Rare card alert

 Today's alert is a card I sent myself and was just registered by the recipient in...Downers Grove, Illinois.  In over twelve years of Postcrossing during which I've sent over 11,600 postcards, this is the first card I've sent to the western Chicago suburb where I grew up.  Downers Grove is now a moderate sized Chicago suburb of over 50,000 residents, though it was much smaller when I lived there through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.  The village (it's always been referred to as a "village", for some reason) was founded in 1832 by a settler named Pierce Downer.  It is located on a commuter rail line into Chicago, and so has become a prosperous bedroom community, and all-around basic, nondescript suburb.  My childhood there was pleasant and comfortable, if not exciting.  Downers Grove is not known for producing much of note, apart from Sherrill Milnes, the famous operatic singer, and Emo Phillips, a once-popular standup comedian.  My high school friend and soccer teammate once served as mayor of the village.  All these decades later, I still have happy, nostalgic memories of the place, which were revived by sending this postcard.

The postcard that was just registered in Downers Grove.

Rare card alert

 Today I received a postcard from China.  Not in itself a rare thing, but I'm glad to see mail from China has resumed, after being stopped for a time after confusion resulting from the de minimis duty changes.  No, this card had a unique feature:  stamps with fluorescent ink.  When I shined an ultraviolet light on them, unseen features appeared. (I am a research scientist, and use a UV light in my daily experiments in the laboratory.)  The sender of the card explained that the stamps showed prehistoric fossils, and under UV light, the location where they were discovered is revealed.  Pretty nifty!  Even the other stamps, like the one on the lower right, with the large Chinese characters and the '3' on it had some fluorescent security features embedded in it.  This is the first time that I'm aware of fluorescent ink being used in stamps.  However, nearly invisible fluorescent barcodes have been applied to mail by the USPS to aid in sorting for many years.

Stamps under normal light.

The same stamps under ultraviolet light.

Maine wrapup

 We’re home safe, and basking in the many happy memories of the completed trip to Maine. In an example of amazing modern technology, my phone has already made its own video of the trip. Enjoy!

Maine Day 12

 And suddenly, it was time to head home.  After a wonderful, perfect week and more in Maine, we had to pack up and return to Helena.  We spent the morning gathering our belongings and the few souvenirs we picked up this week, tidied our rental house, and then drove back to Portland to catch our flight home.  With a smooth, trouble-free journey to Maine, I was concerned that our usual bad travel luck would finally catch up to us on the return trip.  But I needn't have worried. The two hour drive to Portland went quickly, and both of our flights home, along with the short layover in Detroit went without a hitch.  We even landed in Birmingham ahead of schedule.  Back to the real world.  It was just a terrific, perfect vacation in every way.  I wish they all could be like this one and the twelve awesome days we spent in midcoast Maine!

One last Reuben before the flight home.

At the Sea Dog pub in Portland: preflight meal

Midcoast mail

 As we roamed around the midcoast region of Maine this past week, I've kept my eye out for all the local post offices we have happened to pass.  It's been extremely convenient that one of them is directly across the street from where we've been staying.  So each day I drop off a stack of postcards - my personal travel ones, along with Postcrossing cards - to go out to the world.  But we've glimpsed many others, some large and stately in the imposing style of 1940s-era government buildings, some very quaint and tiny.  The closest one, here in Tenant's Harbor, looks like a simple wood framed single story ranch style house.  It appears to share space in the building with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter.  Inside, it has all the basic requirements: PO boxes, mail slots, and a clerk's counter.  Curiously, this post office is not the only one I saw this week that still has a relic of the recent past.  There is a dedicated drop slot for Netflix disks.  I assume this reduced the number of disks that were broken by other heavy objects, but I'm surprised these slots still exist for Netflix DVDs, which were discontinued two years ago.  Still, it's fascinating to see the variety of facilities, from a tiny post office on remote Monhegan Island, to the stately, large office in Camden Maine, which we were told by a passing local resident that it served as a location shot in the Steven King movie Thinner.  Each post office serves its role as an entry point into the mailstream of the USPS, and to the wider world.  Even in this digital age, they provide an essential tie to the wider world.

My postal home base for over a week: Tenant's Harbor

Tenant's Harbor wasn't the only post office that still has a dedicated Netflix DVD slot

The Tenant's Harbor office has all the basics, including a clerk's counter...

...and a PO box lobby.

Thomaston was not quite the smallest post office I saw.

The main post office in Camden reputedly served as a courthouse exterior in the movie Thinner.

Even remote Monhegan Island has a tiny full-service post office.

As a souvenir, I sent myself a postcard from Monhegan Island to get the rare postmark stamp.

Port Clyde also has a small post office.

The Rockland post office wins the award for most drab architecture.

Anniversary

 Happy Birthday to me!  Well, not me personally; my actual birthday was last month.  No, today is the second anniversary of this blog.  Two years ago today, on a whim one morning, I decided to begin a journey to explore...well, nothing specific.  This space has become a collection of random thoughts, with an emphasis on the analog world- typewriters, books, postal mail, and like that.  In more than 212 posts, I've opened up a little of myself to the internet while I continue to contemplate the world and my place in it.  Nothing terribly profound, but two years later I'm still at it.  Thank you for joining me on the ride.  Write on!

Maine Day 11

 On our last full day in Maine, we had time for one last visit to a local museum.  Today it was the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland.  The beautiful little museum was chock full of lighthouse artifacts, as well as a huge amount of Coast Guard memorabilia.  This is due to the fact that lighthouses and other aids to navigation are maintained by the Coast Guard, as well as the museum's founder being a former Coast Guard warrant officer.  So we spent the afternoon learning about 1st order Fresnel lenses, fog horns, and various other navigational aids.  It was a fittingly nostalgic wrap-up to our trip.

After the museum, we drove across town to view an actual lighthouse, the Rockland Breakwater Light.  We've actually seen this lighthouse from the water during a windjammer cruise several years ago.  But today we saw it from the land - at a distance.  It's permitted to walk out to the house, but it's at the end of a mile long breakwater made of uneven and rugged granite blocks, and we weren't up to the treacherous hike.  We had to content ourselves with a distant view from shore.

Late lunch at the Waterworks restaurant in Rockland, and then home.  In the evening, we began the packing process for our departure and journey home tomorrow.

Fresnel lenses focus light to a powerful beam

A second order Fresnel lens, bigger than a person

Rockland Breakwater light, from shore

Waterworks Reuben

Waterworks steak salad

Vacation reading

 

On every vacation I've ever taken, I always have a book or two with me to fill the quiet moments.  Though it is apparently now rare, I still frequently read for pleasure, and a cozy little house in midcoast Maine is the perfect spot for it.  A cup of coffee, a sofa, and a good book are all anyone needs, according to Anthony Trollope.  And this vacation is no different.  I've been reading two books, and picked up a third while here at a local bookshop.  The first is The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope.  This is the current book in a year-long series that is the subject of bi-weekly zoom meetings from London, UK.  While I have a fine print copy, I've been reading this one on my ancient 2nd generation Kindle reader.  It's no longer fully functional, as Amazon stopped supporting direct connections to it some time ago.  But the device works perfectly well, and I can patch it into my laptop to download free books from Project Gutenberg which provides open access text files that work with this old reader.  So I've been plodding along with this novel, which is not my absolute favorite of all Trollope's works.  It is the story of three clerks in the English civil service, and the trouble they get into- in relationships and in business.

Even 15-year old Kindles have their place for avid readers

Much more interesting is a book that was recommended to me by a reader of this blog.  Mailman, by Stephen Starring Grant is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the operations of the US Postal Service.  In 2020 when Covid started to change the world, Grant was a high earning consultant living in Blacksburg, Virginia but often travelling to NYC and other cities on business.  But as the pandemic raged, he suddenly lost his job and was simultaneously diagnosed with cancer.  With a family to support, he decided to take a job as a postal carrier in rural Appalachia.  This book recounts his gripping experiences.  From an intense training period, to a long period of learning the actual skills required on the job, this is an attention grabbing book that reveals the work we, the public, take for granted in our postal system.  It is a huge and complex operation, and much more goes into delivering the daily mail - letters, bills, magazines, and parcels - than most of us think about.  I have a new appreciation for the USPS, and those who do their difficult job well without the recognition they deserve.

A fascinating look behind the curtain

And finally, I've been reading a small volume I bought while here in Rockland.  On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder is a timely book that addresses the current state of the country. Snyder is the Levin Professory of History at Yale University, and in this book he proposes 20 "lessons" to guide us as the USA goes through these dark days.  Each lesson is accompanied by historical context and examples of what happens when despots rule unchallenged.  A sobering and thought-provoking book.

A thought-provoking book for this dismal period

Maine Day 10

  Our time in Maine is winding down, and today was another quiet day.  More reading and writing in the morning.  Then in the early afternoon, a long walk around the neighborhood.  We strolled down a street that ran along the harbor, and soaked in the scenery, while daydreaming about the beautiful houses with their fantastic views, some of which were actually for sale.  Are we destined to own a second property some day?  It's a very attractive thought.  In the afternoon, I joined in the regular Trollope Society Big Read Zoom meeting to discuss the current novel we are reading: The Three Clerks.  And then after that bit of intellectual exercise, we returned to The Happy Clam just down the street for more wonderful German fare.  This time, I had the sausage trio and sauerkraut, while Kathy tried the daily special, meatballs with gravy and capers.  Both were delicious.  Then home to settle in and plan our last day in Maine.

 

Beautiful views all along the waterfront

Sausage trio and sauerkraut

Special meatballs and gravy

Maine Day 9

 Sunday is regarded as a day of rest, and so it was with us.  We went in to Rockland to attend Mass at St. Bernard's church.  It's a building of a more modern type of architecture.  The services were well-attended by devout and enthusiastic parishioners.  And afterwards we went to lunch at Rock Harbor Pub and Brewery.  There, we had some good beer and delicious sandwiches.  And then we headed home.  I spent the afternoon reading The Three Clerks, by Anthony Trollope ahead of the Trollope Society book club meeting tomorrow.  Kathy went for a walk, exploring the surrounding neighborhood.  And then we settled in for a quiet evening in front of the tv.  A quiet and restful day.

St. Bernards Church, Rockland

Sunday lunch included local brews

Philly cheesesteak and onion rings