contact. They walk around with their chests out. My brain starts calculating how much of it is oppositional defiance disorder, antivax/provax, prayer warrior bullshit, libertarian/deep state/redstate, lumpenproletariat assery, or just general absent-mindedness.  I work in an operating room. I've worn masks all day every day for over a decade. So, while it's important to wear masks to reduce the spread of covid believe me when I say that part of me just doesn't wanna see anyone's dumb face with their dumb mouths and dumb teeth. I certainly don't want to engage in a debate with them to hear their dumb opinions.

Sent Via postcrossing to hooraybeltran.  I had to taper my desire to write a postcard about Star Trek Voyagers Robert Beltran...Commander Chakotay.  As though he gets that alot or something?  Somehow I doubt he gets asked if he is related to Robert Beltran.  He does have a good user name though.  

My wife said that when she is out with our daughter she has taught her to ask my wife loudly "Mommy, why does that person wear a mask?" or "Why does that person want to get sick mommy?" at anyone she walks by them.  What a perfectly passive-aggressive thing to wield in Portland.  I am going to have to try it.

The card itself is from the Portland Peculiarium.  I have spent waaaay too much money there.

Postcard #216: DUI

Text:

I've never driven drunk. I feel like I need to preface this card with this warning. But I have been in a car with people who probably should have been more sober when I was young and dumb. When I had an apartment in New Jersey I had an upstairs neighbor who definitely suffered from alcohol-induced dementia. One night while walking my dog he wandered around the property with me and offered me tips on how to drive drunk. First. Drive with your hands on the lower part of the wheel and push your elbows against your torso. This will reduce your chance of swaying or swerving.  Making a conscious effort will keep you awake. Which brought him to his next point. Keep your windows down…. take deep breaths. The cold air will keep you awake. If it's raining keep your window open some. So, if you do get pulled over the cop will not smell the alcohol in the car when you lower the window. -TM

Sent via postcrossing to Maltezer.  She wanted dog postcards.  Funny postcards.  I think I got this one at Wall Drug or maybe I got this in Bozeman MT when driving out west?  This is a true story.  He did volunteer all this information to me.  He offered a lot of reasoning and explanation for each point that seemed kinda grounded in measured, tested scientific methodology or maybe it was just secret drunk oral tradition. If only he taught me the secret handshake.  Or maybe that was just his tremors.  

Postcard #215: Recidivism

Original Text:

Beth Lot [?] or L ox [?]

D12 

Jefferson St

Oregon City, Oreg

To:

Minnie Wane

New Text:

My daughter is quietly sitting in the car seat. I look up to the rearview mirror and lock eyes with her. I ask again, "Who did you push down at school today?" "Penelope." She answers. "Why?" "Because."  I sigh and she replies. "She was on the playground with her arms out like this." She held her arms out in a sort of crucifixion pose, head tilted back, pushed forward against the car seat restraints.  "You pushed her because her arms were out?"  I scoffed. "No, I pushed her because I wanted to be alone by myself." "Why didn't you just walk away then? Or tell her you did not want to play?" "No." "Why not?" "I don't know." The car came to a stop at a red light. "Why did you want to be alone?" I asked. "Because I wanted to read. Time out means you have to go inside and read. In the corner. So I pushed Penelope down and teacher gave me a time out." She was looking out the window watching a child in the back seat of the car next to us. I was looking at her in the rearview mirror. The light turned green and when I brought my attention back to the mirror her eyes were waiting for mine. I averted my eyes first.

I sent this to a family member.  A future one at least.  Reading over this...I wish I worked the grammar a little better.  Its hard to read when its a sort of stream of conciousness kinda format.  

Postcard #214: Go Fly a Kite

Text:

My family used to go down to Bill Bagg's State Park in Florida whenever we were going to go to the "beach".  Once we took a kite with us, and while flying it…its long red plastic tail fell off of it and fluttered away.  It flew over the sand dunes 40-50 feet off the ground. Carried by the warm ocean air it got caught in the boughs of some sand pine trees that stood far back from the shore. Every time we visited  Bill Bagg's park after that you could see the long twisty red plastic ribbon high up in the tree in stark contrast with the sparsely leafed tree. One time midweek on a school night my family drove out there with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The mosquitoes were so bad you would breathe them in while running from the car to the shore.  We quickly learned you could not stay on the shore at all lest you be absolutely consumed by small flying bugs that may or may not carry malaria or some sort of viral encephalitis. Years later I returned to that beach after hurricane Andrew. The ribbon was gone along with nearly the entire tree line. Poof. -TM

Sent Via postcrossing to ned44440. She said used to be a mail carrier and she loves the ocean.  So i had two cards.  She reports having an intense fear of snakes.  Yeah.  It took a lot to not send a snake story or a snake card.  I think I have a card that has a recipe for fried rattlesnake.  It's like this weird innocuous sort of defiance disorder that sleeps just under the surface.  It's kinda like when someone says they do not want me to send them an AD card or a homemade card...[urge to send them an old MSN ad card intensifies].

Postcard #213: Gum Crumbs

Text:  Pilgrims going to church

   I lived near my school's - walking distance. In high school, we had an open campus lunch and I would walk home. My windowless school literally doubled as a hurricane shelter. So it was nice to get outside. Now, in an effort to familiarize today's youths with the dehumanizing effects of mass incarceration the school has closed lunches, uniforms, and metal detectors. On my way home I would put gum on a fence or on a signpost. In 1992, hurricane Andrew knocked the sign over and it had to be replaced. I had to replace the chewing gum. Slowly covering it with mottled green, blue, pink, and white blobs. I wonder if the post or the fences near my home or elementary schools playground I frequented in grade school still bear my gum signatures? I don't think I have ever left my gum under a table… but fences and posts are fair game. -TM

Sent via Postcrossing to Alterity.  I have had this card for a while.  There is even a chance I have already written it up on this blog.  I found about 5 of them while going through my stuff.  I don't know why I had so many written up yet unsent cards.  I guess I was in some sort of manic phase and I wrote up a bunch at once.  If I had about 5 cards that means I wrote 5 other cards and sent those instead.  I think I started drawing cards randomly and attempting to write a story on them inspired by what I saw on the card.  That seems like something I would do.  Trying to sort of astroturf inspiration.  I remember doing this and getting a bunch of postcrosser addressed from people demanding certain types of cards.  This postcrosser sort of left it blank what kind of cards they wanted.    

Postcard #212: Brethren

Text: 

Hello fellow RN. Operating room RN here. As much as I would like to dive into a tirade about covid/vaccination/layoffs/redeployment etc etc….I do not know how welcome it would be. So, I discovered post crossing on the trip to Spain when I was meeting up  at meetups and couchsurfing.com meets... And somebody told me about it when They learned I was buying and sending "weird" postcards. I get a lot of cards at antique shops, estate sales, eBay  (buying "lots" +400 cards). I really only want odd/weird ones. Estate sales are pretty good. You mentioned you were from Pennsylvania. I hope you like the card. I have family out in Murrysville PA. I worked at a summer camp out in Fort Hill PA. Anyway. Stay safe. -TM

Sent via postcrossing to bjw1220. She is a nurse. I kept myself from gushing and I guess I kept my conversation more grounded...

Postcard #211: Expired

TEXT:

 You are not my first expired card. You are however the first person I've ever sent a second card to because I'm so tired of seeing expired at the bottom of my list. You wanted an airplane… I sent you a postcard of the Spruce goose. I don't have any other jet fighters… the spruce goose wasn't even a jet fighter. But I'm going to be honest I don't have a lot of the cards that you request.  So here's some grapes. I want to plant some grape vines along one of my fences on my property. I have 2 peach trees… but they are so infected with leaf curl fungus. I've lived at this house since 2018 and I've yet to get a peach from them here. NOT A SINGLE PEACH.  We had such a bad heat wave this summer it was the 1st time the tree actually had a covering of leaves on them.  I am used to skeletonized trees with a carpet of foul smelling waxy leaves at their bases.  The heat wave killed off my blackberries and grassberries too.  I did get a few pumpkins though. Anyway bye.

Sent via postcrossing to Lario. This is my second card. You can see the first card here. I tried emailing this person 2 or 3 times. NOTHING. So now I am burning another card and another stamp to resend a whole new card. 

So here we are.

Postcard #210: Mandate

Original Text:

Monday  April 29th 1974. 

Postmark: US postal service Florida 327 may 2nd 1974 p.m.

STAMP: blue 10 cents United States We Hold These Truths Jefferson stamp

Original Text: 

Hi (?)

On our way to Key West. Then we'll go to DD Thursday. Having a great time seeing many interesting sights.  Saw this tree.

Helen.

Text:

 October 1st is the 1st day of administrative leave for the unvaccinated staff at the hospital I work. It's unpaid. This is the 1st time I've ever witnessed a mass layoff. My feelings about it have changed numerous times in the past few months. I can distill them in a few different ways. I wish they would just get the vaccine. I am so tapped out of sympathy/empathy nowadays.  Yet I work with a lot of nurses. Last estimate there were about 12 staff members leaving.  If a few of them I'm close to… one of them I consider a very good friend.  Which then in turn makes me wonder… am I a good friend? I don't know anymore.

SENT Via Postcrossing to Flocke2010. Who wanted touristy cards. One weird touristy card...coming right up! So yeah. Nearly 800 people kindasortof lost their jobs this week at the hospital system that I work. I could fill a dozen postcards with different types of feelings that I have about this whole thing.

Postcard #209: Relics

Text: 

A very good friend of my wife and I's went through a pretty crummy divorce mid pandemic. I guess all divorces are pretty crummy regardless of how you slice it. But I remember were talking to my father about it. My parents divorced maybe 7 years ago. My father listened, offered advice. He eventually offered one lesson to me, in particular, he told me… don't get too close. He explained that when the dust settles from this divorce she is going to see you as a relic of her past. When she talks to you you will be a reminder of her past life. TWO parts.  You will remind her of the time she spent with her ex-husband and you will remind her of the time she spent moving on. I scoffed at my father. Surely my wife and I  forged a friendship that would survive this. She has a boyfriend now. We barely speak.  I'm not sure what embitters me more.

Sent via postcrossing to ou. She wanted celebrities and royalty. Bang. I have since spoken to my friend. But...what my father said still lingers. I still feel pretty bittered. Admitting I am a relic or admitting my father might have been right.  Strangers bearly read this blog. I think I am pretty safe from her or my father reading it.

Postcard #208: Highlands

Text: 

In New Jersey there is a town called "Highlands". There is an old lighthouse there which was built in 1828. There is also a bridge here that connects the Highlands to the town of Sea Bright. My grandfather used to dive off the bridge as a child. So that had to be in the 1930's at some point...  on one of those dives he injured his ear drums… permanently. Less than a decade later the country has been plunged into World War II. He is rejected from the military/draft because of the hearing damage. Years later after his death in 2013 my family found letters begging a recruiter to be accepted in order to join the war… A war that could have easily killed him and in turn erased my dad… me.

Sent via postcrossing to Dana_72. She wanted dolphins. She got dolphins. Bingobango.

Postcard 207: Jaywalker

 

Text:

In college (USF) I was convinced I would die from getting hit by a car as a pedestrian.  I would be pulled out of their windshield or off the asphalt then I would languish in a hospital bed. Ventilated. I would eventually expire after a few weeks of agonizing those I love.  For all intents and purposes, I died on that road, not in that hospital room. This translated to a fear of Jaywalking. No crossing the street without a signal… or at least voicing my displeasure at having to do it when friends pulled me into the street unexpectedly. Now that I'm older other deaths seem more likely… more inevitable. Heart disease. Cancer. Violence. General stupidity. I find myself Jaywalking more often… in a misguided attempt to balance the scales.

Sent via postcrossing to Lovozero.  I found this card.  I had written it exactly 5 years ago.  I never addressed it to anyone.  This gentleman did not have many requests so.  Winner Winner.  

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.