Rare card alert

 Today's rare card is a bit unusual.  It was not sent or received from an obscure, small country.  Instead, it is a card I sent to Denmark, a country that ended its postal system last year.  On December 30, 2025 the state run postal system, PostNord, ceased operations entirely, making it the first nation in the world to do so.  Reasons given were the decline of familiar person-to-person letters and other common mail, which has been largely replaced by digital communication.  And yet, Denmark remains a member nation of Postcrossing, and I was assigned a Danish address 17 days ago.  Instead of a national postal system, private couriers exist to provide the same service.  Think of it as sending a postcard by FedEx.  From what I can tell, it's an expensive option for Danish citizens to use the company, Dao, to send their postcards.  In fact, the Postcrossing member I sent my card to mentions in their profile that they live close enough to the border that they send their outgoing mail from Germany.  So today I present the delivery of a postcard I sent to a country without a post office.  Write on.

Blog to blog...to blog

 

In a recent post, I described how I had sent a postal cover to a blogger who solicits them, and it had been received by him in France.  In return for sending him these, he promises to send one of his own and I received mine two days ago.  He definitely has the right touch- the envelope has received beautiful hand stamp cancellations, as opposed to my lackluster processing plant high speed dot-matrix cancellation.  Also, in addition to the international postage, mine included a commemorative landscaped stamp of lower Manhattan, one of my favorite places in the world.  This is surely just a coincidence; I don't think he could have known of my frequent trips to New York City over the years.  And inside were included some picture postcards of Mende, the hometown of Daniel, my French correspondent.  Mende is an ancient community in the south of France, with a history that dates to Roman times, around 200 BC.  It is a cathedral town, and the Mende Cathedral is, like the more famous one in Paris, called Notre-Dame, and also is dedicated to Saint Privat.  This whole exchange has been very interesting.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Zip!

 In its 250 years of history, the US Postal System has been the driver of diverse areas of technology and innovation.  It was at one point, more than the military, an early user of aviation.  It has been a leading innovator in the advancement of optical character recognition (OCR) that we take for granted today.  And on this day in 1964, Mr. Zip was introduced to the nation.  He was, for over 20 years, the character who would represent the introduction, some months before his debut, of postal zip codes.  Familiar today, these five digit (becoming 9 digit in 1983) codes would help increase accuracy and speed of mail delivery by assigning a systematic code number to each post office in the country.  It was a great step forward in postal efficiency, and would later aid in delivery automation that continues to today.  So happy birthday, Mr. Zip!  Your place in the history of this country will never be forgotten.

 

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.

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

Play it again, Sam

 As a part of the celebration of the 250th year of the US Postal System, a contest is underway to choose one of the many past stamps designs that will be reissued.  Over the years, many beautiful and innovative designs have been released, and now the public can vote on which one of these will return.  Voting is free and continues until September 30, 2025.  The winner will then be announced at the Boston 2026 World Expo in May, 2026.  ( A special stamp for this huge philately convention will be issued in a couple weeks on August 14.)  Looking back on the many wonderful stamps designs eligible for voting, I see some I have really liked.  The innovative color-changing lunar eclipse stamp.  The beautiful dual design transcontinental railway stamps.  and the fun stamps depicting Bugs Bunny, Peanuts, and Star Wars characters.  But my favorite stamp is the scratch 'n sniff scented ice cream treats stamps.  They really did work and smelled like a summertime ice cream treat.  Voting is free and requires no registration, so vote early and vote often.  Write on!

First Day

 Among my many small pleasures in life, ranking up there with a cup of well-made coffee first thing in the morning, are US postage stamps.  Let us proclaim the beauty of a postage stamp!  They remain a wonder which has not yet been ruined by our government.  In other countries, stamps now have ugly bar codes, or even more lamentably, they have no stamps at all.  I recently learned from a German Postcrossing member that his local post office no longer sells standard postage stamps, but instead will issue a soulless print-on-demand barcode sticker to serve the same function.  No artwork, no photographic vista, no history, no character. So while they still exist, let us exalt the US postage stamp!  Few other countries can surpass the US in this area; it is truly something that makes America great.  Russia has some beautiful artistic stamps,  France's stamps are notably large, and Finland has always impressed me with the wide variety and innovation of their stamps.  But the US has always demonstrated inventiveness and creativity when issuing new stamps.  We have seen stamps of unconventional shapes, scratch and sniff stamps, and color-changing stamps.  An amazing amount of work goes into the creation of some stamps, an example of which is the documented design process of the stamps recently issued to commemorate the American Revolutionary War.  Given the fascinating detail contained within postage stamps (for those who take time to investigate it), one activity I often participate in is to collect First Day Of Issue covers for newly issued stamps.  For those not familiar, this is symbolic cancellation of a stamp on the first day it is made available for use.  Special and often elaborate postmarks are used on the occasion, which usually includes a formal unveiling ceremony at the geographic location and/or on the date that is significant to the subject matter of the new stamp.  I collect these ceremonial cancellations by sending (by mail in a covering envelope) self-addressed envelopes with the new stamps affixed.  They are given the FDOI cancellation, and are mailed back to me, usually in a plastic envelope with a cardboard stiffener so they arrive in pristine, collectable condition.  The process takes several weeks, so when I mail off the new covers, I've usually forgotten about them until the day they arrive, unexpected, in my mailbox.  Then it's like a little Christmas Day.  Yesterday was such a day, when I discovered a stack of cancelled FDOI covers in my mailbox.  This included stamps I'd sent off in batches over several prior weeks.  So I received the new freshwater fishing lures stamps (five different designs), the American Revolution Battlefields stamps (15 designs), and the commemorative Betty White Stamp.  I add these to my collection of FDOI covers that dates back over two decades.  While I have never considered myself a dedicated stamp collector -- my philately skills are largely undeveloped -- I do enjoy archiving practical examples of the tiny little wonders that are US postage stamps.

Priority update

 Just as I got home from a long week of work and was sitting down with my first TGIF beer, I got a phone call from Rob at the Pittsburg, Kansas post office.  He was responding to my online inquiry of a couple days ago about my wayward parcel.  Rob was very nice, and was as puzzled as I am about the path of my package that was destined to his town.  He asked about the contents of my package, and promised to put in some sort of official search request.  If my package can be found in wherever it is in Chicago, he says it will be manually pulled from the mail stream and be directly sent via air to Pittsburg.  I hope it can be located and this odyssey can be concluded.  Stay tuned.

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. 

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. 

Keep on truckin'

 After a long period of development, the newly designed US Postal Service's mail trucks are finally being deployed.   They certainly won't win any beauty contests, but of course that isn't their main goal.  Practicality is the primary aim, and from early comments by mail carriers who use them, the new vehicle is a success.  With many improvements in safety, comfort and reliability over the 1980s era Grumman-built mail trucks still in wide service, the new Next Generation Delivery Vehicle is a marked improvement in the delivery fleet.  The NGDV is part of an ambitious 10-year plan by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to streamline and modernize the world's largest postal system.  DeJoy has been widely criticized for the plan's implementation, which has triggered significant degradation of service in many parts of the country.  Whether these deficits can be overcome remains to be seen.  There are even concerns that postal delays will impede mailed ballots in November's presidential election, four years after new Trump appointee DeJoy was accused of deliberately slowing mail service to affect absentee ballots.  Hopefully, the growing pains of the USPS restructuring will be temporary, and the service can return to its previous efficiency.  Until then, at least some spiffy new trucks will be a welcome improvement.

Worldwide mail

 I have picked up my pace a bit this month regarding Postcrossing postcards.  I've sent 90 cards in May while receiving 94.  It's been a rewarding month, with cards coming in from all corners of the globe.  With another USPS rate hike for stamps coming soon, I will continue to send out cards ahead of the price increase.  And each day as I check my mailbox, I never fail to be amazed at the satisfaction I have, seeing a simple square of paper on which some stranger has written a short message, which has then physically travelled many thousands of miles to reach me.  I've been at this hobby for well over a decade now, and I still find it as interesting as the day I began.  Write on.

Lend a can

 Every second Saturday of May, the US Postal Service and the National Association of Letter Carriers cooperate to support the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, the largest food drive in the nation.  All postal customers can participate by leaving a few non-perishable food items out at their mailbox for their regular postal carrier to collect.  The day of the drive this year will be tomorrow - Saturday, May 11, 2024.  So make an effort to help the 1 in 10 Americans who struggle with hunger.  It's simple to leave a can of food, a box of pasta, or a package of crackers or cookies out for your postal carrier, who will collect it.  The gathered food is then sorted and distributed by local food banks, so you will be helping your neighbors in need.  I will be leaving a bag of food out at the mailbox tomorrow for Shannon, our hard-working carrier.  I hope you'll join me!

Spam, spam, spam, egg and spam

 It is an annoying part of modern life to have to deal with digital fraud.  Via email, web pages, and texts, fraudulent messages are a ubiquitous part of daily routine.  My workplace, a major university, has a longstanding program to inform and test employees on their fraud awareness.  We must take a training course to recognize internet phishing, smishing, and other types of evil.  And the standard web mail client has a built-in button to report suspicious messages to the university IT Department.  On most occasions that I use it, it quickly turns out to be a fake, test message from the IT department itself.  Just to keep us on our toes.  But last week when I reported an obviously fake message, the IT guys soon reported back that it was legitimate fraud, and so I may have prevented a cyber attack on the university's network.  Or at least saved myself some hassle by avoiding a computer virus.  Then just this morning, I received a poorly written and suspicious text message to my phone which was supposedly from the USPS.  Similar messages are common enough to have their own Snopes page.  But I easily recognized the deception, reported it the US Postal System Inspection Service, and deleted it off my phone without replying or clicking any links it contained.  Try again, internet crook scumbags!

Weeks, not months

 As an avid fan of postal mail, I have traditionally held a positive opinion of the US Postal Service.  With its long and interesting history, it is now by far the largest postal system in the world.  Over 44% of the world's mail is processed by the USPS, and in 2022 the USPS delivered 127.3 billion (B, for BILLION) pieces of mail.  As an active postal customer for decades, I have recently seen delivery performance drop off noticeably.  Most obvious is my weekly typed letter to my mother, which I typically write on Sunday evenings, and is a sort of regular weekly update on my life.  Mailed on Monday morning from central Alabama, it would reliably reach her in suburban Chicago on Thursday.  Used to, anyway.  After a couple years of semi-annual rate hikes, the delivery performance has slowed considerably.  My letters now arrive on Friday on a good week.  The following Monday is quite common.  And parcels that I order from online stores that have tracking info clearly reveal the disgraceful state of USPS Priority Mail service.  This was once advertised as "2-day" service and usually lived up to the promise.  Now days, it's commonly four or five days.  Then, to further accentuate the decline, today I received a postcard sent to me by a relative from their vacation to the US Virgin Islands...that they mailed the week before last Christmas.  I'm not the only one who has noticed the abysmal state of mail service in this country.  Two days ago, USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appeared before a congressional hearing to explain the poor performance of the service he oversees.  At the Senate hearing, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) excoriated Trump appointee DeJoy about his poor performance.

"You don't have months to fix 36 percent of mail being delivered on time," Ossoff countered. "I've got constituents with prescriptions that aren't being delivered. I've got constituents who can't pay their rent and their mortgage. I've got businesses who aren't able to ship products or receive supplies."

While I recognize few people today use the USPS for actual personal correspondence, it still provides a vital service for delivering documents and parcels to all parts of the country.  And as dismal as things may be right now, it could be worse.  But I certainly hope congressional pressure will drive DeJoy to improve the situation, or failing that, remove him and replace him with someone who can.

It's in the mail- celebrity edition

Next up in the continuing series of mailbox posts: this one deserves some background info.  Some years ago, I discovered the now defunct Letter Writers Alliance, an online resource for those who, as I do, value the physical written word.  One quirky product they made available was the Pigeon Post.  This made use of the fact that USPS regulations allow objects of unusual dimensions to be mailed without an enclosure or package.  It turns out you can put a life-sized plastic pigeon in the mail if it has proper postage and an address attached.  My pigeon was named Speckled Jim.  I mailed Speckled Jim to friends and family around the country, where they would photograph him in various locations before returning him to me by mail.  One of these trips, in particular, would turn out to be very special when Jim met a celebrity.  (I frequently point out that I myself have never met an A-list celebrity in the wild.  I've seen them on stage on Broadway, and I've met "specialty" celebrities like Nobel Prize winning scientists, and also local regional celebrities.  But never a major, nationally known one.  So Jim beats me there.)

On one of his trips, Jim went to a friend of mine from high school, who had become a senior flight attendant for American Airlines and was based in Chicago.  As such, she was eligible for the better routes, and often flew to places like Paris and London.  I sent Jim to her so that he may accompany her on one of her trips to London.  She sent back photos of Jim in pubs and neighborhoods, and on a traditional Royal Mail pillar box.  But upon landing on her return flight, I got an excited text saying, "Wait to you see the photo I got!"  And sure enough, on the London-Chicago flight was the star of the Harry Potty movies, Daniel Radcliffe.  My friend had somehow cornered Radcliffe in the airplane galley and persuaded him to pose for a photo with Speckled Jim.  I can't imagine what went through his mind while he did this!  But he was evidentially a good sport about it, and there now exists in the internet ether a photo of the famous child actor incongruously holding a plastic pigeon.

Daniel Radcliffe with Speckled Jim

'Zine Day

 For several years, I have subscribed to a collection of interesting and unique 'zines.  The current issue of one of these arrived recently, and put me in mind of its iconoclastic author and publisher.  Since 1969, Fred Woodworth has been publishing a assortment of periodicals on a variety of subjects.  His longevity and dedication are perhaps the most astonishing aspect of his work.  To have persisted so long with his primary 'zine, The Match!, is a staggering accomplishment in its own right.  Of high interest to me is that he does this just as he did when he began a lifetime ago- without the use of any sort of digital device in any stage of production.  No computers, no cell phone, no nothing.  Just manual typesetting, and offset press printing on antique equipment.  Nor does Fred use email to communicate- you can reach him only by postal mail (He's glad to respond to mail sent to Fred Woodworth, PO Box 3012, Tucson AZ 85702).  This is probably the reason why you'll not find much about Fred in an online search; he shuns digital devices that much.  Just a sparse Wiki entry, and a single short YouTube video are about the only traces of Fred to be found online.  But the library of his publishing work is vast.  Fred has single-handedly turned out 125 content-packed issues of The Match!  He also regularly publishes the long running niche 'zine The Mystery and Adventure Series Review, of which 61 editions exist.  This is what I received from Fred most recently; a jam-packed volume of articles about vintage boy's adventure series books (you may know of the Hardy Boys, yet there is so much more to the genre), in addition to various cultural and typography topics.  And then there is also The Opera Glass, a 'zine covering opera and fine arts that Fred publishes for his wife, Iris.  It's mind-boggling how Fred gets the energy to maintain such a pace of production, which must be exhausting for a solo editor/publisher.  As a reader, I joined his efforts mid-stream, so to speak, but I find it's been more than ten years that I have been a subscriber (yes, that's yours truly as author of a letter to the editor in one of Fred's publications.)  To be sure, this extraordinary persistence comes with some tradeoffs.  As a long time correspondent with Fred, I have witnessed his gruff side, especially regarding politics.  He and I certainly differ on a number of points.  But that doesn't dimmish in any way my complete respect for his publishing legacy and his contributions to alternative media.  How long Fred's work will continue is an open question.  Equipment and supplies for his vintage printing processes have become scarce.  He's suffered personal setbacks as well.  But however long he may continue, he's already built a legacy to be proud of.

Fred Woodworth: Mystery & Adventure Series Review issue 61

Postcrossing Anniversary

 Today is my 11th anniversary as a member of Postcrossing, the worldwide postcard exchange organization.  On this day over a decade ago, I began a hobby that has become a core ritual in my daily life.  As it satisfies my old fashioned proclivities, I get a glimpse of life in foreign countries, and a taste of travel while not leaving home.  It is now a crucial routine of my day: usually early each morning, I sit at my desk and draw five random addresses from the Postcrossing web page to which I will send a postcard.  My inventory of postcards has grown over the years as I try to maintain a broad selection of cards to suit the tastes of the day's recipients.  It is a quiet and contemplative start to my day as I write each postcard, affix a combination of stamps, and otherwise mark and decorate the card before dropping it off at the local post office on my way to work.  That's also when I pick up the cards I've received from other Postcrossers, and take them home to register in the system while reading the message from each sender.  During the time reading and writing postcards, I sometimes imagine living in a simpler time when communication between individuals was more tangible and personal, more direct and meaningful.

 Now as a senior member of Postcrossing, I've racked up some impressive statistics.  There are 804,490 Postcrossing members worldwide, and 74,371 in the USA.  In terms of number of postcards sent, I rank 28th among all USA members, and I rank #1 among the 827 members in Alabama.  In the past eleven years, I have sent 9,733 postcards, and received 9,687.  I currently send about 100 each month and have exchanged cards with 114 different countries in total.  I think I may actually stick with this hobby for a while!

Outgoing mail Postcrossing postcards

Write soon

 Since postal mail is one of my passions, I would be very happy to hear from you by that mode.  Snail mail will get my attention much quicker than texts, email, voicemail, or any other digital communication.  These days, being able and willing to send a handwritten message by mail counts as one of my superpowers.  Most people I know couldn't gather a piece of paper, an envelope, and a stamp without a great effort.  But for those of you who are up to the challenge, I'd love to hear from you.  On any topic.  And any mail I receive will earn a prompt and confidential response.  The best part is that postal mail evades the internet's all-seeing eyes, and is much more private than its electronic counterpart.  For the intrepid, send your missives to me at:

Peter Eipers
P.O. Box 750
Helena, AL 35080
USA

And they will arrive at my quaint nearby post office box.

Helena Alabama Post Office - via Minox subminiature camera