Postcards

 Out into the mailstream and thus to the world go 20 postcards that I wrote in between my usual household chores this weekend.  As I did laundry and cooked and cleaned, I tried to catch up on my Postcrossing list.  New Postcrossing members are allowed to have a maximum of five cards travelling to recipients at any one time.  When a card is received and registered by its recipient, it is marked as "sent", and then the member may then send another.  This limit on "travelling" cards increases with Postcrossing seniority, up to the maximum of 100 cards simultaneously in transit.  I have, at times, been "maxxed out" at my 100 card limit, but most of the time I maintain at a slightly lower level- ideally at around 85 is a comfortable level for me.  This results in sending just over 100 cards per month.  The postage rate for international postcards is $1.50 and the cards themselves can cost anywhere from $0.10 to $1.50 a piece.  So the hobby's costs can add up. (I count myself fortunate that USPS rates are comparatively low.  I was told that with exchange rates and comparative household incomes, it costs the equivalent of around $7.00 for a Postcrossing member in Poland to send a postcard, for example.) So this morning I mailed out 20 cards to destinations such as Germany, Thailand, China, and Tunisia.  This gets me a closer to the level I'd like to be at, but since I have been slacking off lately, as of this morning I have only 55 travelling cards out of my allowed limit of 100. Still need to step up my pace.