An appeal for help

 This morning I learned the name of one of the many victims of the Los Angeles wildfires: Simon Vance.  The name resonated with me because he is my favorite audiobook narrator.  It is to Vance that I owe my longstanding deep love of the works of Charles Dickens; he was the narrator of Bleak House that I first listened to decades ago.  Since then, Simon Vance has been for me the voice of Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, Eliot, and Patrick O'Brian along with dozens of other authors.  You see, in my always solitary and often repetitive work, I resort to audiobooks to occupy the time.  Among book narrators, Simon Vance is simply the best.  He has an uncanny ability to create character voices - both male and female - that give life to every passage of dialog.  He has a true actor's capacity to express the emotion and feeling of every scene that I can't help thinking any author, even those long dead, would applaud.  It would be difficult to understate the impact Vance's exemplary work has had on my life for many years.

So I was particularly moved when I learned this morning that Vance was among the many who have lost their home to the southern California fires.  Not surprisingly, a friend of Vance and his wife has set up a GoFundMe page on their behalf to assist in their time of need.  In situations such as this, there are familiar excuses to not help out:  Celebrities are not deserving of help.  Living in that region of California, he is certainly rich.  He should have insurance that will fully and immediately make him whole.  But so strong is my respect and admiration for his work, I overcame these excuses and made a small contribution to the fund.  I mean, Vance is a prominent voice performer, but hardly a household name.  I have no idea what his personal financial or insurance situation is, but I won't begrudge him on that account.  No, he is simply an individual whose work I admire, and I felt called to demonstrate my appreciation by lending symbolic assistance in his time of need.

The fires in southern California are a tremendous tragedy.  For those who wish to help, there are many worthy and deserving aid organizations to which one can donate:  The American Red Cross, World Central Kitchen, and Los Angeles Animal Services are just a few examples.  But if you, like me, want to give direct help to an individual in need, please consider the Simon Vance GoFundMe page.

Snow Day

 

Two days ago, on Friday the 10th, we in the Birmingham metro area woke to a blanket of fresh white snow.  For this area of the country, this is a rare event that happens maybe once every other winter, at most.  Fortunately, this event was well predicted, which allowed nonessential workers like me to stay home and enjoy the scene from the warmth and safety of home.  Area roads were, for a time, icy and impassible.   So after the initial wonder at the falling flakes and a brief trek outside for few photos, I was able to concentrate on more pressing matters:  Postcrossing.   Houseguests and holiday activities have meant that I have not devoted much time to writing postcards lately.  And with my status as Alabama's #1 Postcrosser to defend, I have been trying to catch up on my postcards over the last couple days of this unplanned long weekend.  By tomorrow morning, Monday, I should have about 40 outgoing cards to drop in the mail.  That includes several to Canada!  The Canadian postal worker strike has been resolved, and the mail backlogs cleared, so the USPS and Postcrossing have both resumed sending postcards to Canada.  I have really come to enjoy the contemplation and ritual of drawing an international address, selecting a card appropriate for the recipient, placing stamps, writing a short message, and addressing the card before sending it off on its (sometimes) very long journey around the world.  Several cards I wrote this morning will be going to China, about as far away as possible on this globe of ours.  Well into my second decade of this hobby, I enjoy it even more than when I first started.

And that rare snow event that gave me the chance to catch up on my Postcrossing?  More cold weather and perhaps even snow is possible before the end of the month.  Get ready, USPS, for another pile of cards!  Write on. 

Milestones

 Overnight, a Postcrossing milestone was reached when the project recorded postcard number 80 million.  Averaging about 5 million postcards sent each year, the anticipation had been growing until the moment a card sent from the Netherlands to Germany was registered.  Postcrossing member jennyfluer won the contest to predict the actual moment card number 80,000,000 would be received.  It's a happy occasion for the 804,571 Postcrossing members from 201 different countries all around the world.  Write on!

2024 Postcrossing wrapup

 The final tabulation of my Postcrossing activity in 2024 is in, and it was a productive year.  In total, I sent 896 cards this year and received 915 cards.  This was enough to maintain my ranking as the 27th most active Postcrossing member among the 75,599 registered Postcrossing members in the USA.  I remain the #1 leading Postcrosser in Alabama.  To no surprise, Germany is the most active of all countries, receiving 27.9% of all cards I sent this year.  At the other end of the scale, there were many countries to which I sent a single card, including Moldova, Cyprus, and the United Arab Emirates.  I've been a Postcrossing member for over twelve years, and the fun hasn't faded yet.  Write on!

New year, new book

 Just as the year 2025 begins, I have begun to read a new book.  It is a Victorian novel by one of my favorite authors, Anthony Trollope.  The Vicar of Bullhampton is a stand-alone novel, not part of one of Trollope's novel series, like the Chronicles of Barestshire, or the Palliser series.  I chose this book since it will be the topic of discussion at an online bookclub organized by The Trollope Society.  The first 14 chapters are due to be covered in the first meeting on Monday, January 6, 2025.  So far, I've made it through eight chapters and found the book to have a faster start than some of Trollope's novels.  Several main characters have already been introduced, and there's been a minor scuffle between two of them.  Tension, conflict, and a budding love affair, all in the first 52 pages!  This novel was published in 1870, by which time the prolific Trollope was a well-established author.  I've read over a dozen of his other works and look forward to completing this one.

Chaos in the mail

 As the year winds down, the dreaded inauguration of our next president draws nearer.  In about a month, Donald Trump will return to the White House, and this despicable, defective human being will be the chief executive of the country for four long, long years.  While I disagree with nearly everything he says or does, one subject of particular interest to me has recently arisen.  Trump has been making statements about his intention to destroy the US Postal System in multiple different ways.  The first particularly laughable one was his desire to cancel the ongoing upgrades of USPS delivery vehicles. The new vehicles are a tremendous upgrade to the current aged design from the 1980s.  These new vehicles are safer, more comfortable for the carriers, and are better suited to the shift to package delivery seen by the USPS, which is an especially profitable part of their business.  Trump's sole concern seems to be that many of the vehicles are electric.  Mail delivery, with its short distances, slow speeds, and frequent stop-and-go operation is particularly well suited to the characteristics of electrical motors.  Never mind that these vehicles are liked by mail carriers, are a great improvement on the obsolete vehicles in use, and are manufactured by an American company.  They would also benefit the environment, and that seems to be something Trump can't abide.  It is an odd characteristic of Trump and his Republican cult followers that caring for the environment is seen as a weakness or character flaw.  Whether or not Trump follows through on this threat, or indeed any of his frequent, rambling, nonsensical statements remains to be seen.

The statement more recent and more troubling is his idea to privatize the USPS.  On the face of it, this is a ridiculous idea that surfaces periodically.  There can be no advantage to such a move, and would in no way improve current service or prices.  In fact, such a move would likely bring a decrease in services and price hikes even larger than what has been seen the past few years.  Just ask Great Britain.  After the UK government privatized the Royal Mail, the service has spiraled into inefficiency, unreliability, and astonishing price hikes.  This is a valuable example for those who would consider such a move for the USPS, the largest postal system in the world.  The idea that the government "should be run like a business" is a fallacy that should be discarded.  Especially when the "business" would be run by a robber-baron with a long history of bankruptcies.   There are some things a government should do and services it should provide for the national benefit where profit margin is not the primary motive.  Just like having a functional transportation system where air travel and rail travel receive government subsidies, a postal system needs to be functional, serve all addresses across the country, and be reliable.  None of that would be guaranteed with a privatized system.  And if the government has to provide some funds, as it does with a military, education system, and law enforcement which do not create a profit, that is the pure role of a government.  The privatization idea is at best a cop-out idea, concocted by tiny minds who have no business running anything more than a hot-dog stand. 

Monthly stats

 It was a comparatively slow month for me in the Postcrossing department.  With the November stats now in, I see that I sent only 42 cards in the month and received 41.  This gives me all-time totals of 10,798 sent cards and 10,775 received cards.  I currently rank 27th among 75,625 Postcrossing members in the USA by number of sent cards (and am still #1 among 808 registered Postcrossing members in Alabama).  Germany remains the most active nation, so most of my cards go to and are from there, but I did report one rare card alert this month- my first from Tahiti at the beginning of November.  Daily life has become hectic around here, but I hope to pick up the Postcrossing pace in December.  Write on!

Mileposts

 A minor milestone of sorts this morning as I drove in to work:  I turned 50,000 miles on my 2020 Chevrolet Malibu Premier.  Sure, as automobile landmarks go, this isn't very remarkable.  For instance, the local television weatherman in Birmingham just reached 400,000 miles on his vehicle.  But I've enjoyed this vehicle, which was pressed into service at the height of the Covid pandemic and has taken over daily driver duties from my mid-life crisis vehicle, a 2012 Nissan 370Z.  The Malibu is nothing exciting, but a quiet, comfortable, reliable vehicle.  I've enjoyed it for the past four years and more.  It's really a shame Chevy has stopped making them.  I have no doubt my Malibu will never reach 400K, but I certainly hope to drive it a few more years.

Stamps of approval

 It's that time of year: the US Postal Service has announced the preliminary list of new stamp designs for 2025.  Receiving the most attention so far has been the stamp honoring beloved celebrity Betty White, who recently died on the verge of her 100th birthday.  In addition, the USPS will release stamps denoting baby wild animals, the Appalachian Trail, and a vintage compass rose.  More designs will be announced at a later time, if history is any guide.  So far, no interesting novelty stamps, such as prior issues featuring scratch n' smell, or color changing photos.  But perhaps these are yet to be revealed.  As always, members of Postcrossing continue to hope, and indeed request of those relevant decision makers, for a Postcrossing themed stamp, as several other countries have released.  As Cubs/Sox/Bears fans in Chicago say, "Wait 'til next year!"

Olive Bread

 My second effort to bake all the recipes in The Secrets Of Jesuit Breadmaking was a recipe for Olive Bread.  This is an especially rich white bread, with added eggs and lots of butter, to which olives have been folded in.  A delicious, flavorful bread that needs little accompaniment for full flavor.  It can be simply eaten warm, by the slice.  It is tender and aromatic, and would be a great match for a simple meal of soup and a salad.  I did make a small alteration in the recipe, and instead of baking it all by hand, I used my Zojirushi bread machine.  Call it a concession to a busy weekend- four UAB Blazer sporting events in the past seven days.  The results were just as good as if I had kneaded and baked the bread by hand, I am sure.

Olive Bread