Postcard #146: "Townie"

Sent via postcrossing to magenta0810.  I felt like writing a bar story.  I felt like writing something NOT depressing.  So, this one came to mind.  True story.
Text: 
I don't know why the bartender was taking so long to cash us out.  My cousin was standing next to his barstool patting down his pockets looking for his keys.  The woman townie which had been talking to me all night tapped on my shoulder again. "So if you aren't going to come home with me can I at least get a hug?" She asks. I could not see the harm in letting this enormous (not fat, just large) mostly toothed woman hug me.  Until she started to lick my neck.  

Postcard #145: "Happy Holidays (Part 1)"

Sent via postcrossing to niek1963.  Who did not really care what sort of postcard they received.

True Fucking Story.  I wish it weren't.
Text:
It was cold and damp when I left work at 6pm.  AS I approached my car I thought I had left my windows down.  How could I?  Windows down, in rainy downtown portland for 11 hours?!? So stupid! My doors were unlocked everything of value was gone. I realized I did not leave them unlocked or my windows down... someone broke in...well not broke...forced themselves in by forcing my windows down to unlock my doors.  They took credit cards, money, old ipods, a butterfly knife that I had bought in Spain.  I was in disbelief as I filed the police report and report with hospital security. I felt an array of emotions. Angry at the person who did it.  Upset that what I thought was safe...was not. Happy they did not break my windows or get into my locked glove box...or steal the car. Confused how it happened.  I was I was not so weak that it made me hate desperate people. 
- TM

Postcard #144: "New Years Resolutions"

Sent via postcrossing to KaT-85 who likes dolls apparently and wanted ticket stubs. So I've had this card for a few years since my last trip to Spain.  When I got it I had every intention of writing a story about creepy dolls.  But since getting it I have noticed I have a few creepy doll postcards and it's not like I could not find a creepier card.  I needed to write down my post to make my resolutions a reality.  I have to leave to go to the gym (2nd time this week).  

I have also deleted the Facebook app and messenger.  I have to admit my stress level has been dropping since doing so.  I don't go on nearly as much.  Though I have noticed that I have been going on quite a bit today since it's my day off.  Sure enough, there are so many fucking idiots on Facebook that just infuriate me.  [insert long rant that I just typed up about a couple of the brands of fucking idiots that I deleted when I realized it only tangentially related to this postcard.]  

If you truly want to witness how neurotic I have become right now, the act of me reading that last paragraph had made me hate myself a little more.  Part of me wants to change "so many fucking idiots" to "a bunch of phonies" just to aid in my evolution to someone I hate.  

Perhaps that lends to a 7th resolution.  "Tom, just keep your fucking mouth shut."  Perhaps even an 8th resolution...get Sam to change my password so I can not log into it anymore.  

Text:

Like many people I routinely fail in making/completing new Years Resolutions. Two Year ago I practically made a manifesto...and failed. "Lose Weight." "Write a novel." "Get healthy." This year I have switched to fairly attainable goals that are so simple to complete but will create a decent foundation for anything else.  

1) Go to the Gym 2-3 times a week for a half hour. 2) write a postcard once a week.  3) Delete Facebook app/messenger.  No more FB at work or on breaks. 4) Read a half hour each day. 5) Cut the work fuck, fucking, fucked, from my spoken words. 6) Visit Mom, dad, grandma. -T.M.

Postcard #143: "The Hunt"

Sent via postcrossing to HDamato who actually lives on a Maple Street.  She did not seem very particular what sort of card she wanted.  My wife and I both liked this postcard for the dog on it.  I don't think I write postcards directly for people very often, but with the maple street address I could only think about Twilight Zone.

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
The Hunt

I wonder if The Hunt would still be my favorite if I rewatched the series?  I suppose I have homework now.

Text:
"The Hunt"
My family especially my brother and I have lived lieves that have been shaped ever so slightly by repeated twilight zone marathons on the SciFi network. One of them, a classic, "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" my brother assembled a lesson pan to explor its meanings and themes. - My favorite episode is "The Hunt".  A man wakes up next to a pond after jumping in to have his dog.  He slowly realizes he and his hound dog are dead and walking along a road for eternity.  I'd hate to ruin the episode in case you haven't seen it but it made me appreciate dogs a bit more.  It also made me think that both heaven and hell might be kinda creepy but the journey or walk to either of them might not be so long as I had a dog with me.  -T.M.

Postcard #142: "Earl Grey"

“Earl Grey” US-4302324

Flavor Text: A magnificent view of Portland, Oregon. Mount Hood is seen from Washington Park Rose Gardens. Photo: Ken Vermillion

I can’t drink Earl Grey tea. When I was younger I remember one evening watching TV with my cousin. I did not put it together why my grandmother put a large cake sized Tupperware next to him while he laid on the couch. “He did not feel good” I was told. My grandmother and aunt made him some toast (which always seemed to come out burned or so completely always desiccated as to be utterly unappetizing) and cup after cup of earl grey tea. Which he was encouraged to drink. When my cousin started vomiting, I remember watching him for a moment. The puke shot out from him like a geyser. Slowly he started to fill the Tupperware with a liquid that bore the same color, consistency, and smell of all those mugs of earl grey they were forcing in him. I silently walked to the kitchen and told my Aunt and Grandmother that Eric was throwing up. I had interrupted a quiet conversation they were having. “We know.” They both said softly. They did not get up. They did not say anything else. I immediately associated earl grey tea with something that makes people vomit…on purpose. To this day I can’t drink earl grey tea and every time Jean Luc Picard drank it I associated it with half-filled Tupperware of cloudy brown emesis. -TM

Transcribed by jjwood687 on Fiverr.

Sent via postcrossing to MicSeb who likes flowers, pictures from where I live, landscapes, and photography.  Boom.  This postcard is pretty nifty view.  I will actually have to try and visit this place. There is a part that makes me think I have already written this story.  Oh well.  I like this version.

Postcard #141: "Cold #10 (Final)"

Original Card:

Stamp: "Franklin" Green Scott #300.  United States Postage Stamp 1¢

Original Postmark: Douglass, Kansas. Mar 9 (?) 5 pm 1906 (assumed)

Addressed to: Miss Amy (?) Burk of St Johns ore

Message:

I am at town now. 

I got the postal card you sent me.  

good by [sic]

From

Gladys.

 

Sent via postcrossing to PackerBacker2.  This is my first direct swap.  Normally I don't think I would do this...but who knows maybe the direct swap thing is better.  People who are interesting in receiving interesting things rather than fulfilling a collection or getting peoples names or not appearing UNFRIENDLY.
So here is the finale of the Cold series.  I suppose I should type it all up so it is in one flowing story that could be read.  I don't think I will do that today.  I will come back to this entry and amend it with the completed written version of it.
Dat postcard tho. I found it at a recent estate sale.  So fucking haunting.  A beautiful degree of damage and weathering.  It's so perfect for the series.  I love it and I was so happy that I was able to put something great on it and send it on another trip.  The card is over 100 years old.  Which just blows my goddamned mind.

Yes, that is my address if you are reading and would like to send me something or start a correspondence.

Cold Series:
Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Part 8
Part 9

Postcard #140: "Cold #9"

Cold #9.            US-4308092

Flavor Text: INTERIOR VIEW CHAPEL OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

MOOSE, WYOMING

Worshipers in the Chapel of the Transfiguration have an inspiring view through a spacious plate glass window, framing lofty Grand Teton Peak which rises to an elevation of 13,766 feet.

The strength and pull of the river upon me was inexhaustible. I fought to reopen my swollen eyes the outstretched hand was still there waiting. I swung my hand around blindly hoping they would close the missing distance but instead I was drowning deep sputtering gulps of water that sought to occupy all the spaces within me. Cold, angry water that would rather be frozen. I bolstered myself on the cracking ice. I opened my eyes again hoping the hand was still there I pushed hard with all my strength, force, a power I knew to be any resources I had remaining if the hand was not there at its acme I knew I would be back in the river. My eyes opened at the crest of my push and there it was…the hand. Unwavering. I had to take it. I reached up and felt the backside of the crest. I was slipping back. I took the hand closing my fingers around the warmth. The hope. I exhaled and felt my body shift under the ice. I gazed at the person whose hand I possessed. It was her. I tried to pull my hand back but there was no longer any separation. We were one.

-TM

Transcribed by jjwood687 on Fiverr.

Sent via postcrossing to Nordbaer.  I will admit.  I have been delinquent.  Really delinquent.  I have been sitting on three postcards for about 2-3 weeks.  Which is wrong, especially to the people whose addresses I am supposed to send things.  This is a poor excuse but that previous person really took the wind out of my sails.  I really just ceased giving shits about postcrossing.  I really did not care about writing.  Sharing.  Anything.  I wish it translated to me not buying more postcards but it hasn't.  I have been making a killing at estate sales.  I have been doing so well that I think I can start going through and actually getting rid of cards that are doubles or cards that are sort of lame.

So I figured I would finish off my Cold series.  It has been sitting around for a long time.  I really wanted to finish it off on this last card but once again...it refused to fit comfortably.  So it requires another post.

Cold Series:
Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Part 8

Postcard #139: "Get a load of this guy..."

Text:

CHACO CULTURE National Historical Park

New Mexico

US-4283257

#19226 

This massive 5-story building is the center of a vast architectural complex which developed during the 9th through the 11th centuries in the four-corners region. Photographer-Russ Finley

NHS STAMP:

CHACO CULTURE NHS

JUL 26 2004

NAZEEZI, NM

I don't remember a whole lot of this road trip. I wonder if my dad or my sister do? I remember moments, like pictures in my mind But I've never really thought of myself as a photographic memory. I remember the drive to Chaco Culture. It was 20 or so miles of unpaved roads... I honestly thought the van we were in would fall apart. A lot of these sites in the middle of nowhere have been destroyed.  When cattle ranchers and travelers were moving west they would remove the wood from the support beams and rooves to these large structures to use for firewood. So all buildings /ruins have those large gaping holes where the beams once were...Then the elements sneak in.  And in time the ruins... become ruined. It eats away at you that when the people were building these ruins they never said "Someday years from now these will all be ruins."  Just like we do not say that about our cities and what we build.  

Favorite book: 

Voltaire's Candide

Sent to REDACTED via postcrossing.  So.  This gentleman from Germany wanted a postcard of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I suppose it is an interest that is close to him because he apparently lives in close proximity to one.  I went through some of the world heritage sites on the website and I learned that Chaco Canyon was listed.  I have had this postcard for 12 years.  This is one of MY postcards, from one of MY adventures.  I went on a cross country road trip with my father and my sister.   I got the card at the gift shop at Chaco Canyon and I got it stamped at the National Park Passport station while I was there.  This postcard represented the history of my trip and a memento of the trip.  I wrote about the trip there.  I wrote about how the Chaco Canyon location was falling apart.  I figured when I sent it..."Daaaaamn Tom.  You really knocked that one out of the park." I honestly thought he would make it one of his favorites or something.  That card has to be rare!  It was such a pain in the ass to get to...it is one of the least visited national parks for a reason.  This cat also wanted to know my favorite book...which I was happy to tell him.  

So he got the card...and replied back with this...

I was floored.  I read his short note (several times) and the first thing I thought was "Get a load of this guy..."  I REALLY want to think something was lost in translation.  Perhaps he did not mean for it to sound as rude as he did.  But then again, if he liked the card enough he could have just asked me for my name.  I think normally I would have eaten crow.  I would have apologized for somehow slighting or being unfriendly to this stranger.  Instead, I replied:

Postcard #137: "Cold #8"

Flavor Text:

HORSETAIL FALLS, OREGON

A beautiful view of this 208 foot high falls on the Columbia River Highway – only minutes away from Portland on the New Freeway. ©1969 D.P.I. DT-58413-C

Cold #8

The water around me was eager to carry me to the falls. The tree trunk was turning steadily to its side. My anchor dropped out from under me. I leaped weakly from the trunk to the rock it was resting on. My hand darted about the stone for handholds on its smooth surface. The tree trunk was still sliding to the left and it pushed me back into the water. The water did not feel cold anymore. I felt an edge but before I could slow myself down it caught me in the neck. Ice. Ice still attached to the far shore. I pulled my arm above the cracking ice. The current pulled hard against me and my waterlogged clothes. I was too weak to pull myself out of the water. My vision was blurry. I squeezed them together. It took me a moment to realize the dark blur in front of me was my own arm fumbling around on the ice struggling to keep me above the water. I squeezed my eyes together and breathed deep and when I opened them, I could already see an outstretched hand. The shackles of the river had me by the ankles.

-TM     US-9295161

Transcribed by jjwood687 on Fiverr.

Sent via postcrossing to twindaddy.  He is someone who shares my first name, lives in the states, and doesn't care what sort of postcard he gets.   I had high hopes that I would get the rest of the story on a final card. Maybe it will be finished by Cold #9?

Cold Series:
Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Postcard #138: "Terminology"

Front:

GRANDMA’S

Unique Family Dining

Beaverton, Oregon

Flavor Text:

GRANDMAS’s Unique Family Dining US-4295160

Corner of Denney and Hail Blvd. 12255 S.W. Denney Road Beaverton, Oregon 97065

There is probably a word for it. Like the German word schádenfreude. Happiness at the misfortune of others…a specific word for a for a specific identifiable thing or act. My wife went for sushi at a place were the dishes ride on a moving track around the dining area. You grab what you want. We were having a great time and then an old grey haired retiree with recent wrist surgery sat upstream from us. She proceeded to eat and the “good” plates of sushi leaving us with the worst plates. She would stack them infront of herself creating a buffet for one. There has to be a word for an upstream eater who takes the best stuff leaving you with the crap. Asshole…perhaps the word is asshole.

Transcribed by jjwood687 on Fiverr.

Sent via postcrossing to sanoji.  Among many of the subjects she was looking for traditional dress and style.  I figured this would work.  If any one reading knows the answer to the topic I am all ears.